Artemis

"Brother, You do not help my Hunters. You do not look at, talk to, or flirt with my Hunters. And you do not call them sweetheart."

- Artemis

Artemis (Άρτεμις in Ancient Greek ) is the goddess of the Hunt, the Moon, maidens, virginity, childbirth, animals and wildlife. Her Roman counterpart is Diana She is the daughter of Zeus and Leto. She is the full-blooded sister of Apollo and a half sister to Athena, Aphrodite, Hermes, Ares and Dionysus. She and Apollo are known as the "Twin Archers". Artemis's handmaidens are chaste maidens who have turned their back from the company of men and have them take a pledge, if Artemis accepts, then they will be part of the Hunters, and will become immortal and serve her. Artemis is portrayed by Ona Grauer in The Lightning Thief (film).

History
Artemis was born on the remote island of Delos. Her mother Leto had been wandering around because Hera told everyone not to house Leto for her birth because she was angered about Zeus's affairs with Leto. Hera forbade her to give birth on terra firma (the mainland) or on an island. But the island of Delos was neither on the ground or on water; it was a floating island, so Leto gave birth there. Artemis was born before her brother Apollo and helped her mother give birth to him. That is why she is sometimes considered the goddess of childbirth. Artemis and Apollo were born as twins to Leto and Zeus. They then grew up together.

At three years old, Artemis asked her father, Zeus on his throne, while sitting on his knee, to grant her a wish. He loved his young daughter, and was of course, very proud of her. She was his second daughter, because the first one was Athena, and a bright and pretty child, and he agreed to grant her wish.

She wish was to remain chaste for eternity, and never to be confined by marriage. She then asked for lop-eared hounds, stags to lead her chariot, and nymphs to be her hunting companions, before she agreed to have demigods and mortals to be her companions, 60 from the river and 20 from the ocean. She also asked for a silver bow like her brother Apollo's golden one. He granted her wish, and also said that he promised to let her retract her wish to remain a virgin and her wish to never be confined by marriage if she would wish it.

Once, Artemis grew close to retracting her virgin oath, when she met the hunter Orion. They slowly grew close. Apollo, chased a giant scorpion after him while Artemis was away, hunting. She was mad at him but not for long, he helped her put Orion's constellation in the stars. She has never been so attracted to a man since. Other stories say that Apollo tricked her into shooting a moving target in the water which was actually Orion's head, killing him. There is another story saying, during Orion's hunting with Artemis, he threatened to kill every beast on earth. Gaea objected by sending a scorpion to kill Orion. After his death, Zeus sent him into the stars, when Artemis asked him to.

Artemis is also known for turning the hunter Actaeon into a stag because he saw the goddess bathing with her attendents in the lake.

The Titan's Curse
Artemis makes her first appearance in the The Titan's Curse. She helps Percy and friends when they face the manticore at Westover Hall and goes a mission west to hunt the Ophiotaurus, and promises Percy that she will look for Annabeth while hunting for this monster. She is captured along the way by the General, Atlas, is used as a way to lure Percy and his friends West to save Annabeth and was convinced to hold the sky, in pity to Annabeth. Artemis cannot simply stand by and allow a young maiden to die, and she takes the sky from Annabeth.

As Percy, Thalia, and Zoë arrive to rescue her, Zoë giving her life to stop Atlas from stabbing Artemis. Meanwhile, Percy takes the sky from Artemis so she can fight Atlas, as Percy was no match. During the fight, Artemis forces Atlas back and he is eventually pushed back under the sky as Percy rolls out of the way. Artemis, Percy, Thalia and Annabeth return to Olympus for the winter solstice. She is the first to suggest plans for war preparations against the Titans, and appears fair and honest, as she is horrified at the vote whether or not to destroy Percy, as he risked his life for them.

The Last Olympian
Artemis appears again in The Last Olympian, when she battles Typhon. Her Hunters help the Campers of Half-Blood Hill fight against Kronos' army. One of her hunters, Thalia, had a statue of Hera fall on her legs during The Battle of Manhattan.

Physical description
She can appear as whatever she likes, but chooses to be the average age of her Hunters,which is around twelve though in the film she is a full grown woman. She has auburn colored hair and eyes as silvery as the moon, and is incredibly beautiful. Percy describes her face as breath-takingly beautiful. Her cabin is number eight at Camp Half-Blood and since she is a maiden goddess, she has no children and it serves as an honorary monument or a refuge for the Hunters when they visit. Her symbol was the silver bow and arrow, and stag.

