When we had
our lecture on anthropomorphism I was inspired to look at how Artemis was
viewed in a modern setting. A recently aired episode of Supernatural, named 'Remember the Titans', offered the perfect opportunity to look at this, but first I want to briefly discuss
some other revelations I have had about Artemis and how I have studied her so
far and also why she is so relatable to modern women.
Artemis is a good example of how women, when studying mythology, can
relate to the deity they are researching and give her traits and challenges which
we ourselves face. In the case of Artemis, I must admit to falling into this
trap myself, she is one of the deities that I feel I can associate the most
with. I hold the opinion that Artemis is a strong woman who makes her own
choices and won’t let herself be controlled by men. Some would even go as far
as to use the modern colloquial phrase she is ‘a strong independent womanwho don’t need no man!’ In this instance it is clear even to me, that I only
interpret some of what Artemis was to the Greeks and mould her in my own image.
It is a trap I am getting better at catching myself falling into, I hope it
will make me more aware in other work I do as well.
In some ways Artemis is the perfect feminist
mascot. She is a hunter, a role primarily associated with men, she is a virgin,
maintaining her youth and wildness and she wields a powerful weapon in her bow,
she therefore has the capability of protecting herself. This might be why she
is captivating to a modern audience. Recently she was depicted in a TV episode
of the show Supernatural where she was on a mission from her father, hunting down the Titan Prometheus because he had escaped from the punishment Zeus inflicted on him. In the episode she is
recognisable by her weapon of choice, the bow and arrow. However there was one
issue I had with the character, she failed her mission because she was in love
with Prometheus! I was outraged! The creators of the show had completely
disregarded what I would consider to be one of the key characteristics of
Artemis, her virginity and her disregard for men. Her reasons for not falling
for the powers of Aphrodite is made clear in the fifth Homeric Hymn:
‘Nor does
laughter-loving Aphrodite ever tame in love loud-crying Artemis of the golden
bow. For bow and arrows are her joy and slaying wild beasts in the mountains,
and lyres and choruses and piercing cries and shady groves and the city of
righteous men.’
It is here
made clear that Artemis is one of the three goddesses than can resist the powers
of Aphrodite. Artemis does so by choosing hunting, music and the forest over
associations with men. It can be argued that Artemis valued so much over love
and therefore did not have the time or the urge to fall for what so many other
deities and mortals did.
On a side
note, Ivana Petrovic has some interesting thought as to what ‘the city of
righteous men’ might mean ‘One could
perhaps conclude that it is one particular city whose upright men were dear to
Artemis. Judging on the basis of her role in the Iliad, perhaps it is Troy.’
Through
looking at how the Supernatural
episode depicted Artemis, it seems I am not the only one who takes some aspects
of Greek deities and leave other aspects behind to mould an image. When you
compare the two images I have used in this blog post it is easy to see that the
physical appearance of Artemis is very similar in the modern depiction and on
the vase. But there are some aspects of her that has not been translated well
into the episode; this can be a good example of how scholars need to take in
all aspects of a deity to get an apt depiction.
Bibliography:
- Petrovic,
I. () “TransformingArtemis: From the Goddess of the Outdoors to City Goddess,” in The Gods of Ancient Greece: Identities and
Transformations (Edinburgh Leventis Studies), ed. Bremmer, J. N. Edinburgh
University Press: Edinburgh
- Richardson,
N. (2010) Three Homeric Hymns – To Apollo,Hermes, and Aphrodite. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge
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