Artemis
A virgin-goddess of childbirth, fertility,
hunting, the moon, youth
One of the Olympians,
Daughter of Zeus by Leto
Twin sister of Apollo
As a child she chased and captured four golden-horned stags and harnessed them to her chariot. A fifth animal escaped and featured in later stories as the Ceryneian Hind.
She could be Selene in the sky,Hecate in the underworld and Artemis the huntress on earth,where she carried a silver bow made
by the Cyclopes.
During the battle of the Giants with the gods, she killed the giant Gration. As Selene she fell in love with the shepherd Endymion, but, as a virgingoddess, she could not yield to her passion and contented herself with hiding him in a cave on Mount Matmus where she alone could visit him every night and kiss his eternally sleeping lips.
She changed Actaeon to a stag when she caught him watching her as she bathed, but another version says that Actaeon was dressed in the skin of a stag when he approached the goddess.
In one version, Actaeon was torn to pieces by his own hounds. She changed Callisto into a bear when the nymph was seduced by Zeus.
She avenged the death of Ameinius by causing Narcissus to fall in love with his own reflection. At the behest of Leto, she slew the seven daughters of Niobe, and Apollo slew the seven sons, because Niobe had boasted that she was greater than Leto and should be worshipped in her place.
She shot and killed Orion in the mistaken belief that he had raped her priestess Opis, or from jealousy of Eos who was also in love with him, or by shooting at a floating target in the sea, which she did not realise was Orion’s head.
She was said to be able to assume the form of any animal or tree. On one occasion she took the form of a fish to escape the unwelcome attentions of Alphaeus.
In some accounts she was the mother of the Amazons by Ares, in others she is Ilythia. Some versions show her with three heads, a form of Hecate.
Her animal was the deer and her tree the cypress.
Athena
Virgin-goddess of agriculture, cities, handicrafts, war and wisdom;
One of the Olympians;
Daughter of Zeus, Pallas, Hephaestus
or Poseidon
Mother of Apollo and Lychnus by
Hephaestus;
Some say; Zeus had seduced Metis and swallowed her and her unborn child. When he later developed a headache, Hephaestus, or in some versions Prometheus, split his skull open with an axe and out sprang Athena, fully developed and armed.
Another version says that she was the daughter of Poseidon, born in Lake Tritonis in Lybia, or of the giant Pallas, whom she killed when he tried to rape her.
She became patron of Athens by winning a competition against Poseidon. Whereas he produced only salt water (or the horse), she invented the more useful olive tree.
During the battle of the Giants with the gods she fought alongside the male deities and killed the giants Enceladus and Pallas.
It was Athena who gave Perseus the bright shield that he used when killing the Medusa.
When Paris awarded the golden apple to Aphrodite at the wedding of Peleus and Thetis, she and Hera, the other losing contestant, became her enemies and supported the Greeks against the Trojans during the Trojan War.
She is said to have invented the flute, the bridle and several tools. Her own flute, which later was acquired by Marsyas, was said to play itself.
When Teiresias saw her bathing, she struck him blind but gave him inner sight in compensation.
She is depicted wearing a helmet and carrying a shield and spear. Her birds were the cock and the owl (or crane), her tree the olive and her animal the serpent.
