►Greek Mythology: “Artemis, The Goddess of Hunting” / Poem: “Ode to Artemis”, by Irina Dimitric.-

“Diana the Huntress”, by Luca Penni (16th Century).

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Artemis (Roman Equivalent: Diana) was the greek goddess of hunting, wilderness and wild animals.

She was also a goddess of childbirth, and the protectress of Virginity and the girl child up to the age of marriage.

According to the Homeric account and also to Hesiod she was the daughter of Zeus and Leto. She was the sister of Apollo. According to Pausanias, Artemis was a daughter of Demeter, and not of Leto.

Artemis as the sister of Apollo, is a kind of female Apollo.

Artemis is moreover, like Apollo, unmarried; she is a maiden divinity never conquered by love. The priests and priestesses devoted to her service were bound to live pure and chaste, and trangressions of their vows of chastity were severely punished. 

When Apollo was regarded as identical with the sun or Helios, nothing was more natural than that his sister should be regarded as Selene or the moon, and accordingly the Greek Artemis is, at least in later times, the goddess of the moon. Phoebe was one of the many names she was called. The name Phoebe means the “light one” or “bright one”.

Another earlier version of the Goddess is the Arcadian. According to it, Artemis  is a goddess of the nymphs.

There was no connexion between the Arcadian Artemis and Apollo. Her epithets in Arcadia are nearly all derived from the mountains, rivers, and lakes. Thus she was the representative of some part or power of nature. Also according to the Arcadian version, Artemis hunted with her twenty nymphs, who accompanied her during the chase, and with sixty others, daughters of Oceanus, with whom she held her dances in the forests of the mountains.

The representations of the Greek Artemis in works of art are different accordingly as she is represented either as a huntress, or as the goddess of the moon; yet in either case she appears as a youthful and vigorous divinity.

~As the huntress, her attributes are the bow, quiver, and arrows, or a spear, stags, and dogs.

~As the goddess of the moon, she wears a long robe which reaches down to her feet, a veil covers her head, and above her forehead rises the crescent of the moon. In her hand she often appears holding a torch.

On one of her birthdays Artemis asked for Six wishes from Zeus, his father. These wishes were.

1. To be able to live life chaste.
2. To be able to be a lifelong bachelorette and never marry.
3. A bow and arrow like that of Apollo’s
4. Hunting dogs to assist her hunting.
5. Stags to lead her chariot.
6. And 80 virgin nymphs to be her hunting companions.

Zeus was amused by Artemis’ wishes, and being her good father, he granted her each wish she asked for.

Artemis would never marry, and would be chaste for all eternity. She roamed with her hunting dogs, nymphs, and her stags, hunting all throughout the mountains, where she resided.

Appearances of Artemis in other myths and in Homer’s “Iliad”:

•In the myth of Actaeon, he was a hunting companion of Artemis ; at some point, he saw the goddess naked bathing in a spring and tried to rape her. As a punishment, Artemis transformed him into a stag and his hounds killed him.

•In the myth of Orion which has various versions, Orion was also a hunting companion of Artemis  and the only person to have won her heart. However, he was accidentally killed either by the goddess or by a scorpion which was sent by Gaia.

In another myth, Zeus, changing his form to resemble Artemis, managed to seduce Callisto, one of Artemis’ hunting attendants. As a companion of Artemis, she took a vow of chastity. Zeus appeared to her disguised as Artemis and they had sexual relationships. As a result of this encounter she conceived a son, Arcas.

•In some versions of the story of Adonis, Artemis sent a wild boar to kill him because he was a better hunter than she. In another version, Adonis was not killed by Artemis, but by Ares, as punishment for being with Aphrodite.

In Homer’s “Iliad”, Artemis may have been represented as a supporter of Troy because her brother Apollo was the patron god of the city. At the Greek’s journey to Troy, Artemis becalmed the sea and stopped the journey until an oracle came and said they could win the goddess’ heart by sacrificing Iphigenia, Agamemnon’s daughter.

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►Gallery: “Artemis” (Ancient Greek Vases):

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” Diana’s Maidens” by Edward Robert Hughes (19th Century).

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►Gallery: “Artemis or Diana” (Paintings):

“Diana Leaving her Bath” by François Boucher (1742).

“Diana and her Nymphs” Domenichino (1617).

“Diana” by Joseph Duch (19th Century).

“Diana” by James Carroll Beckwith (19th Century).

“Diana” by Francois Lafon (19th Century).

“Diana the Huntress” by Giampietrino (1526).

“Diana” by Jules Joseph Lefebvre (19th Century).

“Diana the Huntress” by Pelagio Palagi (1830).

