Customer Reviews

Artemis: Virgin Goddess of the Sun & Moon--A Comprehensive Guide to the Greek Goddess of the Hunt, Her Myths, Powers & Mysteries

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I have had many dreams that someone would dedicate the time and energy that it takes to write a book on Artemis. Sorita D'Este has done just this and she has excelled at this challenging job.

This book provides all the information a modern pagan priestess or priest working with this diverse goddess could hope for. Historical information on festivals, practices and sacred temples, as well as sanctuaries, sacred animals and titles are provided.

The information is presented in an easy to understand and use format, but it is still rigorous by academic standards (providing sources throughout) and would be of interest to modern pagans and students of greek history and culture alike.

There is not an ounce of doubt in my mind that this book will be a book that you will use time and time again (as I am already doing) for drawing inspiration and information when working with this warrior goddess.

The arguments for Artemis being a Goddess associated with both the Sun and the Moon is clearly presented and adds an additional dimension towards understanding this ancient woodland goddess who was known to roam the mountains in search of prey with her thirteen hunting dogs. Her myths, associations with other gods, goddesses and mortals are all clearly and precisely explored, together with accounts (cross referenced showing the different accounts by ancient writers) of the various myths in which she took a prominent role.

Love Artemis? Hooked on the Greek Myths? This book is a must have!

Artemis is many things and yet she is often portrayed as simply the huntress of the New Moon. This book explores and brings together her many myths and stories, her many powers and guiles...

Artemis is a complex Goddess and one (now that I have read the book) I would certainly not class as a fluffy Goddess which I was lead to believe before. The information is carefully documented, footnoted (rather than those awful endnotes of a lot of academic books) and is written in a lucid manner. The author certainly knows her subject.

Friends of mine have been fortunate enough to attend a workshop with Sorita on the Greek Goddess Hekate and said that it was the or at the very least one of the, most enlightening workshops they have ever attended. She is a priestess of the Wicca who draws on ancient religions blending it with her own work in the tradition. She is also a scholar of ancient religion and does not allow her own religious and magical interests cloud her judgement, which is very clear from this volume. There is none of the usual pagan biased to be found here!

Highly recommended to people who work with Artemis in their own ceremonies and equally recommended to people who have an interest in ancient Greek mythology. Pagans who work with Greek deities will benefit in particular as the information is laid out in a way that makes it easy to use as a reference book when writing and preparing for ceremonies. There are lists of titles (with both the greek and english translations), there are chapters on the various ancient sanctuaries and temples to Artemis with descriptions of the rites which took place there.

What struck me in particular was the many references to young girls participating in the rituals, as well as the emphasis on twins as being sacred at Artemis' sanctuaries (Artemis and her brother Apollo were twins, so it makes sense really). So this book may provide some ideas for mothers wishing to prepare their daughters for adulthood through the use of ancient ceremonies.

Like I said, recommended and highly so. Thus *****

I wasn't sure what to expect when I ordered this book from Amazon...this isn't really a book that is meant to be read straight through as an independent work...rather, it seems to me upon finishing it, that the greatest benefit is as a reference. If on were stumped for the source of a particular detail of Artemis, this would be the book to go to. As such, there is a great deal of repeated information that was annoying to me since I did read it straight through, but the repetition did serve a purpose in helping cement some details of Artemis in my memory...as with Athene, Artemis is a goddess largely unknown to me, so it was not totally pointless to have read the book from cover to cover. At nearly 25.00 for this book, I don't know how many would really want to shell out the bucks for a book that is just over 100 pages. I'm glad to have it and would recommend it to others it has solid information and would be a fine addition to any pagan library.

This book has a wonderful collection of ancient literary sources for the study of Artemis, but these are not presented with meaningful context. Obscure references of minor aspects are given the same emphasis as major cult epithets, leaving the reader with a fairly skewed view of Artemis in ancient Greece. Epithets are given with a pronunciation guide, but the pronunciation is modern Greek, not ancient Greek, which is quite different, and that difference is neither acknowledged nor explained.

