Artemis

CC 303 Intro to Classical Mythology - Fall 2009
Department of Classics, University of Texas at Austin, Prof. Lawrence Kim

I. Names to Remember

Artemis - Diana - Phoebe, Callisto, Actaeon, Atalanta
Arcadia, Brauron, Ursa Major (Great Bear/Big Dipper), Ephesus

II. Lecture Outline

1. Artemis: Virgin Goddess of the Hunt
   1. Goddess of the Untamed: Wilderness, Beasts, Young
   2. Symbols: Bow and Arrow, Crescent Moon (Phoebe), Wild Animals
   3. Hunting: Initiation - introduces youth to the wilderness, symbolizes passage to adulthood
   4. Hunting takes place OUTSIDE the city
      1. Especially Mountains; Space for Reversals
      2. Everything that is NOT civilization
      3. ARCADIA - prototypical wilderness
2. Actaeon
   1. Sex and violence
   2. Spies Artemis bathing; Witnesses the forbidden
   3. Turned into stag and killed by own hounds
3. Artemis and Female Initiation
   1. Sanctuaries in Nature
      • The In-between space b/w girl and woman
   2. Myths of Initiation
      1. Removal from society
      2. Occupy in-between space
      3. Physical/emotional trauma
      4. Reintegration into society
4. Callisto
   1. Virgin follower of Artemis
      1. Raped by Zeus; cast out by Artemis as impure
      2. Turned into bear after giving birth to son Arcas
      3. Turned into constellation URSA MAJOR as son is about to kill her
   2. "Playing the Bear" at BRAURON
5. Atalanta
   1. Combines hunting, initiation, reversal
   2. Heroic Birth, suckled by a she-bear
   3. Between Male and Female
   4. Refusal to Marry; reversal of gender roles
      • The Race with Hippomenes/Melanion
   5. Offending Aphrodite
   6. Maintaining status: the Lioness

III. Images

1. *Artemis of Versailles. Roman marble copy after original from c. 325-300 BC. Louvre, Paris.
2. Artemis as Potnia Theron ("Mistress of the Animals"). Boeotian amphora, c. 680 BCE.
3. Diana the Huntress. Domenichino, c. 1615. Galleria Borghese, Rome.
4. Diana Resting. Louis De Boullongne, 1707. Musée de Beaux-Arts, Tours.
5. Diana and Actaeon. Titian, 1559. National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh.
6. Diana and Actaeon. Bernardino Cesari, 1603-1606. Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest.
7. Artemis and Actaeon. Detail from an Athenian red-figure clay vase, c. 480 BCE. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
8. Actaeon. Paul Manship, 1924. Brookgreen Gardens, South Carolina.
9. Jupiter in the Guise of Diana Seducing Callisto. Francois Boucher.
10. Diana and Callisto. Titian, 1559, National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh.
11. Sanctuary of Artemis at Brauron (Attica). View from the south.
12. Atalanta. Detail from Athenian black-figure clay vase, c. 600-550 BC. Museo Archeologico Etrusco, Florence.
13. Atalanta and Hippomenes. Guido Reni, 1622-25. Capodimonte Gallery, Naples.
14. Hippomenes and Atalanta. Noel Halle, 1765.