Artemis Awaits! Trivia Quiz

Answer: Bear

The bear is an important animal associated with Artemis. Indeed, many etymologists believe her name comes from the Greek arctos (bear); ark-temnis meant "bear-sanctuary" or more fully "she who protects the bear sanctuary." In her cult of worship, participants in the ritual would dress as bears, and in some areas she was worshipped as the Great She-Bear.

[FT Category: Animals]

Answer: Temple at Ephesus

Thee Temple of Arthemis at Ephesus (located in present-day Turkey) was dedicated to an ancient, local form of the goddess Artemis, depicted as a Mother Earth/fertility deity rather than the virgin goddess of Greek myth. The temple (also known as Arthemision) was built on a sacred site (temenos) that was much older than the temple itself. The first temple was destroyed by a flood, while the second one - dating from the 6th century BC - was destroyed in a fire set by a man named Herostratus in 356 BC (according to tradition, on the same night as Alexander the Great was born). The temple was rebuilt after Alexander's death, and survived for over 600 years, when it was closed by the Christians, and its stones were used in the construction of other buildings - such as the Basilica of Hagia Sophia in Constantinople (Istanbul).

[information by LadyNym]
[FT Category: World/Seven Wonders]

Answer: both of these

As a little girl, Artemis asked at her father Zeus's knee for a bow and arrow made by the Cyclops, and she is often depicted as an archer in painting and sculpture. Artemis practiced with her bow and arrow first by shooting at trees and then at wild animals. In Sparta, she was worshipped as Artemis Aeginaea, meaning wielder of the javelin. At Naupactus (in modern West Greece) there was a temple containing a white marble statue of her throwing a javelin.

[FT Category: Sports]

Answer: hunting

As an archer, Artemis was the patroness of the hunt. She got her hunting dogs from Pan in the forest of Arcadia.

Paradoxically, however, she is also regarded as a protector of wildlife, and harshly punished those who killed animals for objectionable reasons, and many areas were set aside as sanctuaries in which hunting was forbidden. So in a sense she is the goddess of hunting and wildlife management, and Modern Greeks view her an early pioneer and patroness of environmental education. The worship of Artemis is in largely responsible for many of the conservation efforts of Classical Greece, as large parts of the Greek landscape were conserved.

[FT Category: Hobbies/Outdoor Activities]

Answer: Moon

Artemis is sometimes specifically associated with the waxing crescent moon, with her bow symbolizing this. When portrayed as a moon goddess, Artemis wore a long robe and sometimes a veil covered her head. In Roman times she merged with Diana and Luna (the personification of the moon) and would be depicted with a crown of a crescent moon as Luna had been.

The asteroid 105 Artemis, the Artemis crater in the Mare Imbrium on the Moon, and the Artemis Chasma and Artemis Corona on the Aphrodite Terra continent of Venus have all been named after the virgin goddess.

[FT Category: Science/Astronomy]

Answer: True

This is another example of the paradoxes embodied by Artemis. As a virgin goddess she represented female independence and considered herself equal to the male gods. At the same time, the Fates made her a midwife from the moment she was born: she was first out of her mother's womb and assisted in the delivery of her twin brother, Apollo. Artemis presided over the biological transitions of girls and women from before puberty up to first childbirth, and she is linked to fertility even though she had no children herself, but rather conserved her fertility to give to her followers.

[FT Category: General/Family Life]

Answer: wings

In the oldest of Archaic Greek art, Artemis is portrayed as Potnia Theron ("Queen of the Beasts"), which is specifically a winged goddess holding in her hands a leopard and either a stag or a lion. In Classical Greek art, Artemis is typically a young, tall, and slim huntress, clad in a short skirt, with hunting boots, a quiver, a bow, and arrows. Often, she is in the shooting pose and accompanied by a hunting dog or stag.

FT Category: [Humanities/Art]

Answer: pre-pubescent girls

In Attica, at the ancient city of Brauron, was one of the most famous sites. In the rite of arketia girls who had not reached menarche danced as she-bears, arktoi, wearing masks and sometimes bearskins. Even younger girls might have other roles in the ritual, such as arrhephoros (sacred basket carrier). The myth behind this is that two Athenian men killed a bear sacred to Artemis. The goddess threatened plague unless the daughters of Athens and elsewhere were consecrated to her once every five years. When bears had become scarce by the 5th century, a short saffron-yellow dress was substituted.

[FT Category: Religion]

Answer: Hesiod

The poet Hesiod is thought to have been active at the same time as Homer, between 750 and 650 BC. As its title implies, the "Astronomia" was mostly about constellations: one of the fragments that have survived in quotations contained in other works relates the story of Orion and his death from a scorpion sting.

As a virgin, Artemis was the object of affection and desire for many men and gods, but only the huntsman Orion had managed to win her heart (although she remained chaste). There are great variations on the story of Orion. In Hesiod's version, Orion threatens to kill every beast on Earth, and Gaea kills him with the scorpion. In another variant, Artemis accidentally kills him. In either case, Zeus makes Orion a constellation at Artemis and Leto's request.

The Roman goddess Diana was associated with the Greek Artemis very early on, and by Horace's time it was conventional to translate Artemis into Latin as Diana, as he did in his "Carmina" ("Odes").

[question and 1st paragraph by LadyNym]
[FT Category: Literature]

Answer: a painter

Italian Baroque painter Artemisia Gentileschi (1593-1656) was indeed as strong and fierce as the goddess she was named after. Born in Rome from an artistic family (her father Orazio was also a renowned painter), she showed her talent from an early age. Unfortunately, life was not easy for a young female artist: at the age of 18, she was raped by her tutor, Agostino Tassi, whom she expected to marry. When he reneged on his promise, Artemisia and her father pressed charges against him. Artemisia's trial was an ordeal for the young woman, who was tortured to verify her testimony, but at the end Tassi was exiled from Rome. Artemisia went on to a very successful career as a painter, which took her to the English court as well as to other important Italian cities. Her paintings, noted for her dramatic use of chiaroscuro, often show strong female figures, such as the Biblical heroine Judith.

[question and information by LadyNym]
[FT category: People/Famous]