quick disclaimer i do NOT consider myself a priest, and this blog will not be anything close to a formal arrangement. i'm a simple worshipper, and although i consider artemis my matron, that does not make me better/more informed than anyone else
now that that's out of the way, welcome, i hope you enjoy your stay! feel free to send me an ask for any questions, requests, or prayer/hymn submissions
— Ephesus was once a thriving and lively city which venerated artemis as their patron goddess! Now, with the city in ruins, it has a new set of residents… cats!
— a post to read about festivals revolving around Artemis in Ancient Greece !!
I’ve been wanting to make a post like this for a while, compiling all my knowledge on these festivals into one big post, and with the new year I’ve decided to make it!
First, this is every festival mentioned here, as a sort of table of contents! Listed in the same order they appear as in the post.
• Elaphebolia
• Mounykhia
• Brauronia
• Thargelia
• Delphinia
✧ Elaphebolia
Elaphebolia was an Ancient Greek festival, taking place during the month of Elaphebolion (March/April), presumed to take place on the 6th, honoring Artemis Elaphebolos, meaning “deer shooter”, as this festival focused on Artemis as a huntress and protector of hunters, the wild, and animals—particularly deer, one of her sacred animals.
Offerings given during Elaphebolia were often sacrifices of actual deer, however as deer were driven away from the city (etc) honey cakes or pastries or cookies shaped like deer — “elaphoi” — were offered.
Imagery of deer, water, wine, honey, incense, and fruits/vegetables are all good offerings as well!
✧ Mounykhia
Mounykhia was a festival (taking place during Mounykhion — generally on the full moon around April / May) celebrating Artemis as a goddess of the moon and as lady of the beasts. The festival is also tied to a myth surrounding the goddess!
“A she-bear entered the shrine of Artemis, where it was killed by the Athenians. Enraged, Artemis sent a plague upon the people! Her oracle revealed she would only be satisfied if someone sacrificed their daughter, and a man volunteered as long as his family was able to hold the priesthood of Artemis for life. As he led her to the shrine he hid her and sacrificed a goat dressed as a girl!”
One of the key elements / celebrations was the torch festival! This involved young girls running with torches at night, symbolizing the light of the moon and her connection to it.
She was often offered amphiphontes (meaning shining all around) which were small cakes surrounded by lit torches or candles, symbolizing the moon!
Other good offerings would be imagery of goats or pasterys in the shape of goats, reading hymns, libations, etc.
— fun fact : this festival is the origin of birthday candles !!
✧ Brauronia
Brauronia was one of the most significant festivals celebrating Artemis! It was celebrated primarily in brauron, a village near athens. This festival honored her as a goddess of childbirth and a protector of young girls! We don’t know much about this festival, which includes when it takes place, but it’s suspected to be around spring.
For the festival, young girls from the ages of 5-10 would dress up as bears, or “arktoi”, and preform a rite called Arkteia. This ritual symbolized the transition from girlhood to womanhood and highlighted Artemis's role as a guardian of women, guiding them through lifes transitions!
Another significant aspect of this festival was the many athletic activities! The girls engaged in races and contests, which were meant to honor Artemis's connection to strength and vitality. They would run, and leap, and dance through the wilderness!
Offerings given were often cakes and honey! You can also give other traditional offerings known in Ancient Greece.
✧ Thargelia
Thargelia honored the births of Artemis and Apollon. Said to be born one day before Apollon, Artemis would be celebrated the 6th, and Apollon would be celebrated the 7th! This festival is mostly focused on Apollon, along with purification and renewal. Takes place around late may - early June!
Before Thargelia took place, two people would be selected to be beaten and driven out of the city. It’s possible this represented disease being warded off! This festival honored Apollon not only for his birth, as a god of disease.
On the first day, bad things were driven out. It was dedicated to purifying the city, as it was a time for cleansing, purification, and warding off evil.
Offerings were music, dance, wine, loaves of bread, and first fruits!
✧ Delphinia
Delphinia was a festival in which unmarried women left in procession to a sacred temple, located at the llicso river in athens. It would take place around early April! It honored Artemis as a protector of young women and girls, but also honored her twin brother Apollon, as the temple belonged to both of them.
The women would carry olive branches tied with white wool as they proceeded to the temple! It’s very likely that there, they would ask for protection and blessings from Artemis, along with singing songs to Apollon.