All in all it's not a bad choice for the casual reader, but people who want to pursue a more in depth and well balanced study of Artemis in the ancient world should look at Larson, Cole, Lefkowitz, and Blundell instead.

Having a great love for all things Greek and being a practioner of Wicca, I saw this book at a festival recently and decided to give it a go. I always thought of Artemis as one of the gentler goddesses, but this book quickly showed me that there was quite a bit more to Artemis than looking after animals and aiding in childbirth.

This multifaceted goddess' mysteries, myths, festivals and ancient titles are all explored in this book. Nice illustrations too and a very helpful index and bibliography at the end.

A Lovely Book.

Sorita d' Este has a knack for writing informative books about her subject and making it both enjoyable, easy to understand and read. I breezed through it yesterday morning and after having learned a lot about Artmenis I was still wanting more. Damn good book if you ask me. Then again all of Sorita's books are damn good.

Artemis is the virgin huntress who roams the night time hills in search of animals to hunt like stags, boars and fish. She is the the daughter of Zeus and the Titaness Leto. Her twin brother is Apollo, the sun god and the poet. Zeus, her father, is rather lusty and tends to father lots of children with goddesses, Titans and humans. Hera gets rather jealous. In a fit of jealously she sends out a mighty python to pursue Leto. She gets know rest until she arrives on the island of Delos which was set us by Zeuss. Artemis has an easy birth but Apollo's birth is rather difficult. So Artemis helps. Hence she is the Goddess of unmarried virgins, midwife of the gods and the moon goddess.

Artemis has no need for love she never wants to get married or have relation. Those who choose to follow her must remain virgins as well. That goes for the priests at her temples too. Artemis is always surrounded by nymphs who are shorter then her. The maiden that choose to follow her make an enticing target for mortals and men I guess they want a taste of the forbidden fruit. Two thing happen when the maiden are pursued. If the man is successful and achieves his goal either through rape or seduction, Artemis kills or banishes the deflowered nymph or maiden. If a follower is running from a man they can count on being turned into a spring, river or reed instrument. Artemis can be rather vindictive and vengeful as is Nike.

Upon being born one of the first assignments given to Apollo and Artemis is to slay the python who pursued Leto. They kill the python and Apollo gets the Python's old temple and prophecies are issued forth from their. Anyone who insults Artemis or any of her colleague can be sure to experience her wrath. King Agamenon boasted he could kill more animals than she could. His fleet of ship was held up from an invasion until he made amends. He also had to sacrifice his daughter because a pregnant animal was killed in his kingdom he had to sacrifice his daughter. She would later become a priestess and then steal one of her wooden statues. Perhaps most famous is her incident with Orion who was unlucky enough to view her bathing naked in stream. He was turned into a dear and had his own hounds set upon him. Other versions of the story have Apollo tricking her into shooting an arrow at him when he swims in the Ocean. Adonis the one who loved Aphrodite was killed for boasting against her as well. This would make Artemis an enemy Aphrodite.

Artemis like all the Greek deities had her share of friends and enemies. Most notable would be Aphrodite and on this I could go into more detail but I will let you read the book. She has a love hate relationship with Zeus's wife where in one time she saves Hera and in another two times she is defeated by Hera. She has alliances with Ares, Dionysus, Pan and Hekate. Once again if you want to find out more read the book. There are two other virgin goddesses , Hestia and Athena.

Her favorite animals are the bear, boar, dog and dear among other. You can hunt them but do not kill her dancing bear or one of the females will have to take it's place. The story at Sparta is heavy. Two spartan one time had a fight at one of her abandoned shrines and for a certain time after that live sacrifices were required then the sentence was lowered to whipping a boy prior to the onset of adulthood and smearing the altar with blood. This carried on until Roman times.

There is more to tell for sure but dear reader you must take that journey yourself. I just wish the book was a bit longer. Perhaps if there is ever a reprint she could throw in a s sample ritual . Sorita is awesome. There is a great bibliography in the back and everything is well footnoted

Informative and a book I will continue to use, but I was looking for something else.

This was an excellent find! It is a fascinating read and I couldn't put it down!