Artemis is the twin sister of the god Apollo, handsome young god of the sun. Artemis is the only deity in Homer honored with the titles of "holy" and "pure". As an archer, she strikes from a distance, unerringly and unseen, so he who must be hit dies with the "smile of life on his lips". She is unapproachable and mysterious, preferring the solitude of the woods and mountains, playing with the wild beasts whom she can calm just by her presence. She has been seen dancing with Nymphs, playing the lyre, and speaking with the animals. It is her power which brings healing properties to mineral springs.

Artemis represents the female personification of freedom. She is "virginal free nature, unfettered and pure in its beauty and brilliance". She is maternal and solicitous, but in the true nature of a maiden , she is also "disdainful, hard and sometimes cruel". Artemis is "the divine spirit of sublime nature, the lofty shimmering mistress, the pure one, who compels and delights, the dancer and huntress who fondles cubs in her bosom and races deer, who brings death when she draws her golden bow, reserved and unapproachable like wild nature, and yet, like nature, wholly enchantment and fresh excitement and lightening beauty. Manifold as her manifestations may be, they are not contradictory." She is the "Lady of the Wild Beasts", and cares for them like a mother, and yet the huntress in her draws her bow to the same. This is nature. The sweet and the fierce, the life and the death.

The goddess of the woods and nature, protector of the forests, the huntress, the virgin- Artemis is also known as a good companion for those seeking or journeying. In her role as the goddess of space and distance, she has appeared in the form of a wild hare, a boar and a stag to guide travelers on the path to their destinations and city founders to the site of where their new city should lie.

Quotes from "The Homeric Gods", by Walter F. Otto,
Thames and Hudson, publishers. New York, NY, 1954.