You can offer things like olive branches (tied with wool), symbols of Artemis/of the twins, and hymns!
this one is a bit shorter than "my experiences with artemis," just because i've been devoted to artemis for so much longer. i only built apollo an altar somewhere around three years ago I think? whereas artemis has literally been with me for my entire practice.
either way, i'll be expanding this list as i gain more insight into apollo and my relationship with him! feel free to check back later for more
i've always felt like apollo enjoyed reaching out through song, whether it be through certain lyrics that just resonate extra hard when he's trying to send that message, or specific songs that come on my shuffled that he wants to send me. the most recent one was "Little Lie" by Jordan Lehning.
apollo and artemis (but especially apollo recently) like to help me with meditation. both of them being associated with psychoactive experiences/herbs, i feel they assist by looking over my body while i'm out drifting. this helps relieve me of a lot of anxiety, since i can often be too anxious at first
i feel a lot of connection between beaches/meadows and apollo, places where direct sunlight is most abundant
apollo's presence feels amorous, almost flirtatious to me
i associate him a lot with flowers, especially daisies and daisy relatives, as well as cacti and succulents. these are high-sun requiring plants, and i feel that apollo's association with children and festivals for children lends to that a lot
i've always felt like apollo loves bees. although they're less his symbol than his son aristaeus', every time i go out of my way to help a bee I think of Apollo
in that same vein, i associate Apollo with all types of pollinators including moths, butterflies, bats, and hummingbirds! especially hummingbirds, since they're so beautiful
although i am contractually bound to hades, apollo will still be playing a massive role in my life as i move forward in my education, since at some point i plan to go to medical school. and although it's the dead, not the living, i'll be working with, i feel that his patronage over doctors will still include me at least somewhat
if artemis has some domain over the cycles of death, i feel that apollo has the same over the cycles of life. because of the sun's intrinsic role in sustaining life on earth, i feel that he is both the provider, and the sustainer of our lives.
Domain: mousike (song, lyre, music, and dance), prophecy, young men, protection of the Greek city-state, poetry, rationality and order, plague, archery, mice, boxing (a sport popular among young men), architecture, the transition from boyhood to adolescence. Averter of evil and disease (thus he is often seen as a healer), protector of sheep and cattle
he was also identified with the Sun during the Classical Period, due to his syncretization with Helios
his epithet Paean, sometimes believed to be a separate deity, comes from the healing song sung in the Iliad (just called a paean).
although Artemis is an archer for the art of hunting, Apollo presides over archery as a tool of war, as an act of silent and stealthy execution
Apollo was worshipped under the epithet smintheus in chryse, a city in Troy, where two stories of the name exist. one tells of a group of cretans following an oracle out to the island, whereupon all of the leather in their weapons was eaten by mice, and they were defeated by gegeneis (giant children of Gaia). the other tells of a local priest who angered the god, whereupon apollo sent a legion of mice to destroy his land
just as Artemis is the goddess that presides over the act of a girl becoming a woman, Apollo is the god of the transition from boy to man. the hair that young men cut off during this transition is given to the god
Apollo was the leader (mousagetes) of the Muses, a group of nine daughters of Zeus and Mnemosyne, including Calliope, Clio, Erato, Euterpe, Melpomene, Polyhymnia, Terpsichore, Thalia, and Urania.
Apollo was known to be associated with ecstatic experiences, especially during divination or having the god take over seers' bodies. This provides parallels to his brother Dionysus, whose rites often involved ecstatic frenzy.
Parentage: Zeus, king of the gods, and Leto, the titaness of motherhood and modesty.
Notable Children:
Asclepius- son of Coronis, daughter of the King of the Phlegyans, who later was unfaithful with a local prince and Apollo shot them both dead. Still attached to his young son, Asclepius was sent to be raised by Chiron, where he learned the art of healing.
Orpheus- prophet of the Orphic cult and important hero in the Argonauts. Orpheus' sense of song and lyre (gifted from his father) were said to have godly powers of enchantment and persuasion.
Aristaeus- son of Cyrene, nymph and queen of Cyrene, Libya. Apollo made him a god of cattle and bees.
Ion- son of Creusa, daughter of an Athenian king, whom Apollo had raped without her knowing. She abandoned the child in the same cave in which he was conceived in, where Apollo rescues him and has him raised by the priestess of Delphi. He is the ancestor of the Ionian people.
Important Imagery:
-lyre
-bow and arrows, often golden
-swan
-raven
-dolphin
-laurel
-larkspur
-cypress
-mouse
-the sun
-bees and cattle because of his son
Ancient Offerings: performing song and dance, laurel leaves or garlands, cypress leaves or wood, a lock of hair (at a time of transition from boyhood to adolescence), animal parts especially goat or sheep (typical at the sanctuary of Delphi). also as period typical generic offerings like water, wine, honey, milk, frankincense/myrrh, barley
Other Offerings: sunflowers and other daisies (associated with the sun), medicinal herbs like ginger or ginseng, citrus fruit or flavored items (associated with the sun), lupine (for his epithet Thermios), cornflower (UPG, reminds me of the sky), daffodils (similar to larkspur), hemp (UPG, but the plant and it's derivates are often used medicinally).
