Artemis and Apollo are psychically connected; Artemis symbolically represents the moon, and Apollo represents the sun. According to Greek Myth Artemis and Apollo were born on an island in secrecy to Leto and Zeus, children of the great Titans. Apollo is known for his patronage of poetry and his connection to the Muses. Artemis is known as the great protectress of children, animals, and virgins. The idea of The Great Mother is buried deep in all humans psyche. The origins of Artemis and Apollo’s name’s have an earlier Anatolian linguistic connection (Beekes). Artemis’ origins are connected to the worship of the Great Goddess (Graves, Gimbutas, The Language of the Goddess), and the Goddess figurine, Venus of Willendorf which is thirty thousand years old illustrates this point. In modern day Artemis and Apollo are classical Greek mythological figures. However, they represent a deep psychological aspect of the collective consciousness that connects us to the Great Mother, the masculine, the feminine, and integrates their qualities. Every man and woman has a spiritual path, conscious or unconscious. Artemis and Apollo represent symbolically and metaphorically, the split of the Great Mother and the desire of union of the masculine and feminine.

The original written concept of the historical Great Mother comes from the poet Hesiod in 7 th century BCE who wrote Earth Gaea, and she was the original mother of all beings, the Titans first and from them the Olympian Gods and Goddesses. Archeologists have found significant evidence of the worship of the Great Mother dated back to 40,000 years ago (Gimbutas, The Language of the Goddess), and according to Robert Graves “the whole of Neolithic Europe...had a remarkably homogenous system of religious ideas, based on the worship of the many titled Mother-goddess, who was also known in Syria and Libya” (13). The Neolithic age is known as the beginning of civilization. Humans had moved out of caves, and were living in community. Humans had made significant advancements; they domesticated animals, cultivated plants, created pottery, and made weaponry (Witcombe). The pottery and paintings that have been excavated by archeologists indicate a strong worship of the Great Mother.

The original concept of The [Old European] Great Mother is one of generative detachment (Downing). She is not the nurturing, loving parent humans crave; she is the creator and destroyer. From her all life begins and to her all life ends.

“The image of the Great Goddess of Life, Death Regeneration in anthropomorphic form with a projection of her powers through insects and animals – bee, butterfly, deer, bear, hare, toad, turtle, hedgehog, and dog- was the outward symbol of a community concerned with the life and death cycle.” (Gimbutas, The Gods and Goddesses of Old Europe, 195).

According to Gimbutas in her book, The Gods and Goddesses of Old Europe, the Great Mother during the upper Neolithic period in Old Europe evolved as civilization became more “domesticated”. She is more androgynous and many of the figurines found from the 5 th century BCE the neck is phallus shaped, “divine bisexuality stresses her absolute power” (196). In contrast the Indo European Great Earth Mother needs her consort the sky God to impregnate her (196).

How did early civilization evolve from the one Goddess and her consort to the Greek concept of a polytheistic society with Zeus, the supreme male God of Olympus, overseeing the world? Pre-Hellenisitc societies characterize an egalitarian, matrilineal culture. The pre-Hellenistic pottery and art from the Aegean and Minoan cultures support this theory (Valaoritis). Ralph Metzner quotes, Gimbutas’ reasoning, “this transformation was not a replacement of one culture by another but a gradual hybridization of two different symbolic systems” (262). Gimbutas’ theory is that around four thousand BCE Kurgan tribes from the South Russian Volga Steppe invade Europe where they worship The Great Mother. The Kurgan’s Gods were sky gods, fierce and cruel. Ne other important aspect, the Kurgans had domesticated the horse. After the initial invasions there is a slow transformation from a matrilineal society to a patriarchal society (Gimbutas, The Language of the Goddess). Over a long period of time and cultural interaction, marriages of different peoples, and blending of myths According to Metzner a hybridization of mythologies occurred as well, “the ancient nature goddess cults were appropriated and twisted for ideological purposes” (263), illustrated by the Greek’s desire for power and the proliferation of the Greek empire.

Greeks first appeared in the Mediterranean around two-thousand BCE at the beginning of the Bronze Age, they were part of an Indo European Race [Kurgan] that migrated over a long period of time (Encyclopedia Britannica Online), invading the matrilineal Aegean and Minoan cultures. Already by this time there has been an intermingling of cultures and mythologies in Central Europe. There is plenty of evidence in the Greek creation story to support the assimilation of The Great Mother into their mythology.