“Diana” by Domenico Guidobono (1720).

“Diana at her bath” by Alexandre Jacques Chantron (19th Century).

“Henriette von Nassau as Diana” by Willem van Honthorst (1640).

“Diana the Huntress” by Nikolaus Baur (1870).

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O Artemis!

Steadfast virgin for all eternity

Out of wedlock born to Leto

Fathered by Zeus the mighty

Baby midwife to Apollo

Her twin brother;

She helped her mother

And thus became the patron saint

Of birthing mothers and their babes

~~~

The virgin Goddess of Hunting

Roamed throughout the mountains

With a hunting bow and arrow like Apollo’s

With her eighty virgin nymphs

With hunting dogs, and sacred stags

To lead her chariot

Hunting chaste in lush wilderness;

Six desired gifts from father received

The mighty ruler of Mount Olympus

~~~

The most cherished gift Virginity

Thus she turned Callisto into a small bear

Punishment for loss of chastity;

Her jealous arrow

Condemned the bear to die

But cunning Zeus, the nymph’s seducer

Turned Callisto into sparkling stars

To shine for us forever in the sky

As Callisto Bear or Ursa Minor

~~~

The Virgin Goddess for all eternity

Never loved but one, Orion, a mortal son;

Apollo, jealous, tricked his sister

Through a wager, to shoot

The “floating object” far on the horizon

It was Orion, her one and only love;

In her grief she turned him

Into brilliant stars

Forevermore to shine for her and us

~~~

O Artemis!

Goddess of Hunting

Protector of animals, trees and flowers

Goddess of Virginity, Goddess of Light

As silvery moon you joined Orion;

In the darkness, your love

Forever will shine bright

Lend us your strength, allay our fears

Lead us safely through the night.

©Copyright 2015 Irina Dimitric

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Irina Dimitric. http://irinadim.com/

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►About Irina Dimitric:

Irina dixit: “I’m a blogger. My recent passions are writing poetry and photography. Now and then I write a story… The ups and downs of my life are reflected in my poems and short stories, and the mood of the poems ranges from dark to bright and from serious to downright silly. Laughter is to me like the air I breathe. I’m a fighter and don’t give in easily to misfortune’s impact”. 

•~~~• ⭐ •~~~ • ⭐ •~~~• ⭐ •~~~• ⭐ •~~~• ⭐ •~~~•

•Make sure to visit Irina’s Blog, Irina’s Poetry Corner.

•Feel Free to connect with Irina at: Twitter and Google Plus.

•Irina has recently published a poetry book, “Dreams on my Pillow”. 

You can purchase Irina’s book at Amazon or Xlibris.

•~~~• ⭐ •~~~ • ⭐ •~~~• ⭐ •~~~• ⭐ •~~~• ⭐ •~~~•

Click on the book cover.

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“Haz de Luz”. ©Amalia Pedemonte. 2015. Fotografía publicada en “La Poesía No Muerde: Imagen encontró poemas”: http://wp.me/p3U19M-10C

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►Links Post:

http://www.theoi.com/Olympios/Artemis.html

http://www.theoi.com/Summary/Artemis.html

http://www.greekmythology.com/Olympians/Artemis/artemis.html

http://greekgodsandgoddesses.net/goddesses/artemis/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artemis

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It is great to get these three new awards. Premio Dardos (x2) coming from Jagxs and  Sonrisas de Camaleón.

Plus, a Creative Bloggers Award, from Living a Beautiful Life.  

I want to thank these three bloggers and suggest you to please make sure to check out their blogs and follow them if you haven´t still done so.  

Note: For the three awards, I will nominate blogs I have recently came across and like, recent followers and/or plussers. Also, I am changing the logos so that way I can include new awards among mine… And, finally, I will follow the nomination process without answering questions or mentioning facts about me…. 

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►Rules for these Three Awards:

♠ Thank the person who nominated you for the award. Agradecer a la persona que te ha nominado.

♠ Add the logo to your post. Agregar el logo del premio en tu blog. 

♠Nominate ten (10) bloggers you admire and inform your nominees by commenting on their blogs. Nominar otros diez (10) bloggers, informándoles en sus respectivos blogs.

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►I) Nominees~Premio Dardos~Focal White & Black Version:

1. Iridediluce 2. K’ Cadences 3. A Joyful Creation 4. Alex Kiaw 5. Living a Beautiful Life 6. Writing Stories Rocks 7. Ruido Claro 8. Utopian Fragments 9. Le Rimenaute 10. RV John.

