The Greek goddess Artemis, the most famous of the virgin goddesses, is the goddess of hunting and archery, wilderness and wild animals. She is the protector of women and childbirth, though she herself is a virgin. Artemis embodies the duality possessed by all women.

Artemis is the goddess of the feminine, called upon for strength during pregnancy and childbirth. In keeping with her duality, Artemis’ arrows can just as easily bring on death during childbirth. She assists women in all phases of their lives, bringing a natural death to women, as her brother Apollo does for men.

Even though she is a protector of women during pregnancy and childbirth, Artemis took a vow of eternal chastity and expects her followers to do the same. She is steadfast in her vows and will punish those that break their vow of chastity and succumb to seduction.

Callisto was one such unfortunate goddess. She was seduced by Zeus who tricked her by changing himself into an Artemis look alike. Callisto became pregnant and was unable to hide the pregnancy from Artemis. Artemis, unsympathetic to the antics of Zeus, put the full responsibility on Callisto and changed her into a bear. She became the constellation Ursa Major (the Great Bear).

Perhaps Artemis was able to hold Zeus blameless in coercing Callisto to break her vow of chastity because Zeus is Artemis’ father. The goddess Artemis and her twin brother Apollo have an infamous birth. Their mother, Leto, was also one of the many consorts of Zeus. Zeus was married to Hera but didn’t let that curb his amorous inclinations. Hera was notorious for her jealousy of the objects of Zeus’ passion and the many children that he spawned. When the time came for Leto to give birth to her twins, the jealous Hera refused to let Leto stay in any one place long enough to give birth.

Hera chased Leto, very pregnant with the twins, around the earth to the point of exhaustion. Zeus finally intervened by ordering the god Poseidon to carry Leto to a floating island. Since Hera had decreed that Leto not be allowed to give birth anywhere the sun shines, Zeus created a wave so that Leto would be hidden from the sun. After her own birth, Artemis assisted Leto in the delivery of her twin brother, Apollo.

The twins and their mother are a close knit family. Both Artemis and Apollo remain loyal to their mother and merciless to her enemies. Apollo killed the sea monster which pursued his mother while trying to give birth. When the goddess Niobe boasted that she was a superior mother over Leto because she had more children, Apollo and Artemis cruelly punished her by killing her children.

Most of the stories of Artemis relate to hunting. She is the protector of wild animals ensuring their continued survival, and during a hunt, she ensures that the proper animals are killed. There is a vengeful side to Artemis as well. She causes the death of the hunter Actaeon after he encountered her while she was bathing; in one version, she turned him into a stag so he couldn’t tell what he had seen. She sends the wild boar of Calydon as a punishment for neglected rites, leading to the death of another god.

Artemis has a part in Homer’s epic poem, Iliad; When the hero Agamemnon angered Artemis by killing a stag before departing for Troy in his ships, Artemis stalled the ships by calming the winds. She refused to allow the ships to make way until Agamemnon sacrificed his daughter, Iphigenia. In another part of the epic, Hera insults Artemis by spilling her arrows and boxing her ears. Artemis cries to daddy Zeus.

As a protectress of women during all phases of life, as well as being the goddess of animals, and herself unfazed by the attentions of men, Artemis is a powerful force of the feminine. Her altars are frequented by young girls about to marry and pregnant women seeking safety during childbirth. She is a goddess for all seasons of a woman’s life.