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From Manual of Mythology, by Alexander S. Murray; Revised Edition, Philadelphia: David McKay, Publisher, 1895; pp. 135-144.

DEITIES OF THE HIGHEST ORDER.

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ARTEMIS, or DIANA; SELĒNĒ, or LUNA.

Fig. 29. — Artemis. Vatican, Rome.)

Originally Artemis [Diana] was the divine personification of the moon, just as her brother Apollo was originally god of the sun. But by degrees, as the moon came to be viewed like the sun, on the one hand as a mere illuminating orb, and on the other as possessing a real or apparent and generally believed influence upon vegetation, and on human as well as animal life, there grew up a distinction between moon-goddess of two kinds, corresponding to the sun-gods of two kinds. The one was Selēnē, or Luna, whose signification was merely that of goddess of the orb of night, as Helios, the sun, was of the orb of day. The other was Artemis, or Diana who embraced in her character all the other functions exercised by the moon on earthly life, and accordingly, like Apollo, became the subject of a largely developed religious belief; while the myth of 136 Selēnē on the contrary, like that of Helios, was but little and sparingly improved upon.

“Goddess serene, transcending every star!
  Queen of the sky whose beams are seen afar!
  By night heaven owns thy sway, by day the grove,
  When, as chaste Dian, here thou deign�st to rove.”

BYRON

Great as was the variety of the real and fancied influences of the moon upon natural life, proportionately great was the variety in the myth of Artemis — a locality of worship sometimes, at other times a particular point of view of her character, determining the phase of it. And further, it should be observed that many peculiar features in the myths of Artemis are traceable to the fact of her being twin sister to Apollo, whose inner and spiritual qualities she was believed to share.

It was observed that the vegetation of warm southern lands spread and flourished most under the quickening influence of the coolness of night and the fall of dew, which often for whole months was a substitute for the missing rains. It was known by experience that the fall of dew is most copious when the sky is clear and the moon sheds her pure light — and hence to Artemis was ascribed the cause of fertility in this direction. Hence she was believed to roam by night through woods and groves, over hills and valleys, accompanied by the nymphs of the fountains; besides rivers, fountains, and marshes her presence was felt. But the presence of the moon in the heavens gave security to travellers and to herds, especially from the attacks of wild animals, whose enemy Artemis was therefore thought to be.

“Queen and huntress, chaste and fair,
  Now the sun is laid to sleep,
  Seted in thy silver chair
  State in wonted manner keep:
Hesperus entreats thy light,
Goddess excellently bright.”

BEN JONSON.

Under the title of Agrotora she was the patron goddess of huntsmen, her favorite hunting-ground being Arcadia, with its many heights and glens well wooded and well watered. Here she was worshipped under the form of a bear, and called Callistē, the Arcadians, or bear-people, boasting their descent from her. On the other hand, the regularly recurring absence f the moon from the heavens, which could only have been regarded as due to a voluntary act on the part of the goddess, showed that though opposed to wild animals, she could also employ them for the purpose of punishing men, and to illustrate this, the story was told of her having sent among the Ætolians the so-called Caledonian boar, which laid waste their fields, till after a great hunt it was slain by Meleager and Atalanta. As a huntress her favorite animal was the stag, because its swiftness gave the best opportunity for her method of capture, which was by bow and speed of foot. As an instance of how severely she would punish the wanton slaying of the stag, these is the story of how far such a crime on the part of Agamemnon she detained the Greek fleet, on its way to Troy, in the harbor of Aulis, and exacted from him the sacrifice of his daughter, Iphigenia. Actæon, the huntsman, had seen the goddess bathing, and 138 for this offence to her modesty was transformed into a stag, and devoured by his own hounds — a story which appears to illustrate the destructive influence of the dog-star, Sirius. Another hunter whom she slew with her sweet arrows was Orìon, a personification of the bright constellation, which, at the beginning of the summer is seen in early morning tin the east, where it remains until extinguished by the morning light. To express this in the form of a myth, Orion was said to have been too pressing in his advances towards Eos, the morning, and for this the goddess of the moon slew him.

Fig. 29. — Artemis. Vatican, Rome.)

From the coincidence observed between the courses of the moon and the ebb and flow of tides, Artemis came to be viewed as a goddess who protected the occupation of the fishermen, not only on the shore and on arms of the sea, but also on lakes and rivers, In this character she bore the name of Dictynna, or Britomartis, and was worshipped with zeal among other places in the island of Crete, where, to account for the former of her two names, the story was told of her having, to escape the pursuit of Minos, thrown herself from a rock into the sea, being caught in a fisherman�s net.

