The Other Olympians- Girls- Artemis

Artemis/Diana- goddess of hunting, wild animals, the moon, virginity, childbirth and maidens. A virgin goddess, she was the daughter of Zeus and the Titaness Leto and twin of Apollo. Immediately after being borned she acted as a midwife for her brother's birth.

Callimachus says she asked Zeus for virginity, received her bow from Hephaestus and the Cyclops, her dogs from Pan and captured golden horned deer for her chariot herself. She was a goddess of childbirth and a protector of young females until they were old enough to marry. She could also bring disease and sudden death to all women. She was also the patron goddess of the Amazons.

In the myth of Persephone, she and Athena were given as Persephone's companions when Persephone was abducted by Hades. During the war of the Gigantes she slayed Aigaion.

She was fiercely protective of her and her companions' chastity. Alpheus/Alpheios a river god fell in love with her and tried to woo her. When he failed he planned to abduct her but the goddess was suspicious and so covered herself with mud so that he did not recognise her. Sipriotes, a mortal, saw her bathing and was turned into a girl as punishment. The hunter Actaeon/Aktaion, a grandson of Apollo, also saw her bathing and she turned him into a stag as punishment. He was hunted and killed by his own dogs. Chiron made a statue of Actaeon for the grieving hounds. Hesiod and Apollodorus  say he rivalled Zeus for Semele, who was his aunt, sister to his mother Autonoe. In another version of the tale he boasted that he was a better hunter than Artemis and met the same fate. The Aloadai/Aloadae were two giant brothers who planned to abduct Artemis and Hera for their wives. Artemis turned into a deer and jumped between them, when they tried to shoot her they killed each other.

Orion was a giant huntsman, either a son of Poseidon and the princess Euryale, or a creation of Poseidon, Zeus and Hermes in response to Hyrieus asking for sons. Some sources say Artemis killed him for trying to rape her or seduce her companion Opis. Other sources say Gaia or Apollo killed him with a scorpion or that Apollo tricked Artemis into killing him. These sources say Artemis had fallen in love with the hunter and that Apollo wanted him dead to protect his sister's chastity.

Callisto/Kallisto was a companion of Artemis' raped or seduced by Zeus when he took Artemis' form. When Artemis noticed she was pregnant she turned her into a bear.

She was quick to punish people who offended her, her brother or her mother. She killed Leimos for refusing to give her mother sanctuary when she was pregnant and for killing his brother to hide his guilt, and she and her brother killed the giant Tityos for trying to rape their mother. When the Queen Niobe boasted that was superior to Leto because she had fourteen children, Artemis killed the girls and Apollo the boys as punishment, although some say that two were spared. Niboe's husband Amphion killed himself in grief and Niobe turned to stone.

Artemis from Xena: Warrior Princess

Chione was a lover of Apollo and Hermes and boasted of being more beautiful than Artemis, as a result Artemis killed her for her hubris. Koronis was a princess loved by Apollo who betrayed him by sleeping with someone else, Artemis killed her as a result. Aura, a virgin goddess of the breeze was a hunting companion of Artemis who was said to have claimed Artemis' curves too womanly for her to be a virgin. In vengeance with the help of Nemesis Artemis brought about Aura's rape by Dionysus. She went mad, had twins and devoured one, whilst the other was saved by Artemis. Other sources say Dionysus loved her and Aphrodite inspired her to love him back but when she gave birth to twins she went mad and killed one.

Ankaios was a prince who boasted that not even Artemis could stop him from slaying a boar, so she had the boar slay him. Broteas was a prince and brother to the ill-fated Niobe, he boasted he was a better hunter than Artemis and she drove him mad as a result and he threw himself into a fire.

King Agamemnon brought about her wrath by killing a deer in her sacred grove, as a result when he went to sail to Troy there were no winds. So he had to sacrifice his daughter Iphigenia to her. At the last minute Artemis switched the girl for a deer.

