Final Myth:
Artemis was a lovely princess who is known as the goddess of the moon. No one in Crete can beat the beauty of Artemis, since her “moonlight beauty” is the glorious light that shines from the moon. One night, Artemis walks quietly to the forest and sees the wonderful shine in the dark blue sky. She hears the tree limbs moving back and forth and wind making a beautiful sound out of the air. As Artemis appreciates nature, she gradually sees a movement towards green grass. When she approaches closer, it was a boy named Orion, who was a handsome gigantic mortal and had the excellence of capturing and hunting wild animals in Crete. Artemis was impressed by his hunting skills and began to spend time hunting in company with Orion. As days progress, Artemis and Orion treasure their friendship and fell in love. Orion admired Artemis as the beautiful crescent moon and made her entrance to his world of love. Orion had no patience and proposed to Artemis. When Artemis heard this, she was happy however, she needed time to discuss their relationship with her parents. Artemis is the daughter of Zeus, the king of the gods and sky who rules the law and order. Artemis decides to tell her father about the love of Orion. When Zeus hears this, in anger he specifies to her that nobody in Crete is allowed to mingle with mortals and goddesses. Since Orion is mortal, Zeus didn’t accept this decision of Artemis and told her to reject Orion’s proposal. Artemis couldn’t go against her father’s wish, so she decides to reject his love. Artemis tries to meet up with Orion in fear. She stated that she isn’t interested in the relationship with him. Orion is in tears trying to convince her that without her, his life would be incomplete. Artemis in tears couldn’t control herself and purposely rejected Orion with anger. Artemis stated how he can’t live with a mortal and forget his love. Orion couldn’t handle the pain and became outrageous which led him to tell a curse to Artemis. Orion cursed Artemis that she would lose her beauty forever, she would never get married and become a pure virgin. Lastly, she won’t feel any sexual attraction towards anyone and to become an asexual woman. As soon as he stated his curse, he realized that his curse would ruin her life. Orion cried for forgiveness. Artemis valued her friendship and love of Orion so much that she decided to accept the curse. With a smile and tears in her eyes, she stated that if that’s your wish, let it happen. Orion’s curse was so powerful, as years appeared, Crete society avoided Artemis away for being unmarried women and being asexual. Zeus wanted the society and Orion to regret the perception of Artemis by granting her goddess of virginity and purity. Society and Orion cried for forgiveness. Artemis smiled and accepted their forgiveness and everyone worshipped her as the goddess woman Artemis.
Final Myth Analysis
Based on my myth, I chose the aetiological myth of sexual orientation. The main point of this myth is that sexual orientation has been demonstrated as a significant concept in greek mythology. In the original myth, Artemis is the ideal icon of being an asexual woman since Artemis swore to be granted wishes from Zeus at the age of three(Friz, Brill’s New Pauly, n.d). For instance, one of the wishes was to never get married and to remain a virgin and be pure (Smith, Encyclopedia Mythica, n.d). Artemis wanted to be granted one of the wishes since it symbolizes her being a powerful independent person (Smith, Encyclopedia Mythica, n.d). Despite being an asexual woman in ancient mythology, it demonstrates that she was chaste by choice “asexual”(Smith, Encyclopedia Mythica, n.d). In the ancient myth, it is viewed that Artemis’s expression of her sexuality as “asexual” was her choice and was not decided or forced by society. However, the topic of sexual orientation, for instance, asexuality is a struggle for humans since everyone wants to be accepted and not be judged by society. I chose this topic of sexual orientation since it displays the significance in humans and goddesses since it is a part of individual identity which I discussed in the composition of the myth. Based on the original myth, I have included many facts that are similar to my myth, to make a great connection towards the storytelling.
Based on my myth, I have included limited similarities and a lot of differences to make my story more dramatic and thrilling about the character of Artemis, Orion and Zeus. For instance, I focused on the identity, history about relationship and representation or symbol of these three characters in my myth. Based on the character Artemis, in the original myth, she is known as the daughter of Zeus and Leto. Artemis is known for the power of being the goddess of the moon, hunting, childbirth and women(Artemis, Theoi Greek Mythology, n.d). I chose Artemis as the main character in my myth since she is well related to my story in discussing the importance of sexual orientation such as asexuality. Based on my myth, I didn’t include the history of Artemis being the protector of young girls and a goddess in bringing diseases to women or cleanse them whenever she wanted (Šimon, Greek Gods, n.d). The reason why I didn’t include this history of Artemis because I wanted to focus more on Artemis being a beautiful princess and the goddess of the moon who loved to go hunting at night time. By being a hunter, it changed her life into a tragedy. Moreover, I didn’t include Artemis being vengeful and impulsive since I wanted to make my character a quiet and innocent woman who was able to live a normal life like other women. Moreover, Artemis being vengeful and impulsive shows a side of masculinity that I felt wouldn’t suit my myth(Šimon, Greek Gods, n.d). At the end of my myth, I wanted to make my character Artemis strong of being an independent woman since she was able to risk decisions and accept being true and different from others in my story (Šimon, Greek Gods, n.d).