Crystals: sunstone, angelite, milky and rutile quartz, yellow and honey calcite, bumblebee and yellow jasper, selenite, white aventurine, flower/moss/tree agates, rose quartz, rhodonite
Associated Holidays: Pythian Games, Apollo's birthday on the 7th of Thargelion (a part of Thargelia), Pyanopsia, Delphinia, Gymnopaedia, Hyacinthia, Karneia
Some Lore:
-in the Homeric Hymn to Apollo, it is said Artemis was born on the island of Ortygia and Apollo on Delos
-Apollo was said to be the favored son of Zeus, which is why he has the power of divination, specifically to know of Zeus' thoughts and relay them to humans
-Delos was apparently open to accepting Leto's children, as they had little to give them fame, though they worried that Apollo might cast them back into the sea out of disdain for their barren landscape
-Delphi was established as the oracular site of Apollo, since it was an important center of music at the time anyways. Later the sites of Didyma and Clarus were created as well.
-He had to slay the mythical Python, a draconic son of Gaia, which gave Pythion, and the Pythia their name. He then led a ship of Cretans to Delphi in the form of a dolphin so that they could serve him at his sanctuary
-Just as Artemis is the goddess that presides over the act of a girl becoming a woman, Apollo is the god of boys as they turn to men
-When the giant Tityos attempted to kidnap Leto on her way to Delos, Apollo slew him with his golden bow and sword, where he was staked into the ground, to be ever fed on by vultures.
-Apollo and Artemis slayed the seven sons and seven daughters of the queen of Thebes, Niobe, after she boasted to be better than Leto, who had only borne one son and one daughter.
-The god challenged Marysas, a satyr who mastered the flute after Athena cast it away, and upon winning tied him to a tree and flayed him alive for hubris.
-Apollo became infatuated with a nymph named Daphne, the daughter of a local river spirit. She tried to run from him but couldn't escape, so her father turned her into the first laurel tree.
-Another daughter of a river god, Marpessa, got caught between a mortal man named Idas, who Apollo tried to fight. Zeus broke them apart and let Marpessa choose, whereupon she chose the mortal man.
-Apollo had a ram-horned aspect popular in Sparta, where he was associated with leadership, either of a group of adolescents (an agelai), or a political system.
-He also had a wolf aspect popular in the Argives, which originates from several different stories but my favorite are these two: one, that wolves led Leto to the island of Delos to give birth, and another where wolves led Leto to Lycia, the location of her main shrine in Anatolia.
-Apollo fell in love with the youth Hyacinthus, who in some myths was the son of the Muse Clio, but accidentally killed him in a discus game. From his body sprang the first "hyacinth" (understood to be perhaps an iris or larkspur). In some versions of the myth, it was a jealous Zephyrus who redirected the wind that carried the killing blow.
-Upon King Agamemnon's capture and defilement of a local priest of Apollo's daughter, Apollo sent arrows of plague to the Greeks. He later also guided the arrow that killed Achilles.
-Apollo was sentenced to be the slave of a mortal King Admetus of Pherae, who ended up treating him with great kindness. Fond of the man, the god blessed his flocks to always bear twins, and aided him in gaining the hand of Princess Alcestis.
RESOURCES:
theoi.com <- you can also find his epithets here
Gods and Heroes of the Ancient World: Apollo by Fritz Graf
okay so i know that there was already a post made about an artemis epithet for the appalachian area, but i decided i wanted to make one that's closer to home.
where i live is a deep part of my identity, and it plays an even bigger role in my practice. every single inch of where i live is filled with life. from the scrub jays in my backyard, to the grass growing through cracks in the sidewalk, there will always be so much life.
and because i associate artemis so much with the natural circle of life, i see her in my surroundings as well. the associations i make below are mostly UPG, but they're based on similar enough things that the greeks would have seen in their daily lives, so.
i live in a chaparral biome, also called a coastal scrub, characterized by semi-arid climate, frequent wildfires, and some of the highest biodiversity per area. here you'll find a number of predators like mountain lions, coyotes, and bobcats, a ton of raptor species, and a significant number of prey animals to match. vegetation varies from place to place, but where i am there is a lot of sage, buckwheat, creosote, scrub oaks, and yucca.
artemis is seen as raw, untamable, and fierce. she killed just as often as she nurtured, and where she sheltered animals, she sometimes snubbed humans.
this is completely in line with what the chaparral biome is for many of us. not only is it a sacred land filled with so much life and beauty it could suffocate you, but it's formidable as all hell, and not to be taken lightly. every year, california and greece burn to kingdom come from forest fires, worsened by climate change and urbanization, as a part of its natural life cycle. many species here not only are adapted to fires, but they inherently rely on them to spread their seeds and kill off competition.
this is also something that, since colonization, has been getting more and more out of control as we get further away from indigenous practices. read more about them here.
the reason why i connect these two is because, in seeing artemis, the greeks would have seen their surrounding chaparral wilderness. that means that every time i'm looking out my window, i'm seeing something eerily similar to what they would have. i'm almost feeling exactly what they felt.
some associations i make are:
artemis and mule deer
artemis in mountain lion/coyote pelts
artemis and sage
artemis hunting more than just mammals, but duck and other game birds as well
artemis and black bears
artemis and rodents (not just disease causing "vermin," like with apollo, but kangaroo rats, pocket mice, harvest mice, etc.)
artemis' grotto not just being in a forest, but an oasis
artemis and dryads of cacti and creosote
artemis and bread/flatbread made from buckwheat
keep in mind that a lot of things/practices related to the chaparral area will be based in indigenous experiences. things like sage burning, acorn bread, and the very land itself. i am NOT proposing that artemis is the new goddess of these lands, that would be a whole weird colonizing thing, but i'm just pointing out what i see of her in these lands, as i happen to live here and worship her here. these lands are meant to be in native hands, not my own, and the land back movement is something i fully support in life and in my practice. there is no magic here that i could not find anywhere else.