Diana
Artemis has the ability to change her appearance into her Roman counterpart, Diana. As Diana, she becomes more disciplined, warlike, and militaristic.Though still a virgin, it is possible that she has another group of hunters dedicated to her Roman aspect as well as an honorary cabin at the Roman Camp Half-Blood in San Francisco.

Personality
Artemis cares deeply for maidens, as they are her kin. She has a group of female Hunters who she leads. She mostly detests men, and has little respect or liking of them. Artemis is an excellent hunter, but does have pity on her prey so she seeks to kill quickly. She shows no pity for her hunters if they break their oath. Though she holds a deep prejudice against men, she is typically reasonable and willing to acknowledge them if they prove their worth, as she does with Percy, and also appears to have mellowed in her level of distaste for other men, tolerating Percy, Grover and Nico in her camp and around her hunters, even keeping her contempt out of her voice and mannerisms.

Artemis is also a rather independent and rebellious goddess, going against Zeus's orders and keeping contact with her hunters and their search for Percy in the Lost Hero (Possibly not even knowing Hera took his memories and sent him to Roman Camp Half Blood). Since she spends so much time with her hunters, she has a strong understanding of mortals, especially compared to the other gods.

Powers
As the goddess of the hunt, Artemis probably possesses advanced hunting abilities such as speed, precision and the ability to disguise herself along with many other powers. She was strong enough to go toe-to-toe with the greatest Titan warrior Atlas.She can also transform people and objects into things associated with hunting (eg. once she turned a helicopter into a flock of birds). Because the hunting of wild beasts is within her domain, Artemis is able to help heroes more directly than other gods by saving them from powerful monsters if she wishes. She utilizes this loophole to bypass the ancient laws against direct interference and aid Percy during the Titan's Curse.

She may also have unspecified moon-related abilities, as she is also goddess of the moon. She possesses a silver chariot similar to Apollo's sun chariot, but it seems to be purely for traveling in short distances.

Artemis presumably possesses the standard powers of a God.

Artemis' chariot can fly. The legend of Santa Claus' sleigh comes from the silver reindeer that pull it. Artemis' chariots are made of gold and pulled by four golden horned deers. The bridles of her chariot are made of gold.

Goddess of the Hunt and the Moon
Artemis has two sides of her, the fierce and lively Goddess of the Hunt and the mysterious and serene Goddess of the Moon. In her two sides, she is mostly seen as the the Goddess of Hunt, where she wears a short tunic with her hair into a ponytail, holding a bow and quiver and mostly with her golden stag. When she is the Goddess of the Moon, she wears a long gossamer dress and has her hair held up.

Artemis was officially the goddess of the Hunt, but because the Titans have fallen, the Titan Selene's position as the Titan of the Moon was turned over to Artemis, the same with Helios to Apollo.

The Hunters
The Hunters are Artemis' handmaidens, young maidens who given the gift of immortality, the skill of archery and strength. The hunters also had a choice to be this way. A hunter must not fall in love or rather more specifically, lose her maidenhood, for she looses her immortality as a result and die, or she will die in battle. They are the closest thing to children Artemis has.

Notable Hunters

 * Zoe Nightshade (deceased)
 * Thalia Grace
 * Bianca di Angelo (deceased)
 * Phoebe

Leto
Artemis, along with her twin brother, Apollo, showed great love for their mother, Leto. An example of this is shown when Queen Niobe insulted Leto and Artemis and Apollo sought revenge. They killed Niobe's 7 daughters and 7 sons. It is said that Artemis spared the youngest daughter of Niobe.

Satyrs
"You satyrs. You're all in love with Artemis. Don't you get that she'll never love you back?"

- Thalia Grace

Satyrs have great respect towards Artemis because she cares about the woods and nature, since she is the goddess of the Hunt.

Being a Virgin Goddess
Artemis is one of the virgin goddesses on Mount Olympus besides Athena and Hestia.

Film
Artemis was played by Ona Grauer in the film version of The Lightning Thief. She was only seen once in the film, in the throne room of Olympus on the Summer solstice. In the book, she was a little girl, and in the movie, she is a grown woman.

Trivia

 * In The Titan's Curse, it is said she likes to turn boys who see the Hunters' camp into jackalopes (rabbits with antlers).
 * In The Titan's Curse, she had found a respect for Percy and even called him a 'man' instead of a 'boy' after she and Annabeth were rescued.
 * Artemis, being the goddess of Hunt, has a collection of furs belonging to many creatures, some maybe extinct since Percy didn't know some of them that were hanging in Artemis' tent.
 * She has temples or shrines in Olympus as seen in The Last Olympian when Thalia stated this after seeing Kronos a shrine to Artemis.