When I was a child, somewhere during what must have been the Middle Ages, I was fascinated with mythology. Some of the biggies such as Zeus, Aphrodite and Diana still ring a bell.

However, it seems I’ve forgotten many of my favorite mythological characters over the years and never really took the time to learn much about others. One of those I neglected is Artemis.

She could brag about a really blue-blooded pedigree. She was the daughter of the great Zeus and Leto and the twin of Apollo. According to pantheon.org, she’s the goddess of the wilderness and wild animals. She became a goddess of fertility and childbirth in some cities and is typically shown with the crescent of the moon above her forehead.

Some trivia about Artemis: she also went by the name Cynthia. She apparently hung out with Selene, goddess of the moon, and was one of the Olympians. Artemis aka Cynthia was also a virgin goddess who spent most of her time roaming around forests and uncultivated land, attended by a gaggle of nymph groupies. Her mission: hunt for lions, panthers, hinds and stags and generally look out for them. She set out equipped with a bow and arrows fashioned by Hephaestus and the Cyclopes.

One legend suggests that Artemis was born a day before her twin, Apollo, on the island of Ortygia. She managed to almost immediately help mama Leto cross the straits to give birth to Apollo. Students of mythology mark this as the beginning of her role as guardian of young children and patron of women in childbirth.

Pantheon.org cites a second legend in which Artemis, at only three years old, asked dad Zeus to grant her eternal virginity. The legend stresses that she went to great lengths to protect her purity and hung out only with virgins.

The goddess had a possessive nature. She was the queen of mean toward anyone who disobeyed her wishes or slighted her sacred animals. With Apollo, she put to death the children of Niobe, a mere mortal, because the woman boasted that she had more children than Artemis’ mother. Legend said the twins hunted the children with bows and arrows. Apollo killed the boys, while Artemis finished off the girls.

Although Artemis was worshiped in most Greek cities, it was only as a secondary deity. However, in Asia Minor (the current Turkey) she was much more prominent. The temple built in her honor in Ephesus was named one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, though she was worshipped there primarily as a goddess of fertility. The statues of her in the temple are styled differently from the hunting depictions of her in mainland Greece.

When young girls achieved the age of puberty, legend says, they went through initiation into Artemis’ cult. However, once they decided to get married, they were required to place in front of the altar all the objects associated with their virginity, such as toys, dolls and locks of their hair. They then departed the domain of the virgin goddess.