It is unsurprising that Artemis, Goddess of hunting and the wild, is often depicted in relation to particular symbolic animals. Some of her most famous depictions include animal companions, in particular the Diana of Versailles statue which portrays the Goddess alongside a stag, arguably her most famous of sacred animals. But an overlooked sacred animal of Artemis has always been the bear.
Today on substack I'm exploring the use of bears as sacred imagery in Artemis worship in Brauron, Arcadia, and across the expanse of the ancient Greek world! Come learn some Greek History with me! It's always completely free to access and read :)
Exploring bears as a sacred animal to Artemis in historical worship
I find Artemis in, not the forest, but in the wilderness of my childhood in the American Southwest. Standing, barefoot in the sands, watching over the wastes. I find her in the dust devils and in the gritty survival of animals hidden in their tunnels. I find her staring, moon high, when the desert comes alive at night, away from the beating, deadly, sun. I find her hidden in a patch of cacti, ready to strike, as if she was a rattlesnake, or perhaps a scorpion. I praise her, Artemis of the desert.
Artemis is not the only virgin goddess in the Hellenic pantheon. And yet it appears, among modern pagans, virginity is the first (often times only) thing to come to mind whenever Artemis is mentioned. So much is focused around her being a virgin, it's gotten to a point where who she actually is, how she was worshipped in ancient Greece, and her presence in the lives of the ancient Greeks are completely lost among misinformations and misconceptions stemming from only one aspect of her.
For Athena and Hestia, it's always their various roles and domains that people will immediately think about. But for Artemis, it's always her body and marital status, for some reason. It's utterly ridiculous.
Because to the ancient Greeks, Artemis was a perpetually unwed maiden goddess, yes, but she was not the goddess of virginity. According to Stephanie Budin and colleagues, Artemis was the goddess of the hunt and wilderness, and she was responsible for helping women in childbirth, turning children into adults, bringing light, freeing slaves, marking boundaries between territories and periods, bringing and curing plague. Her epithets emphasized her "wild" qualities, expressed her proclivity for the hunt, as well as described her as a "kourotrophos" (child nurturer and protector of the young) and a lunar deity.
It's like, why is it never a problem for everybody to accept that Athena and Hestia had worshippers of all ages, sexes, gender roles, and social statuses throughout ancient times, but it's so hard to wrap minds around this about Artemis.
Artemis, Athena, Hestia, all three goddesses preserve their virginity for important reasons pertaining to their roles in Greek ideology. Artemis's virginity established her position in the divine hierarchy. As the goddess of the wilds and wild animals, she herself could not be tamed (damazo) by sex, as other females in the Greek literature, and especially brides, were said to be (paraphrasing Stephanie Budin, Artemis, 2016).
In a nutshell, these goddesses are virgins and never married because of, as a result of, and due to their personas, functions, their parts in the pantheon and the areas they preside over. They chose the path of virginity because of who they are and what their "jobs" are. It doesn't mean they are rulers of maidenhood and virgins.
the virginity aspect of Artemis often seems to be So concerning to new worshippers, when in reality it hardly ever comes to mind in my practice (and many other people's). like, with Athena and Hestia you don't see people being worried about offending them for not being a virgin or being in a relationship or self pleasuring, etc.
i promise you that it's really Not that serious. of course it's serious to her, but she, like every rational person out there, knows that it's the worshippers choice if they'd want to do that same thing
even priestesses to artemis were only in a temporary period of sworn virginity to her, at a certain point it was understood they would be given away to be married.
thus the modern worshipper has really nothing to worry about imo
AHHH i've been looking forward to making this post for so long. this is one of my favorite, and most contested, aspects of artemis among worshippers in my opinion. i think a lot of devotees don't like to think of our gods as vengeful or "misguided" (at least by our standards). in my opinion though, these stories are an important reminder about hubris and our own mortality. artemis represents the wild forces of the world, and the cycles of life and death are very much a part of those, and her stories exemplify that. her stories are meant to be warnings of venturing unprepared into the wild, lest we be gored by boars or our own hunting dogs.
i'm getting a little ahead of myself, but basically to me artemis' stories are meant to teach us to respect nature and her creatures, that sometimes our lives are in her hands, not our own.