During the Trojan War she fought on the side of the Trojans. Hera beat her with her own quiver and sent her crying to Zeus during this war.

Artemis could also show favour to people as well as vengeance. She gifted Daphne the ability to shoot straight, gave dogs to Kyrene/Cyrene, who may have been her brother's lover and Prokris/Procris a spear that always struck and a dog that never failed to catch its prey. In the Bibliotheca it is actually Minos who gives Prokris these things for curing him of his wife's curse.

Aspalis hung herself to escape rape and was turned into a statue by the goddess or her body simply disappeared. She was mentioned in Melite (Malta) as a hunting goddess, and was also a Semitic hunting goddess. Arethusa was a Nereid who bathed in the river of Alpheus causing him to fall in love with her. She wanted to remain a virgin servant of Artemis and so Artemis hid her in a cloud and then turned her into a spring to save her. Britomartis//Diktynna/Dicte was a Minonian hunting goddess or a nymph or a daughter of Zeus and Carme/Karme who to escape rape from Minos either threw herself into fishermen's nets or was rescued by Artemis and became her companion. Polyboea was a woman who died a young virgin and was taken either by Artemis to be a companion or by Artemis, Athena and Aphrodite with her brother, Hyacinth/Hyacinthus, a lover of Apollo, to the heavens. She also gave the princess Philonoe/Phylonoe immortality. Erigone, a daughter of Clytemnestra and Aegisthus, she was saved from being slain by her older half-brother Orestes by Artemis who made her a priestess.

Pirene was a nymph who had a son with Poseidon, her son, Cenchrias, was killed by Artemis accidentally, she was so agrieved that Artemis turned into a fountain. The fountain became sacred to the Muses and is said to be where Bellerophon tamed Pegasus. The sisters of Meleager she turned into guineafowl when they were grieving over his death.

She is usually portrayed as a young huntress with a dog or deer, holding a bow and arrow and dressed in a short tunic. Sometimes she is depicted with a crescent moon. Her animals are hunting dogs, guineafowl, deer, buzzard hawk, bear and boars and her symbols are the bow and arrow, and the crescent moon. Plants sacred to her are the asphodel, palm, cypress and amaranth.

She was linked to the moon titaness Selene and was occasionally given as part of a trinity with Selene and Hecate.

Her Roman counterpart is Diana, a goddess of the moon, hunt and birthing, who had a trinity with Egeria a nymph linked with childbirth, and Viribus, the Roman equivalant of Hippolytus, Theseus' ill-fated son. The Romans believed that Artemis asked Asclepius to resurrect him as he was a loyal subject of hers. Diana was initially just a wilderness goddess before supplanting Luna as the moon goddess. Oak trees were sacred to her.

The Other Olympians- Girls- Athena

Athena, Artemis, and Aphrodite.

Athena/Athene/Minerva- The goddess of wisdom, strategy in warfare, pottery, courage, crafts, law, justice and weaving. A virgin goddess, she was the child of Zeus and Metis, the Titaness of wisdom. It was prophesised that Metis would bear a son greater than Zeus, fearing this Zeus turned her into a fly and devoured her but Athena was already conceieved. Athena formed inside Zeus and caused him great headaches, he bid Hephaestus to open his head, which he did with an axe, and from the wound Athena sprung fully formed and armed. She became Zeus' favourite child.

She gained the title of Pallas Athene/ Pallas Athena from either slaying a Titan called Pallas or for accidentally killing her friend Pallas. Pallas was a nymph and the daughter of Triton, who was said to have fostered Athena according to some versions. They were having a friendly fight, which either turned sour or saw the interference of Zeus, who stunned Pallas to prevent her from striking a blow on his daughter, Athena took advantage and accidentally killed Pallas. The other Pallas, was a Titan of war, son of Crius/Krios/Kreios and Eurybia, a minor sea goddess, brother to Astraeus/Astraeos the Titan of dusk, and Perses the Titan of destruction, husband to Styx, the deity of the Underworld river, and father to Zelus (zeal), Nike (victory), Kratos (strength), and Bia (force). Pallas fought against Zeus in Titanomachy whilst his children and wife fought for Zeus, and he was killed by Athena.

