Source Verification: Artemis

Every claim below is either what a named ancient source attests, in its own line or section, or a point where the sources themselves disagree.

What the Sources Attest

Why did Artemis ask Zeus for eternal virginity?

Callimachus's Hymn to Artemis stages the request as a child's wish list: sitting on her father's knee, the young Artemis asks for perpetual maidenhood, a bow and arrows like her brother Apollo's, a band of nymphs as companions, all the mountains as her territory, and one city to protect. Zeus grants everything without hesitation. The vow of virginity becomes central to how later myths use her - as a goddess who punishes any violation of chastity, her own or others', without mercy.

Source: Callimachus, Hymn to Artemis 1-40

Why did Artemis turn Actaeon into a stag?

The hunter Actaeon came across Artemis and her nymphs bathing naked in a forest pool while out hunting. Furious at being seen unclothed, she splashed water over him, transforming him into a stag. His own hunting dogs, no longer recognizing their master, tore him apart. Ovid tells the story at length as a warning about accidental transgression against a goddess who does not distinguish intent from offense.

Source: Ovid, Metamorphoses 3.155-252

Why did Artemis demand Iphigenia's sacrifice?

Before the Greek fleet could sail for Troy, Artemis becalmed the winds at Aulis, and a seer declared that only the sacrifice of Agamemnon's daughter Iphigenia would release them. Ancient sources differ on Artemis's exact grievance against Agamemnon - later accounts say he killed a deer sacred to her and boasted he was the better hunter - and some versions have Artemis substitute a deer for Iphigenia at the last moment and carry the girl off to serve as a priestess instead of letting her die.

Source: Euripides, Medea 1-5

Who are Artemis's parents and siblings?

Artemis is the daughter of Zeus and the Titaness Leto, born on Delos as the twin of Apollo. Apollodorus specifically states that Artemis was born first and then helped her mother deliver Apollo, acting as a midwife despite being newborn herself, which is part of why later cult made her a protector of women in childbirth.

Source: Apollodorus, Library 1.4.1

Why did Artemis punish Niobe?

Niobe, a queen of Thebes and mother of many children, boasted that she deserved more honor than Leto, who had only two. Artemis and Apollo answered the insult to their mother by killing all of Niobe's children with their arrows, Apollo the sons and Artemis the daughters. Niobe wept without end afterward and was eventually turned to stone, still weeping, a story later authors used as the definitive image of grief.

Source: Homer, Iliad 24.602-617

Where Accounts Differ

Artemis's grievance at Aulis

Artemis's exact grievance behind the calm at Aulis is not stated consistently: later mythographers supply the deer-boast motive that Aeschylus's Agamemnon does not spell out, and some tellings substitute a deer for Iphigenia at the altar while others let the sacrifice stand.

Sources

Primary sources

Homeric Hymn to Artemis
Homer, Iliad 24.602-617
Callimachus, Hymn to Artemis 1-40
Apollodorus, Library 1.4.1
Ovid, Metamorphoses 3.155-252