From the joyous feelings awakened by calm moonlight, and perhaps partly from her relationship to Apollo, she was described as fond of music and the dance — a view of her character which appears to have presented itself in a strong light to the people of Arcadia.

By whatever process the belief was arrived at, whether from some comparison which suggested itself between the life of man and the waxing and waning of the moon, or whether because mankind at birth seemed to come out of night into the light of day, we find Artemis represented as the guardian and helper of childbirth, with the title of Eileithyia, Ilithia, * or Eleutho. She was throughout looked upon 139 as a goddess of the female productive power in nature, and accordingly the care and nursing of children through their illness were placed under her supervision. A festival, accompanied by the dancing of young girls, was held in her honor as the goddess of youth, in Messenia, Laconia, Elis, and elsewhere in Greece. Similarly, from the notion that mankind after death seems to sink into night again, she came to be viewed as goddess of death, particularly of that manner of death which could not be assigned to a known cause — it being said of those who were stricken suddenly, without an ostensible cause such as an injury or wound, that Apollo or Artemis had laid them low with a kindly arrow: and in these cases the death of men was ascribed to Apollo, and of women to Artemis, as a rule.

“Queen of the air; thou most lovely queen
  Of all the brightness that mine eyes have seen!
  As thou exceedest all thing in thy shrine,
  So every tale does this sweet tale of mine.� .”

KEATS

From the fact that the moon, with its pure, serene light, naturally suggested, as it does to us also, the idea of a modest pure virgin, Artemis, as her name implies, the �modest, spotless goddess,� came to be looked on as a virgin, and as having under her special care all shy and modest youths, whether boys or girls, from whom she received presents of wreaths of flowers in the spring-time. When girls had reached an age at which her care was no longer necessary, it was customary for them to dedicate their girdles to the goddess. Young girls were sometimes called �bears,� in allusion to their patron goddess and her symbol of a bear. She was worshipped in Athens, Corinth, and Thebes as goddess of strict upbringing, of good fame, of upright mind, and of sensibility in the affairs of ordinary life. She chased and shot her arrows at all wild and unchecked creatures and actions.

When only a maiden of tender age she resolved, and obtained Zeus� consent, to remain always in a single state, and, like Athene [Minerva] [ Hestia [Vesta] as well — Elf.Ed], continued constant and true to her resolve, punishing with great severity every offence against virginity on the part of the nymphs who accompanied her, as we see in the examples of Daphnē, whom she transformed into a laurel tree, and Callisto into a bear.

It may have been from the same motive which assigned the bear as a symbol, that in early times her worship was attended with human sacrifice. Of this kind was the worship of the Tauric Artemis, at first peculiar to the countries on the shores of the Black Sea, the Crimea being the principal centre of it. From the Crimea it is said, Orestes brought an image of the goddess, and transplanted her worship to Greece, where it took root, among other places, at Sparta. There she was styled Orthia, or Orthosia. The sacrifices of human beings were however, in later times, commuted for the well-known ceremony of flogging youths at her altar, a custom said to have been introduced by the Spartan legislator Lycurgus.

As goddess of marshes she was styled Limnaia, and as a river goddess Potamia. In this latter capacity she took under her protection the nymphs of fountains, as, for example, Arethusa, whose beauty had attracted the river-god Alpheius, and made her the object of his constant pursuit, till Artemis, to elude him, caused the water of the spring which she represented to flow under ground. As Munychia, or moon-goddess, she was worshipped at the harbor f Athens, and enjoyed an annual festival, at which cakes of the shape of a full moon, with lights stuck in them, were presented to her. As Brauronia, with the symbol of a bear, she had a sanctuary on the Acropolis of Athens. In Eubœa she was styled Amarynthia, and was worshipped with great ceremony.

Fig. 31. — Diana of Ephesus.

Selēnē, or Luna, it has already been said, stood, as goddess of the moon, in the same relation to Artemis as did Helios to Phœbus Apollo, inasmuch as she merely represented the orb of the moon, while Artemis represented the influence exercised on nature by night, the symbol of which was the moon, as the sun was the symbol of day. Accordingly, as compared with Helios, the rising star of day, Selene represents evening and night, carrying a torch, and clad in long heavy robes, with a veil covering the back of her head. On her brow she wears a half-moon (less frequently horns), and leans forward, as if moving with speed, in a chariot drawn by two horses; or she rides on a mule. the story of her love for the beautiful young Endymion, whom she found asleep on a hill-side, and, enamored of his loveliness, descended on him, is the best known of the myths concerning her, and may be taken as a symbolical representation of the gentle influence of the goddess of night, who watches the slumbers of unconscious creatures. Among the Romans Luna has a handsome temple, founded by King Servius Tullius, on the Aventine hill, another on the Capitoline, and a third on the Palatine.

