Artemis, or Diana to the Romans, was the daughter of Zeus and Leto and, therefore, belonged to the second generation of Olympian gods. The circumstances of her birth, which took place on the island of Delos, were the same as those of her twin brother Apollo, except that she was the first to emerge from her mother's womb and then assisted her in the birth of her brother. The cult and mythical traditions associated with Artemis took on different nuances in the different eras and regions in which she was venerated. Indeed in some places (such as Ionia) she was even considered the daughter of Demeter and linked to the great rites of fertility and the earth. In general, however, she was regarded as the female counterpart of Apollo and embodied the same characteristics.
The goddess par excellence, Artemis' severe and wild character had a youthful quality. Armed with a silver bow, arrows, and quiver, given to her by the Cyclopes, she took pleasure only in the hunt, in long pursuits of the stags that she hunted in woods and ravines, along with her dogs and the wild beasts that obeyed her. She was accompanied in her activities by the Nymphs and by a group of girls called arktoi (she-bears), who devoted their lives to her and took strict vows of chastity. Any of the virgins who lost their virginity, as happened to Callisto, invoked the wrath of Artemis. She used her bow to inflict sudden and painless death on mortals and was the means by which disease and plague were spread among human beings and animals. On women, she caused death in childbirth.
She fought against the Giants and with her brother devoted herself to the systematic persecution of their mother's enemies. She transfixed Tityus when he tried to rape Leto and took part in the extermination of Niobe's children. Her victims included the hunter Actaeon, who had seen her bathing naked, and the giant Orion, who figures in many myths. In some of these he sought to use violence against the goddess or dared to challenge her at discus throwing (both acts which called for revenge); other sources declare that the killing of Orion by Artemis was involuntary.
Artemis appears in many legends, all connected with the theme of hunting.
>From Heracles, she demanded a justification for the killing of her sacred hind. She punished Agamemnon for the same reason by ordering him to sacrifice Iphigenia. As goddess of the hunt she was honored in all wild and mountainous regions, such as Arcadia, Laconia, and Elis, and for this reason, as well as her refusal to submit to any man, was seen as the protectress of the Amazons. But she was also Selene, personification of the moon, just as her brother Apollo was a personification of Phoebus, the sun.