The Olympians...Part 4

Zeus had two children with a Goddess called Leto. They were twins: Apollo and Artemis. Apollo was the God of many things. He was the God of music, who entertained all of Olympus with his Lyre. He was the God of medicine and the patron of all healers. He was the God of Archery who never missed his target. He was the God of truth and a lie never crossed his lips. He was the God of poetry and would spout the most beautiful verses at random times. He was the God of oracles and his priestess at the temple at Delphi would answer honestly every question put forth to her. In later hymns he is confused with Helios, the God of the Sun though the two should never be held to be the same. His sister Artemis was another complex being. She was the Goddess of the hunt, a strange office for a woman. Like all great huntsmen she protected the young and was thus held to be the Goddess of youth and innocence. She was the Goddess of the wild and nature and animals were under her special care. She, along with Hestia and Athena, was a virgin Goddess and her priestesses were all maidens, protected from the corrupting nature of the free world. If her brother was confused with the sun God, she was mistaken for Selene, the Goddess of the moon. Tales of the underworld show her in a very different light. In the darkness she was Hecate, Goddess of witchcraft and magic and the evil crossroads. So we see Artemis as a three faced Goddess: innocent Goddess of the wild and the young on earth; delicate Goddess of the dark side of the moon in the sky and dark Goddess of magic and evil trickery in the Underworld. Artemis, more than any other Olympian, shows us the danger of mixing and matching myths and divinities in Mythology.