Compared with the Artemis whom we have just been describing, the so-called Ephesian Artemis, or Diana of Ephesus, presents (See Fig. 31) so very different and strange an aspect, that at first sight we are completely at a loss to understand how by any possibility the term virgin could be applied to her. Her appearance altogether wants the simplicity, humanity, and truth to nature which characterized the Greek deities, and, what is more, bears the most obvious signs of maternity. It would seem that the Greeks, who settled as colonists in very early times on the coast of Asia Minor, found this goddess being worshipped by the native population of that land, and adopted her in the place of Artemis, who, leaving out the fact of her being a virgin, 143 was probably identical with the Asiatic goddess in respect of her divine power over fertility, childbirth, the moon, and hunting.

The worship of Diana of Ephesus extended throughout the part of Asia Minor colonized by Greeks, and thence spread to other places, but never obtained a firm footing in Greece proper. At Ephesus she had a temple, which, for the grandeur of its architecture, its size, splendor, and wealth, was reckoned one of seven wonders of the ancient world. On the night on which Alexander the Great was born it was set fire to and almost completely destroyed by a man named Herostratus , who thus gained his object, which was to enroll his name on the page of history. Afterwards, when Alexander had acquired renown by his extraordinary conquests in Asia, this coincidence was remarked and accepted as having been an omen of his future fame. Whether he himself believed so or not, he gladly assisted in the rebuilding of the temple, so that when finished it was more magnificent than before. Diana was still being worshipped zealously when the Apostle Paul went to Ephesus to preach Christianity, and accordingly he was received with hostility, especially by the silversmiths and goldsmiths, whose trade consisted largely in the production of small shrines, or representations of the front of the temple of Diana, to be sold among her worshippers and devotees. Feeling that the success of Paul�s preaching would ruin their trade, they raised so great an opposition to him and his followers that they were obliged to leave town. Nevertheless the new religion found converts, who from that time forward formed a Christian community there. This Artemis was also worshipped under the title of Leucophrynē in Asia Minor, and as such had splendid temple at Magnesia on the Mænder.

Among the Romans the worship of Diana appears to have been of native growth, and not, as was the case with that of 144 many of the other deities, imported from Greece. A temple had been erected to her in Rome on the Aventine hill as early as the time of King Servius Tullius. Her sacrifices consisted of oxen and deer; and these, as well as the fruit presented to her, had to be perfectly clean and faultless, as became offerings to a virgin goddess. Stags, dogs, and the first-fruits of the fields were sacred to her.

In works of art Artemis was usually represented as a huntress, either in the act of running with speed in pursuit of her game, or resting, and presenting the picture of a young virgin, fleet of foot, her dress girt high, and unencumbered except by bow and arrows. In type of face, she resembles her brother Apollo so closely that, from the face alone, it is sometimes difficult to distinguish them. Her hair, like his, is gathered into a large knot above the forehead. The most celebrated of the statues of her that have come down to us is the so-called Diana of Versailles. In early works of art, and in some of the later — as, for example, a marble statue in the British Museum — her drapery reaches to her feet, but in these cases also she is represented as in active movement, like the moon hastening through the clouds. Of the incidents in which she figured we find that of Actæon being transformed into a stag and devoured by his hounds, in a sculptured group on a painted vase, and on the fragment of a cameo in the British Museum. The hunt of the Calydonian boar occurs on painted vases.

The Ephesian Artemis was represented with a mural crown on her head. Behind the crown is a disk, as a symbol of the full moon; on her breast, like a necklace, a garland of flowers, as a sign of her influence in spring-time, while above it are figures of maidens, to indicate her patronage of young girls; lions cling to her arms, as mother of wild beasts; she has many breasts; her legs are closely bandaged and ornamented with figures of bulls, stags, lions and gryphons; at the sides are flowers and bees. How far this figure may have resembled the original image of the goddess which had fallen from heaven, it is impossible to say.

Selene or Luna is represented as riding on a mule or a horse; on the pediment of Parthenon it is a horse. On a painted vase in te British Museum there occurs a representation of sunrise; Helios is seen rising in his chariot, the stars, in the form of youths, dive headlong into the sea, and the moon (Selene) rides away over the hill-tops on a horse, and as she departs is bayed at by a dog.

[REF. — W. W. Story: Artemis.

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