Old SymbolsWhere every symbol began

Plate 1 A huntress drawing a bow, a crescent moon above her

Artemis

Artemis’s symbols are the bow and arrows of the huntress and the deer she hunted, which also drew her chariot. The crescent moon came later, when Greek writers made Apollo’s sister a goddess of the moon.

Greek gods and their symbols. Also called artemis bow, artemis moon, artemis symbol, artemis symbols, symbol of artemis.

Meaning

Artemis was the Greek goddess of hunting and of wild animals, the twin sister of Apollo. The Metropolitan Museum of Art describes her as the patroness of hunting who often carried a bow and quiver. The Homeric Hymn to Artemis calls her the goddess “whose shafts are of gold, who cheers on the hounds, the pure maiden, shooter of stags”, and in the Iliad she is “the queen of the wild beasts, Artemis of the wild wood”. Smith’s Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1849) counts the stag, the boar and the dog among the animals sacred to her, and the fir tree; in art her attributes as huntress are the bow, quiver and arrows, or a spear, with stags and dogs. The Romans identified their Diana with Artemis early and gave her all of Artemis’s features. Artemis is honoured today in the Hellenic religion of the Supreme Council of Ethnikoi Hellenes, which the Greek state recognised as a known religion in 2017.

Origin and history

The Homeric Hymn to Artemis is a portrait of the huntress. Over the hills and windy peaks she draws her golden bow, the mountains tremble and the woods echo with the cries of beasts, and when she has had enough she unstrings her bow and goes to her brother’s house at Delphi, where she hangs up her bow and arrows and leads the dances of the Muses and the Graces. The Iliad gives a less dignified scene. When Artemis taunts Apollo for refusing to fight Poseidon, Hera tells her that “it is better on the mountains to be slaying beasts and wild deer than to fight amain with those mightier than thou”, takes the bow from her shoulders and beats her about the ears with it until the arrows fall out of the quiver.

The deer were more than her prey. Smith, following the poet Callimachus, writes that Hephaestus made her bow, quiver and arrows, that Pan gave her hounds, and that her chariot was drawn by four stags with golden antlers. The deer chariot was acted out in her worship. At the festival of Artemis Laphria at Patrae, Pausanias writes, the maiden serving as priestess rode last in the procession “upon a car yoked to deer”. On the east frieze of the Parthenon, the Acropolis Museum notes, Artemis sits on a stool between her brother Apollo and Aphrodite.

Is Artemis the goddess of the moon?

In later Greek belief, yes; in the oldest poems, no. Smith explains that once Apollo was identified with Helios, the sun, his sister came to be identified with Selene, the moon, so that the Greek Artemis is “at least in later times, the goddess of the moon”, and that this applies only to Artemis as Apollo’s sister and not to the Arcadian, Taurian or Ephesian Artemis. In art the two roles look different. As huntress she is tall and quick, her hair tied up behind and her legs bare to the knees. As goddess of the moon she wears a long robe and a veil, with the crescent of the moon rising above her forehead and often a torch in her hand. The crescent moon has its own page. NASA kept the pairing when it named its new moon programme Artemis in May 2019. “It turns out that Apollo had a twin sister, Artemis. She happens to be the goddess of the moon,” said the NASA administrator, Jim Bridenstine.

Often confused with Artemis of Ephesus

The many-breasted statue known from Ephesus is a different goddess who shared the name. Smith calls the Ephesian Artemis “a divinity totally distinct from the Greek goddess”, an old Asian goddess whom the Greek settlers of Ionia found already worshipped and called Artemis. Her image in the great temple had many breasts and was shaped like a mummy, with a mural crown on her head and the lower body covered with figures of animals, and her symbol was the bee. The huntress with the bow is the Greek Artemis.

See also

Apollo, Deer symbolism, Bastet, Zeus, Hera, Poseidon.

Sources

  1. Greek Gods and Religious Practices (Colette and Seán Hemingway, The Metropolitan Museum of Art), Colette Hemingway and Seán Hemingway, “Greek Gods and Religious Practices”, Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History, The Metropolitan Museum of Art (2003), The Metropolitan Museum of Art, essay text
  2. Homeric Hymn 27, To Artemis 1–20 (tr. Evelyn-White), The Homeric Hymns, translated by Hugh G. Evelyn-White (1914), Homeric Hymn 27, To Artemis, lines 1–20, Perseus Digital Library, Tufts University, lines 1–20
  3. Iliad 21.470–492 (Homer, tr. A. T. Murray), Homer, The Iliad, translated by A. T. Murray (1924), 21.470–492, Perseus Digital Library, Tufts University, book 21, lines 470–492
  4. Artemis (1. Artemis as the sister of Apollo) (William Smith, Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology), William Smith (ed.), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1849), s.v. “Artemis (1. Artemis as the sister of Apollo)”, Perseus Digital Library, Tufts University, entry text
  5. Artemis (2. The Arcadian Artemis) (William Smith, Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology), William Smith (ed.), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1849), s.v. “Artemis (2. The Arcadian Artemis)”, Perseus Digital Library, Tufts University, entry text
  6. Artemis (4. The Ephesian Artemis) (William Smith, Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology), William Smith (ed.), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1849), s.v. “Artemis (4. The Ephesian Artemis)”, Perseus Digital Library, Tufts University, entry text
  7. Description of Greece 7.18.12 (Pausanias, tr. Jones and Ormerod), Pausanias, Description of Greece, translated by W. H. S. Jones and H. A. Ormerod (1918), 7.18.12, Perseus Digital Library, Tufts University, book 7, chapter 18, section 12
  8. Parthenon. East frieze. Block 6 (VI) (Acropolis Museum), Acropolis Museum, collection entry “Parthenon. East frieze. Block 6 (VI)”, Akr. 856, Acropolis Museum, description
  9. NASA Names New Moon Landing Program Artemis After Apollo’s Sister (Robert Z. Pearlman, Space.com), Robert Z. Pearlman, “NASA Names New Moon Landing Program Artemis After Apollo's Sister”, Space.com, 14 May 2019, Space.com (Future US), article text
  10. What is the Supreme Council of Ethnikoi Hellenes (YSEE)? (YSEE, frequently asked questions), Supreme Council of Ethnikoi Hellenes (YSEE), “Frequently asked questions”, Supreme Council of Ethnikoi Hellenes (YSEE), first and second answers

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Researched, edited and approved by Rory Hansen before publishing. Last reviewed October 8, 2026. How we research

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