IPHIGENIA
the story of iphigenia does not start so much with her, but with her father, agamemnon. agamemnon featured heavily in the iliad as the king of mycenae and leader of the achaeons during the war against the trojans. however, before he could even get to the shores of troy, his boats encountered a problem. as the story goes, artemis was incensed by agamemnon's past disrespect of her because he was hunting in her sacred grove or was boasting to be a better hunter than her, and refused to let the winds blow that were needed to set sail.
to get back in her good graces agamemnon had to perform a sacrifice, a sacrifice of his own daughter iphigenia. and, bringing her there under the guise of marrying achilles, that's exactly what he did.
however, during her sacrifice, in many cases, artemis whisks her away and replaces her with either an animal or an eidolon (image of the dead) statue. from there she was either made a goddess companion/epithet of artemis called artemis einodia OR she was made a priestess of artemis in tauris. artemis einodia is often syncretised with hekate, so it's often interpreted as iphigenia becoming hekate.
ACTAEON
actaeon, the son of aristaeus (a son of apollo and god of shepherds, cheesemaking, bees, honey, and medicinal herbs) and autonoe, was a renowned hunter from thebes. in earlier stories actaeon incurs the goddess' wrath for attempting to court semele (who becomes the mother of dionysus), or for boasting that he was a better hunter than her. in the classical greek and roman era stories, the story was interpreted as him coming upon artemis bathing, and attempting to ravish her.
no matter the crime, the punishment always stays the same, and actaeon is turned into a stag to be chased and gored by his hunting dogs.
CALLISTO
callisto's story is one that is important to artemis' lore for reasons more than just the obvious. there are two ways the story usually goes: callisto, one of artemis' companions, is either raped by zeus or is seduced her under the guise of her mistress. this puts forward the theory that, if callisto could be seduced by her mistress, were they in some sort of queer relationship? this is something that would have likely been inferred by ancient readers as true, but it's still something modern people struggle to interpret.
either way, callisto ends up pregnant, which she attempts to hide from her troupe. however, there is no permanent solution to hiding a pregnancy, and artemis eventually discovers her. upon this revelation, callisto is turned into a bear--thought as one of the most maternal of animals to the ancient greeks.
her son, arcas, ends up being raised by either maia (mother of hermes) or king lykaon of arcadia (callisto's father). at some point after that, callisto as a bear is found in the sanctuary of zeus by arcas, who attempts to kill her. out of pity for the two, zeus puts them in the sky as the constellations bootes (bear watcher) and ursa major (great bear).
KOMAITHO
komaitho was the priestess of artemis triklaria in the city patrai, akhaia. although virginity was not meant to be a permanent state for the priestesses of artemis, before komaitho could be given away to a man officially, she falls in love with a beautiful young man named melanippos.
however, the two receive pushback from melanippos' family, so the two decide to "elope" essentially. komaitho and melanippos then consummate their relationship inside of the temple of artemis, an extreme act of disrespect.
shortly after, artemis sends a plague upon the city, where no crops grew and strange sicknesses befell numerous people. when the oracle of delphi is consulted, she says that artemis has demanded not only the sacrifice of that couple, but a young man and woman every year thereafter.
HIPPOLYTUS
hippolytus was the son of theseus (yes, that theseus), king of athens, that he had with an amazon warrior. he was raised by the amazons, and upon maturity sent to live with his father. because of his upbringing it is assumed that he was introduced to artemis, where he made a pact of virginity.
upon coming to athens, hippolytus meets his step-mother phaedra, the queen. phaedra falls in love with the young man, but is rejected by him upon confessing. devastated, she hangs herself, and in a note claims that hippolytus raped her. theseus is devastated, and calls upon the power of his father poseidon to kill his son.
and although artemis does not curse him directly in this story, she did not save him from his fate, which i'd consider a curse in and of itself.
ADONIS
the story of adonis often goes the same way, but the names of the characters are disputed. in one, adonis' mother is smyrna, her father king theias of the assyrians. in another, her name is myrrha, and her father king kinyras of kypros. either way, aphrodite lays a curse upon the woman to fall in love with her father, who she lays with through deception.
she becomes pregnant, of course, whereupon the father finds out and tries to kill her. the mother begs to be turned invisible to save her life, so aphrodite turned her into the myrrh tree.
nine months later, adonis pops out, and aphrodite falls in love with him for his exceptional beauty. she tries to hide him from the rest of the gods with persephone, who also falls in love with him (assumedly this is before her descent into the underworld). persephone and aphrodite then negotiate with zeus and it is agreed they each get to have him for half of the year.
after this agreement, while adonis is out hunting, artemis sends boars to kill him for revenge against aphrodite. this wrath came about for one of two reasons: it was she who had made phaedra fall in love with artemis' devoted follower hippolytus, which led to his death or it was because adonis was such a good hunter she was jealous.
either way, adonis dies, and the mixture of his blood and aphrodite's tears turn into the anenome flower. in some versions, adonis is resurrected as the god of beauty and the changing of seasons.
hi! welcome back to my artemis epithet series, where i take a brief dive into different epithets of Artemis' and explore how we can use them in modern practice! today we're looking at another favourite of mine, and one of Artemis' darker and more violent sides, Artemis Agrotera, she of the hunt
After her birth in Delos, Artemis travelled to Attica. It is here she was said to have raised her bow and taken part in her first hunt, taking her place as Goddess of hunting. Specifically, the region of Agrae on the river Ilisos is said to be the exact place. In this place, a temple was built to Artemis Agrotera, she of the hunt. Agrotera was specifically used as a surname for Artemis in this region to reference her cultural importance as the Goddess of hunting in Athens.