Based on the character Orion, he was a big turning point in this myth, since he cursed Artemis because she rejected his love. The curse was so powerful that it changed her identity and perspective of others in Crete. This section of my myth has brought a lot of contrast based on the original myth. However, the relationship between Orion and Artemis has existed in both real and own myth. I borrowed the character” Orion” since he was a significant part of Artemis’s original myth. For instance, in the original myth, Orion is a great companion hunter to Artemis. He is known for being a good-looking giant who can walk. This statement reveals that Orion is very good at hunting and killing wild animals (Orion, Theoi Project, n.d). In the original myth, Artemis loved Orion and came near marrying him. Artemis's twin brother, Apollo was jealous of the relationship since he was Artemis’s hunting companion. Apollo took this hard and when he scolded Artemis, it brought no results. On seeing the head of Orion who was swimming a long way off, he wagered that she couldn't hit with her arrows the black object in the sea. Since she wished to be called an expert in that skill, she shot an arrow and pierced the head of Orion. The waves brought his slain body to the shore, and Artemis, grieving greatly that she had struck him, and mourning his death with many tears, and put him among the constellations (Pseudo-Hyginus, Astronomica 2. 34). In another version of the myth, Apollo sent the scorpion to Orion and he was stung to death by a scorpion which Artemis became upset and remained like a virgin lifelong (Homer, Odyssey,9-12).
Based on this myth, it demonstrates how Orion sacrificed his life for Artemis and had a big impact on her life. Based on this original myth, it made it valuable in borrowing the character, Orion. Therefore, the character, Orion was kept in the original myth and my myth since Artemis had an emotional connection with Orion, the power of love and friendship. In my myth, I made Orion curse Artemis of being an asexual woman, never get married and lose her beauty. This is because I wanted to bring a new contrast of Orion putting Artemis in a critical situation because of her father Zeus. I wanted to make an indirect message, related to human life. For instance, if a woman is asexual, it is hard to find a relationship, there is a perception in the society that if there are asexual, it would be hard for them to get married. This leads society to push or avoid having social connections with them. Moreover, the loss of beauty is mentioned as a curse since people give more importance to beauty than personality in today’s society. Therefore, Orion represents the society, wherefore, Artemis represents asexual women who are suffering in the society.
In my myth, I borrowed the character, Zeus, since he is the father of Artemis. Based on the original myth, the identity of Zeus is the king of the gods, sky, weather, law and order, and so forth (Zeus, Theoi Greek Mythology, n.d). This demonstrates that Zeus is a very powerful character in how he rules his world and other goddesses in ancient greek. In my myth, I wanted the rejection of Orion to be strong. I used Artemis by making her father depend on the decision of love since he is more powerful than Artemis. As a result, in the original myth, Zeus didn’t accept the love of Orion since he believes that no mortals are to sacrifice or mingle with gods. Moreover, Artemis can’t go against her father’s wish since Zeus believes that no god can escape or deny the will him and can only command and order the goddess (Homer, Odysseus, 92-147). This original myth is so effective that I used that example for my myth. Based on this character, I wanted to bring another indirect message to humans and society. This is because we humans are entitled to following and obeying parent’s rules, we can’t make our own choices or decisions in our life. Based on sexual orientation, parents expect us to be entitled to be society’s expectations. Therefore, these examples made it very effective in changing Artemis’s life. However, I made Zeus realize his mistake in making her the goddess of virginity and purity. This is because, this is another indirect message that in today’s society, humans are now stepping out of their shells in establishing their individuality of who they are, for instance, asexuality. The LGBT community is established to help a person to express their sexuality with freedom and acceptance. This demonstrates the significance of society understanding the concept of sexual orientation. Based on sexual orientation, asexuality relates to virginity and purity. This is because, before the years of the goddess in ancient greek, asexual was an example of virginity and purity, however, it wasn’t discussed or defined by the term asexuality. I wanted to include these terms in my myth since, in the original myth, Artemis is known as a powerful and independent woman, being equal to men and decided her chastity. Therefore, her sexual orientation was her identity and it is part of who Artemis is in ancient greek.
Based on my myth, I had difficulty in creating a powerful aetiological myth of sexual orientation. Since my previous myth had little importance on the topic of sexual orientation which made I change the plot of my myth. Thus, these changes help to express the importance of sexual orientation.
References
Homer, Odyssey 9-12
Homer, Odysseus, 92-147
Pseudo-Hyginus, Astronomica, 2. 34
Atsma, Aaron J.“ARTEMIS - Greek Goddess of Hunting & Wild Animals.” Theoi Greek Mythology, Theoi Project, 2017, www.theoi.com/Olympios/Artemis.html.
Accessed March 29, 2021
Atsma, Aaron J. “ORION.” ORION - Boeotian Giant of Greek Mythology, Theoi Project, 2017, www.theoi.com/Gigante/GiganteOrion.html.Accessed March 30, 2021
Fritz , Graf, and Ley Anne. “Artemis.” My.access - University of Toronto Libraries Portal, Brill’s New Pauly, 2021. referenceworks-brillonline-com.myaccess.library.utoronto.ca/search?s.f.s2_parent=s.f.book.brill's-new-pauly &search-go=&s.q=artemis.Accessed March 30, 2021.
Šimon, Borut. “Artemis.” Artemis, Goddess of Hunting and Wilderness - Greek Gods, Greek-Gods.org, 2018, www.greek-gods.org/olympian-gods/artemis.php.Accessed March 29, 2021.
Smith, William Smith. “Artemis.” Artemis | Facts, Information, and Mythology, Encyclopedia Mythica, 3 Mar. 1997, pantheon.org/articles/a/artemis.html.Accessed March 29, 2021
Atsma, Aaron J. “ZEUS.” - “ZEUS Greek God of the Sky, King of the Gods”, Theoi Project, 2017, www.theoi.com/Gigante/GiganteOrion.html.Accessed March 30, 2021