According to Greek creation story, out of Chaos came Erebus, or death, and Night. Out of this Love sprang forth, from love came light and day and then Gaea, The Great Earth Mother. Gaea, herself with no consort, gave birth to Ouranos/Uranus. From these two parents came the Titans. Uranus was afraid of his children because it was prophesied that one would dethrone him. Gaea and her youngest son Cronus overthrew Uranus by cutting off his testicles, taking his power. Cronus married his sister Rhea, and she gave birth six Gods and Goddesses. And once again it was prophesied that one of their offspring would dethrone Cronus. Cronus ate all of his children except for one. Gaea again interferes and replaces the youngest, Zeus, with a stone. Cronos swallows the stone. Meanwhile Zeus is safe on the island of Crete. After long battles with Titans, Giants and other monsters Zeus overthrows his father, Cronos. (Hamilton). Zeus is a cunning leader, during the war the Cyclops gave Zeus lightning bolts and thunder. He eventually becomes supreme ruler of the Gods. Zeus marries his sister Hera. From the original story we can see the power of the Gaea, Great Mother. However, there is a split. One can see the patriarchal system of order from the original Kurgan Race the patriarchal line of Uranus, Cronus, and Zeus. It is also illustrated through Zeus’ mastery of the lightning bolt, a symbol of the sky Gods. Part of the systematic invasions of the Kurgan Race was violence and systematic rape of women. This is exemplified this through Zeus’ many affairs outside his marriage to Hera.

Artemis and Apollo twins of Zeus and Leto, a Titan nymph, were born on an isolated island; they had to be hidden from Hera’s vengeance. Hera, Zeus’ wife and twin sister; Hera became the persona of the dark, warped side of the Great Mother, she is portrayed as petty, vengeful and jealous by the time the Iliad and Odyssey are written. In pre-Hellenistic times Hera was worshiped as the Great Mother by the Arcadians (Graves). Artemis was born first and according to myth she assisted in the birth of her twin Apollo, who was seven months old when born (Downing). Apollo never married, yet consorted with many. Artemis never married and is considered to be virginal. However, the meaning of “virgin” Goddess is different today than its meaning three thousand years ago; in Greek society it meant, truth, autonomy, purity.

According to myth when Artemis is three years old sitting on her father’s lap she asks for bows and arrows, eternal virginity, as many names as her brother, thirty nymphs, and a host of other gifts. Her father proudly bestowed all these gifts and more to his beautiful daughter. Artemis, along with her sister Athena become the original fathers’ daughters. Artemis is Daddy’s little girl, and Athena is Zeus’ intellectual and warrior partner. Artemis will be Zeus’ little girl for eternity. However, the betrayal by the father eventually transpires.

To illustrate the betrayal of the Father, there are two versions of the story of Callisto. Callisto was one of Artemis’ nymphs. All of Artemis’ nymphs were required to be chaste, like Artemis. Zeus seduces [rapes] Callisto, one of Artemis’ and impregnates her. Artemis sees that Callisto is with child and turns her into a bear. Artemis’ pack of dogs almost kills Callisto, when Zeus saves her by placing her in the heaven as the constellation Callisto or the bear (Graves). According to Graves the earlier version of the myth is that Zeus tried to seduce his daughter and she transforms herself into a bear to escape her father. Artemis truly becomes the self-sufficient Goddess. Nature becomes Artemis’ playground, free “to follow her own inner values” (Bolen 36). She is at home in the natural world. Artemis is the protector of animals, and children. She is the Goddesses of childbirth partially because she came out of Leto’s womb, and immediately assisted in the nine day, laborious birth of her twin Apollo.

Leto experienced great pain and was in labor for many days with Apollo, her second twin. Artemis assisted in Apollo’s birth. Apollo emerged as a seven month old baby, and Gods grow up quickly. Four days later Apollo was given a bow and arrow made by Hepaheastus, the God of and off he went to conquer and explore (Graves). According Graves during the classical period in Greece Apollo’s domain was the arts and sciences: music, poetry, philosophy, astronomy, mathematics, and science. He becomes the symbol of the sun, Light. Apollo also fought against anything uncivilized. However this contradicts earlier versions of myth, Apollo’s numerous affairs with women, consensual and rape. One of the more disturbing stories about Apollo is his desecration of the great Python and his seizing of the great Oracle at Delphi. Both the Python and the Oracle of Delphi are sacred to the Mother Earth. Yet, he and Artemis brutally punished or killed any person who insulted or hurt their mother, Leto. Apollo is a contradiction, while his twin sister Artemis tries to heal the wounded masculine. Apollo is trying to find his lost connection to the Great Mother.

Some of Artemis’ symbols are the deer, bear, moon, bees. According to Marija Gimbutas in The Language of the Goddess, Artemis is a reincarnation of The Great Mother:

Minoan frescoes and seals of the 16 th century BC reveal that the Life-giver is not only a goddess of child birth, the ancestress of Artemis Eileithyia, Giver of Birth, but is the incarnation of the fertility of Nature. She is the Queen of the Mountains portrayed standing on the mountain top and she is Mistress of the Animals (109).

