Yay! We's back! Still so sorry about last week, but my cough's gone down to a tickle now and I'm nearly better. Thanks for being great.

 

Myth Info:

Yet more about Artemis. Here are some of the nasty things she's been up to in her day and age.

 

Callisto was one of Artemis' celibate-sworn hunting nymphs ... until she got pregnant from Zeus (who used Artemis' form to get her guard down, the bastard). Artemis changed her into a bear, but allowed her to birth her human son, who later grew up and shot his bear-mamma by accident while hunting.

 

Niobe was a queen of Thebes who bragged that she was better than Artemis' mother Leto, since Leto only ever had two children and she had fourteen. Artemis and her twin brother Apollo swopped in, killed all of Niobe's kids in the blink of an eye, and out of mercy (ha!) turned the queen into a stone that was said to weep bitter tears of regret. This article mentions that Spil Mount may have been regarded as the transformed Niobe, because of it's resemblance to a woman's face.

 

Actaeon, as we all know, had the misfortune to stumble on Artemis bathing. Artemis didn't take too kindly to that, and so transformed him into a deer and let his own hounds rip him to shreds.

 

Orion was, depending on which version of the myth you consult, either a potential lover of Artemis, or he raped one of her nymphs. In the one, her brother Apollo got jealous and decided to preserve his sister's virtue by challenging her to hit a speck way out at sea with her arrow ... she being unaware that it was her lover Orion swimming for his life. In the other version, Artemis changed him into a scorpion as punishment for touching her girl. At the end of each he becomes a constellation, either the Hunter or the Scorpion.

 

Iphigenia was the daughter of King Agamemnon of Mycenae, who sailed to Troy in Homer's Illiad. Agamemnon boasted he was a better hunter than Artemis, so Artemis stopped the wind from allowing the Greek fleet to leave the harbour, and demanded that Agamemnon sacrifice his daughter to her as compensation. When poor Iphigenia was on the altar, Artemis had a change of heart and replaced her with a deer, whisking her away to be a priestess in her temple in Tauros.

 

There is a fantastic book by Donna Jo Napoli called The Great God Pan, which is one of the best mythology reads I've ever come across. It meshes the stories of Pan and Iphigenia, and I highly recommend it as the author is absolutely brilliant.

 

My myth information is from myriad sources, but most can be found on Theoi.com, a must-know site for any classical enthusiast. Have a good week y'all.