Artemis was a Greek goddess, the goddess of the moon,
hunting, and wild beasts. As the story goes, Artemis had hunting
parties for many years, always inviting the strongest, quickest female
hunters.
However, as the years went by, these women grew older,
married and had children. Not Artemis; she had no use for men.
One day, though, Artemis met an attractive young man and made friends
with him. Despite herself, she fell in love with him. Fearing that
she would end up like her old hunting companions, she ended up killing
him; she turned him into a deer and shot him with one of her arrows.
Artemis has been an influential goddess and archetype to Wiccans
and worshippers of the contemporary Goddess religion. She is the
equivalent to the Roman Diana
, and is often regarded as the Maiden aspect of the feminine
Trinity of the Triple Goddess (Maiden, Mother, Crone).
Oh yeah...there's somthing else I forgot to mention. It appears
that the original Artemis had an alter-ego. She was known
as Artio of Muri, and she was a Romano-Celtic goddess
(Roman Celtic is a religion similar to Roman Catholic, only
mixed with mythic views & beliefs of the Irish. Thanks to
Lupe for explaining this to me!!
=^.^=). Anyway, she was the goddess of fertility, prosperity, and the
harvest. (Sounds like a good person to have around, doesn't she?) She
also has another name: Artemis Brauronia. Her sacred animal
is the bear
