Artemis' was the virgin goddess of the hunt. She helped women in childbirth but also brought sudden death with her arrows. Her parents were Zeus and Leto. She and her twin brother Apollo were born on the Island of the Delos. She is one of the only three virgin goddesses immune to the love spells of Aphrodite.

She is known to be a friend of Aphrodite and gives her divine protection to the wild beasts. Like other Olympians, she favours many mortals, except that she could not protect the huntsman.

Artemis is not skilled in war craft, but she can punish and kill at the will of Zeus. In the Iliad, a woman named Niobe insulted her mother Leto. Niobe, queen of Thebes, boasted that she was better than Leto because she had many children while the goddess had but two. As a punishment, Apollo killed her six sons, and Artemis in turn killed her six daughters. The weeping Niobe was transformed into stone, in which form she continued to weep.

When Apollo noticed that Artemis was spending a great deal of time hunting with the giant Orion, he decided to put an end to the relationship. He challenged Artemis to prove her skill at archery by shooting at an object floating far out at sea. Her shot was perfect. The target turned out to be the head of Orion.

Artemis is generally depicted as a young woman clad in buckskins, carrying a bow and a quiver of arrows. She is often accompanied by wild creatures such as a stag or she-bear