Relatively little is known about this temple at Agrae. It is said to have featured a notable statue of her holding a bow, demonstrating her huntress roots. This temple was later converted into a Christian church and then destroyed by Ottoman forces in 1778. Minor remains of the temple are visible today in the midst of modern buildings, but excavation efforts have stalled.
As a huntress goddess, Artemis Agrotera was an important deity for hunters in the Attic regions. But Agrotera was also worshipped in relation to war. Specifically, one of her festivals at this temple was related to the victory of the Greeks against the Persians at the Battle of Marathon. Before this battle, the soldiers of Athens promised Artemis that they would sacrifice a single goat to her for every Persian warrior they killed. Their victory was so great, however, with so many Persians killed, that it was impossible to immediately fulfill this request after the battle. Subsequently, the Greeks set up an annual festival to help fulfill their end of the bargain.
Once a year on the 6th of Boedromion (believed to be the anniversary of the Battle of Marathon), the Athenians would commemorate the battle with a festival at the temple of Artemis Agrotera in Agrae.. Each year, 500 goats were rounded up and marched to the temple at Agrae, where they were slaughtered and offered up to the Goddess as part of her reward for her help in the battle. This festival was known as Kharisteria (thanksgiving or thanks offering). The God of War Ares may also have been commemorated in this festival, with Artemis and Ares being worshipped alongside each other for their part in helping the Greeks win the battle. Less is known about Ares’ involvement in this festival though. We can see that this was primarily an Artemis-based festival from its date, as almost all of her festivals occurred on the 6th of any given month, with 6 being an important number to her.
Attica was not the only region where Artemis was worshipped under the epithet of Agrotera. In both Aigeria and Sparta she was known under this name, and may have been invoked before battle by the Spartans alongside Ares. Another epithet, Agraea, was used in the same way to call upon the same version of Artemis.
This epithet of Artemis’, plus the closeness of this version of Her with Lord Ares, shows us the close connections between hunting and war. Artemis Agrotera is a powerful Goddess, capable of influencing battles and demanding great sacrifices in return for her help. Though it is less common for Artemis to be revered as a war Goddess, Agrotera reminds us not to forget the darker and incredibly powerful sides of Artemis’ influence.
In modern day worship, we can call upon Artemis Agrotera to see us through particularly hard struggles in life and our own personal battles. She may also be called upon to help us achieve something we want or to reach a particular goal, as she is helpful in chasing things down with the frenzy and passion of the hunt. As we have seen, though, Artemis in this form is likely to demand back an offering in her honour to stir her in your favour. Of course, sacrificing 500 goats a year isn’t possible in the modern world, but she may appreciate offerings of meat/other foods, prayers and worship rites, or devotional activities that represent the hunt, such as exercise or archery. This epithet of Artemis’ is great if you’re looking to connect to her darker sides and her more natural and relentless impulses, and if you’re wanting to connect with those sides of your own self too. She is a great Goddess to call on to strengthen your resolve and confidence and help you stand up for yourself!
Thanks be to Artemis Agrotera, she who aids the righteous in their battles for strength and glory.
Guide me in the trials of my life, maiden huntress with the vicious arrows, and help me chase down what is meant to be mine.
Your arrow never misses its target, and so too shall I walk confidently to my goals with you at my side, great one.
Praise Artemis Agrotera, the mightiest of hunters! May we never miss the targets we most desire!
Hi! I’ve been collecting a bunch of mini essays researching different epithets of Artemis to create an archive for myself, and thought I might as well start putting them up here too. These are very simple, entry-level dives into some of the different names Artemis was worshipped under across the ancient world and the rituals linked to them, and I hope people might find them interesting. So, today we’re kicking off my Artemis epithet archive with one of my favourites: Artemis Brauronia!
As the most common myths tell it, one day two men of Attica were out hunting when they killed a bear that was sacred to Artemis. Angered, she threatened Attica with plague until the people would devote themselves to repaying her. As such, the people of Attica agreed that once every four years they would consecrate their young daughters into service of Artemis at the Sanctuary at Brauron. This Sanctuary is said to be the one set up by Iphigenia and Orestes upon their return to Attica from Tauris. The Artemis that was worshipped here and served by these young girl priestesses was known as Artemis Brauronia, and the rites performed here in her honour were, in my opinion, some of the most interesting ancient Artemis worship rituals.
