In Greek mythology, Artemis (nominative) , (genitive) ) was the daughter of Zeus and Leto, and the twin sister of Apollo. She was the Hellenic goddess of forests, hills, virginity/fertility, and the hunt and was often depicted as a huntress carrying a bow and arrows.“Her proper sphere is the earth, and specifically the uncultivated parts, forests and hills, where wild beasts are plentiful
. . . .” Hammond and Scullard (editors), The Oxford Classical Dictionary. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1970) 126. The deer and the cypress were sacred to her. In later, Hellenistic times she even assumed the ancient role of Eileithyia in aiding childbirth.

Artemis was one of the most widely venerated of the gods and one of the oldest (Burkert 1985, 149). Her later association with the moon is a popular idea which has little foundation. She later became identified with Selene, a Titaness who was a Greek moon goddess, and she was sometimes depicted with a crescent moon above her head. She also became identified with the Roman goddess Diana and with the Etruscan goddess Artume.

Etymology

There may be some connection with the Greek αρτεμης = "safe and sound" from the root αρ = "to fit". Fact: date=February 2007

Birth

Various conflicting accounts are given in Greek mythology of the birth of Artemis and her twin brother, Apollo. All accounts agree, however, that she was the daughter of Zeus and Leto.

An account by Callimachus has it that Hera forbade Leto to give birth on either terra firma (the mainland) or on an island. Hera was angry with Zeus, her husband, because he had impregnated Leto. But the island of Delos (or Ortygia in the Homeric Hymn to Artemis) disobeyed Hera, and Leto gave birth there.

A scholium of Servius on Aeneid iii. 72 accounts for the island's archaic name Ortygia by asserting that Zeus transformed Leto into a quail (ortux) in order to prevent Hera from finding out his infidelity, and Kenneth McLeish suggested further that in quail form Leto would have given birth with as few birth-pains as a mother quail suffers when it lays an egg.

The myths also differ as to whether Artemis was born first, or Apollo. For further details, see Hera 5.2.

Childhood

The childhood of Artemis is not embodied in any surviving myth: the Iliad reduced the figure of the dread goddess to a girl, who, having been thrashed by Hera, climbs weeping into the lap of Zeus. A poem of Callimachus – the goddess "who amuses herself on mountains with archery" – imagines some charming vignettes: at three years old, Artemis asked her father, Zeus, while sitting on his knee, to grant her six wishes. Her first wish was to remain chaste for eternity, and never to be confined by marriage. She then asked for lop-eared hounds, stags to lead her chariot, and nymphs to be her hunting companions, 60 from the river and 20 from the ocean. Also, she asked for a silver bow like her brother Apollo. He granted her wishes. All of her companions remained virgins, and Artemis guarded her own chastity closely. Her symbol was the silver bow and arrow.