If Artemis is indeed ancestress of the Great Mother why does she need a twin-- to fill the void of the all powerful Great Mother in a patriarchal society. One of the initial stages of the heroine’s journey is to identify with the masculine. When Artemis is just three years old she wants as to be like her brother Apollo, and she asks her father for many of the same possessions that Apollo has received, a bow and arrow and as many names as he has been given. Artemis wants to be seen as equal to her brother in a patriarchal culture. Zeus gives her everything she asks for, and later betrays her. Apollo does not have to ask his father for anything; he is given a bow and arrows. He is given rule of the sun, and he takes what he wants. Initially Apollo embodies Artemis’ masculine, although, Apollo, too, will betray Artemis.

Apollo is offended by Artemis’ deep love for the hunter Orion. Artemis has taken a vow of chastity. The story is:

One day Apollo saw Orion as he reached the sea, his head just above the water. Apollo then found Artemis some distance away, pointed to a dark object in the ocean [Orion], and said she could not hit it. Goaded by her brother’s challenge and not knowing that she was aiming at the head of Orion, she let an arrow fly that killed him. (Bolen 48)

This is how Orion became a constellation; Artemis was so heartbroken she placed him in the heavens. There are two aspects of this story, one it furthers the patriarchal agenda, in pre-Hellenisitc era Orion would have been Artemis’ consort; two, the no one would question or challenge the Great Mother taking a consort.

How do Apollo and Artemis heal the wounded parts of themselves? As stated earlier Apollo becomes the champion of the arts and sciences. He loves playing his lyre and writing poetry claiming his creative feminine. He also becomes the sun God. In one story Phaeton Apollo’s son tries to control Apollo’s chariot, which pulls the sun around the world. Phaeton is neither matured nor strong enough to control the chariot, the sun flies to close to the earth an d begins to scorch her skin and kill nature and people. Apollo has to make the ultimate sacrifice and kill his son. He asks his father Zeus to strike the chariot with a lightning bolt destroying the chariot and his son, while saving the world. Apollo in his sacrifice truly becomes the Sun God shedding light on the world, following the classic hero’s journey. How does his twin, Artemis, become Goddess of the Moon?

As we know at three years old Artemis wanted to be a virginal Goddess. Yet, she was desirous of her brother’s many names and weapons, and wanted to be as powerful as her brother. How did she accomplish this by her own volition? As stated earlier Artemis is betrayed by both her father and brother. Artemis transforms herself into a bear to escape her father’s sexual advances. From this action she declares herself separate from her Father. Artemis kills Orion, albeit accidentally, afterwards she is forced to confront her shadow. The man she loved “was a casualty of her competitive nature” (Bolen 48). Through the process of the descent and ascent Artemis takes her rightful place Queen of the Woods, and Goddess of the Moon. She no longer needs the patriarchal consciousness to determine her path.

Both Artemis and Apollo are at first young and immature. Apollo follows his philandering father’s footsteps and Artemis is Daddy’s little girl. Both twins at first carry the wounded masculine and feminine from their origins. Zeus’ affair with Leto laid the ground for the original abandonment. Artemis and Apollo had strong identification with their Titan mother, each protecting her and fiercely defending her honor, sometimes together; Artemis is the only Goddess known in Greek mythology to protect her mother.

Leto was a Titan, her grandmother was Gaea. Artemis and Apollo represent the declining connection to the Great Mother. The stories of Apollo and Artemis represent the patriarchal Greek culture’s split in consciousness, separating the masculine and the feminine. Artemis and Apollo represent the collective aspects of sun/light and moon/darkness of the Great Mother. Artemis lives in the “woods”, the dark underbrush. Apollo lives in the outer world, the light. As twins they represent the split of The Androgynous Great Mother that represents all aspects of the regenerative life cycle, by the patriarchal structure, and they metaphorically symbolize the schism of the masculine and the feminine and the desire for union through their birth as twins.

 

Works Cited

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---. The Language of the Goddess. San Francisco: Harper, 1989.

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Valaoritis, Nanos. “The Cosmic Conflict of Male and Female in Geek Mythology”. From The Realm of Ancestors; An Anthology in Honor of Marija Gimbutas. Ed. Joan Marler. Manchester: Knowledge, Ideas & Trends, 1997.

Witcombe, Christopher. “The Venus of Willendorf”. Art History Resources on the Web. 2004. 12 Aug 2009. <http://witcombe.sbc.edu/willendorf/>