Young girls that participated in the rituals at Brauron were often around ten years old, sometimes much younger, and were referred to as Arktoi (little bears). At the Arkteia festival, held every four years, these arktoi took part in rituals to please Artemis, including races and dancing. These dances were slow and stilted, meant to mimic the movements of bears, and performed to music played on the diaulos. At the end of dances the arktoi would ritually shed their robes, believed to represent Iphigenia in her final moments before being sacrificed. Here, we see the way hero worship and worship of the Goddess blurred together at Brauron. The robes these girls wore are often described as saffron-coloured and may have been accompanied by bear masks, though earlier in Brauron’s history girls were described as wearing real bear skins instead. As arktoi, the girls worshipped Artemis as a Great She-bear Goddess, and she was an important Goddess especially to women in the area.
Artemis Brauronia was largely a Goddess of women’s transitions through life. The Arkteia was focused around these young girls, all of them pre-pubescent and still considered to be in the wildness of their youth. The festival may have marked a ritual representation of their transition into puberty and into the womanhood that lay beyond. Brauronian Artemis also presided over pregnant and birthing women; the clothes of women who had died in childbirth were often dedicated to her here. Other women who survived childhbirth might dedicate their baby to her in thanks. Brauronian Artemis is not the only epithet of this Goddess where we see her as a protector of young or vulnerable women and a steward through the transitions of female life, but it is a particularly interesting epithet of its kind. The strong bear imagery, and occasional presentation of Artemis as she-bear or motherly bear herself, are interesting images that are quite different to some of her usual presentations. The significant links to Iphegenia, and the roles Artemis plays as steward and puppeteer of Ipihgenia’s fate, also have interesting implications around the idea of Her as a Goddess who watches over girls’ changing paths in life. There are more details on both the festivals held at Brauron and Brauronian Artemis herself that I highly recommend looking into as they’re very interesting.
In modern-day worship, we can still honour Artemis Brauronia in our practice. Here are some simple ways you could do so:
Play music, collect devotional playlists, or dance as a devotional activity to mimic the Arkteia
Offer images of bears to her, for example small bear sculptures or drawings.
Call upon her to watch over and guide you through transitional periods of your life, including physical health changes.
Use this epithet in prayers when it feels appropriate to you. I typically call out to Artemis by three or more different epithets when invoking her at the start of a prayer, and Brauronia can be used as one of these for any prayer but especially prayers where you feel Brauronian Artemis may have some guidance to offer you.
Epithets of Artemis can all be called upon whenever it feels appropriate to you, and how you feel about epithets and use them in your worship is up to you. But you might particularly like to call upon Artemis Brauronia for prayers surrounding:
Transitions - these might be changes in your life or circumstances, changes to your health, even gender transitions or changes to how you socially present yourself
Pregnancy, birth, menstruation, or anything surrounding assigned-female-at-birth peoples’ health
Protection and guidance, for yourself or for the young and vulnerable people in your life
I hope this has been interesting! Artemis Brauronia is one of my favourite epithets of Artemis’, and I’m excited to kick off this series of posts with something about Her. It’s worth mentioning: ancient ideas around Artemis Brauronia often mention women or girls and when I use the word women from ancient sources here I mostly mean AFAB people, but in a modern society with different ideas about gender this epithet of hers is of course open to all people no matter how you identify. Terfs aren’t welcome here. Thanks for reading!
And thanks be to Artemis Brauronia, she-bear Goddess, leader of the arktoi in dance and wild rites. May you watch over us all as we go through change in our lives, and guide us where our souls are meant to go.
this was a really cool topic i read about when doing my artemis post but i never got around to doing a lot of research on it! this was an excellent read tysm :)
Artemis, as revealed in part to me, is a being who is oriented in the physical. She embodies—and perhaps ensouls—the nature of physical existence, and She is particularly concerned with matters of the physical form. She cherishes the body, regardless of what shape it takes, because the body is the vessel through which spirit or divinity directly engages with the world.
And Artemis loves to engage with the world. In myth, when all of the other Olympians are off dealing with divine politics or meddling in mortal affairs, Artemis is prowling through the wilderness, largely preoccupied with Her own thoughts and passions. Her existence appears almost entirely experiential; yes, She was assigned various functions, but She was rarely separated from Her home in the material, earthly world. She lived, quite simply, in a manner befitting a mortal. That says a lot about Her, does it not?
Artemis is also a bridge—a function made all the clearer to me when I heard Carla Ionescu and Stephanie Budin describe Her as a "goddess of transitions." She links tried-and-true methods with future innovations. She melds old knowledge with new discoveries. She even maintains the delicate balance between artistry and survival, aggression and restraint. This function can apply to the entirety of the natural world, not just to humans. Living creatures have literally spent millions of years adapting to and evolving alongside changing environments. They've explored new frontiers, pushed those once-comfortable boundaries, and found strength in diversity. This, to me, sounds exactly like Artemis. Carla Ionescu summed it up quite well when she said that Artemis "is a symbol of human survival, ingenuity, and the ability to protect those under one's care."