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►II) Nominees~Premio Dardos~Chameleon Version:

1. Le Trouvaille 2. Free Spirit Mystic 3. People Forward 4. Claudia Moss 5. Margie in Italy 6. Territorio Escrito 7. The Faerie Embassy 8. Presupuesto Zero 9. Your Bones & Their Lies 10. Mina Barrado. 

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►III) Nominees~Creative Bloggers Award:

1. In Sapphic Sunshine 2. Jagxs 3. Sonrisas de Camaleón 4. Bundle Post 5. Mehflowers 6. MaryAnn’s World 7. Living in the Forest 8. Daphnedawn 9. Bojenn 10. Peaks and Valleys. 

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Greek Mythology: “Agamemnon’s Family and the War of Troy”.-

►Greek Mythology:

“Agamemnon’s Family and the War of Troy”:

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The war originated from a quarrel between the goddesses Athena, Hera and Aphrodite after Eris, the goddess of strife and discord, gave them a golden apple, sometimes known as the Apple of Discord, marked “for the fairest” (Kallisti in greek).

Zeus sent the goddesses to Paris, who judged that Aphrodite, as the “fairest”, should receive the apple. In exchange, Aphrodite made Helen, the most beautiful of all women and wife of Menelaus, fall in love with Prince Paris, who took her to Troy.

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“Venus Induces Helen to Fall in Love with Paris” by Angelica Kauffmann (1790).-

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Agamemnon,  the king of Argos or Mycenae, was  the husband of Clytemnestra and the father of Iphigenia, Electra, Orestes and Chrysotemis. 

Menelaus was Agamemnon’ s brother, and, besides, the king of Sparta. 

When Helen, Menelaus’ wife, was abducted by Paris of Troy, Agamemnon commanded the united Greek armed forces in the ensuing Trojan War.

Greek forces gathered at Aulis. However,  weak winds prevented the fleet from sailing. The priest Calchas said the winds would be favorable if Agamemnon sacrificed his daughter Iphigenia to the goddess Artemis.

Agamemnon persuaded his wife Clytemnestra to send Iphigenia by deceptively telling her that the purpose of his daughter’s visit was to marry her to Achilles, the greek heroe.

The trojan War ended with the Achaean’s (or greek’s ) victory. 

The Greeks tricked the Trojans. They made them know that they had won the war by sending all their ships into hiding. This made the Trojans believe they were gone. As a parting gift, the Greeks had left a wooden horse which the Trojans brought into their city. Inside of it there were lots of achaeans soldiers. Once in the city of Troy, the Greeks came off, slaughtered the Trojans and desecrated their temples. 

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“Building of the Trojan Horse” by Giandomenico Tiepolo (1774).-

Click above for further analisis and details on Tiepolo’s painting. Slideshare feature.

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The war lasted ten years and ended with the wooden horse episode and after the deaths of many heroes, including the Achaeans Achilles and Ajax, and the Trojans Hector and Paris.  

During this period of Agamemnon’s long absence, his wife Clytemnestra began a love affair with Aegisthus, her husband’s cousin. 

Upon Agamemnon’s return from Troy, he was murdered (according to the oldest surviving account, Homer´s “Odyssey”) by Aegisthus, the lover of his wife, Clytemnestra.

In some later versions Clytemnestra helps him or kills herself Agamemnon, like Aeschylus tells us in “The Oresteia”. 

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►Aeschylus’s Oresteia: “A Tragedy in Three Plays”:

The best-known version of Agamemnon ‘s death and the following events related to the war of Troy is that of Aeschylus’s  “Oresteia”, a three -act drama of family fate, like the “Oedipus trilogy” by Sophocles. The term “Oresteia” originally probably referred to all four plays, but today is generally used to designate only the surviving trilogy. 

The parts of “The Oresteia” are: First: “Agamemnon”. Second: “The Libation Bearers“. Third and last play: “The Eumenides”.

In the first one, (“Agamemnon”) Clytemnestra herself  murders his husband Agamemnon.

In the second part (“The Libation Bearers”) Clytemnestra is murdered by his son Orestes.

In the  third and last play,”The Eumenides”, Orestes is judged by a jury composed of Athena and twelve Athenians. After being counted, the votes on each side are equal. Athena declares that tied juries will result in the defendant (Orestes) being acquitted as mercy should always take precedence over harshness.

For further details on this topic, check out this article: “Background and Images for the Oresteia“.

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►Links Post:

http://www.stanford.edu/~plomio/history.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trojan_War

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agamemnon

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clytemnestra

https://www.greatbooks.org/resources/guides/drama/the-oresteia/

http://ancienthistory.about.com/od/poetsplaywrightswriters/a/oresteia.htm

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