To survive in the material world, it pays to be ingenious, just as it pays to be mindful of one's body. Artemis embodies these aspects, as well. Training, honing, and nourishing the body ensures long-term health. Developing practical skills—observation, logic and reason, creativity, and so on—grants us the capacity for innovation. Cultivating ambition and foresight keeps us motivated as we strive to reach our goals. Without ingenuity, we would not be here.
Perhaps it would not be a stretch, then, to regard Artemis as a goddess of evolution. She is there when we cross a threshold from one state of being to another. She is there when we take on a new role in life. She keeps pace with us when we pursue our goals and grants us insight and discernment during times of turmoil or conflict. She bolsters our courage and our survival instinct. She celebrates with us during times of triumph or jubilation, but She is also there when we suffer losses and mistakes. Not all arrows hit their mark, after all.
In these ways, Artemis is the very essence of life and living. The passions that move us, the sorrows that ground us, the joyful jaunt through the seasons—She is all of it, if we let Her be. She ensouls both nature and the human spirit, and like Her predecessors, She is immanent and universal.
With all this in mind, we can honor Artemis simply by living our lives to the fullest and inviting Her to accompany us. Let us cherish our bodies in Her name. Let us push those boundaries, protect those standing alongside us, and hold our ground when things get tough. Let us taste every flavor that nature has to offer and marvel at the miracles of the universe. Let us sleep like bears and run like wolves.
reviving this blog because even though i'm not fully mentally there with my practice right now i thought some retrospection could help get me back in the mood! this is basically just a list of little moments and some UPG/SPG i have with the goddess, who ive been worshipping for somewhere around 7 years now
in the beginning i worshipped Artemis as Diana, the roman goddess of the moon. at this time i wasn't as cognizant of the differences between hellenic and roman polytheism so although they were overlapped a lot in my head, in practice the two deities behave very differently. Diana has always been a motherly figure to me, and I still say my well wishes to her every time I see the moon, but once I started worshipping her as Artemis she became much more of an older sister figure and now I see her in the woods and wild animals around me
when I was more active with meditation, Artemis was almost always the person I would turn to for guidance and support, she never turned me away. to do this most effectively I often smoked weed and/or mugwort, a mild psychoactive herb. if it is safe and legal for you to do so, I recommend this!
I like to veil for Artemis and Diana out of reverence for their virginal aspects, even though I myself am not staying chaste
I worship Orion (casually) for his connection to Artemis in her mythology
my relationship with Diana (because that's who I addressed her as at that time) improved greatly once I moved out of my internalized misogyny, transmed phase (i was like 14 okay i was just dumb) and started identifying as a he/they nonbinary person instead of transmasc. it felt somewhat like there was a wall between us before then. this isn't to say that she didn't like that i was a man, she just didn't like that i was in denial of wanting to be more "feminine"
I prayed for love (tough times, okay) and Artemis sent me (or I like to think so, at least) a kitten literally to my doorstep
I feel nothing but positive energy between Artemis and Aphrodite, despite their opposing domains and how they're written in mythology
I was actually once devoted to Hermes, but I felt like he and I just didn't click the way I needed so after a goodbye ritual I took Artemis on as a matron (which to me just means we are in contact more often and we've built up a lot of kharis)
Diana was one of the first goddesses I made an altar to, alongside Hades and Persephone
I was always obsessed with Artemis' Hunters from the Percy Jackson series
I've received warning omens from Diana/Artemis through deer that were on a road towards a forest that ended up having, just, so much negative energy
I didn't include anything other than crystals and candles on my altars until maybe last year? I was really inspired by how my brother made his altars so now I have drawings, a statue, moon charms, and little animal figurines (on top of the crystals and a candle ofc)
I have the most poetry written about Diana/Artemis, at about 4 pieces
Artemis really likes lavender and rosemary, in my experience
although I associate fungus with plenty of other deities too (Freyja and Freyr, Persephone, and Dionysus), mushrooms are my top imagery to use for Artemis, right after lavender. I associate her with it because I find that, as a nature goddess, Artemis often times presides over the cycle of life and death. as animals in the wild die, as they tend to do, they must be returned to the earth so that more organisms can rise up in their place, and mushrooms are a part of that
my brother built an altar to Artemis without me knowing at first and I felt so happy to see them connected without me even having to step in. I feel like he is in such good hands with her
I feel like being a devotee of Artemis makes it so I get along with animals better, and I'm more amiable to children. not to any superhuman degree, and maybe these are just innate parts of me that have always existed, but it is comforting to have something tangible to connect me with my goddess
Artemis is also associated with bears because of a myth where she turns one of her attendant nymphs into a one for getting pregnant, and "bear" or "little bear" has been my nickname since very early childhood. just another one of those things that makes me feel like it was fated for us to connect at some point in my life (I'm not saying that I'm special because of that, just that I think we get along very well because of the small things in my life. I chose her, she didn't exactly choose me, specifically, out of all people, to worship her)