She had a competition with Poseidon over Attika/Attica, which the king of Attika Cecrops/Kekrops judged. Athena offered the people an olive tree whilst Poseidon offered a salt spring. As the olive tree gave oil, food and wood, Cecrops judged it the better gift and Attika became Athens in Athena's honour. According to some it was Zeus and the Olympians who intervened when the quarrel grew fierce and gave Athens to Athena.

Hephaestus tried to rape her but she escaped him and his semen fell onto the earth thus impregnating Gaia. A son, Erichthonius, was born as a result. Athena placed the infant into a box and gave to three sisters of Athens, princesses Herse, Pandrosus, and Aglaulus to mind, warning them never to open it. Aglauros and Herse opened it and found either an infant that was part serpent or an infant entangled with a serpent, the sight drove them to insanity, which led to them committing suicide by jumping off the Acropolis. Ovid writes that Athena's servant Cornix, a woman she turned into a crow to save her from rape by Neptune/Poseidon, told her of the treachery and in anger she turned the crow's feathers from white to black. Ericthonius grew up to be a king of Athens and founded the Panathenaic Games in Athena's honour.

She, Hera and Aphrodite competed for a golden apple addressed to the fairest that Eris threw into Thetis and Peleus' wedding as she was angry she had not been invited. Zeus deigned that Paris would judge the beauty of the three. Athena offered him strength, skill and wisdom, Hera offered him control of Asia and Europe and Aphrodite offered him the most beautiful woman in the world, Helen. Paris picked Aphrodite and ensured Athena and Hera's wrath against the Trojans during the Trojan War.

She could be a vengeful goddess as well as a kind one and punished many people. The weaver Arakhne/Arachne boasted she was better at weaving than Athena. Athena came to her in disguise as an old woman warning her not to offend the goddess, Arakhne ignored the warning and Athena accepted the challenge. Athena wove her victory over Poseidon during the contest for Athens whilst Arakhne depicted the infidelities of the gods. Arakhne's work was said to be flawness but outraged by what she had chosen to depict, and perhaps jealous, Athena tore up her work and beat the girl with her shuttle. Arakhne hung herself in grief but before she died Athena turned her into a spider.

When Aias/Ajax the Lesser raped Cassandra/Kassandra in Athena's temple, she avenged Cassandra by sending a storm to sink the Greeks' fleet, they survived it and Ajax even survived his ship being struck by a thunderbolt. She either killed him with a bolt of fire or Poseidon killed him after he boasted that even the gods could not kill him.

Auge, a princess and priestess of Athena, was raped by Heracles. Her father had been warned that his grandson would overthrow him, so she hid the baby in Athena's temple. Insulted by this, the goddess made the land barren until Auge's father found out about the treachery, had it exposed and Auge sold into slavery. The baby grew up to be the hero Telephus who killed Auge's father, and Auge became the adopted daughter of King Teuthras.

Medusa/Medousa was a priestess of Athena raped in her temple by Poseidon. As punishment Athena cursed her to have snakes in her hair and turn people to stone with her gaze. According to some versions she was made to match the form of her immortal sisters the Gorgons or they, upon hearing of her curse, begged to share it with her.

She is sometimes said to have blinded Tiresias because he saw her bathing but gave him the gift of hearing the birds/foresight to compensate. Other versions of the myth say Hera blinded him in anger and Zeus gave him the gift of prophecy to compensate.

Athena from The Immortals

She guided and aided many heroes, advising Cadmus/Kadmos to sow the teeth of a dragon to create warriors, Heracles to skin the Nemean Lion with its own claws and helping Bellerophon to capture Pegasus, gifting him with the first bridle. She also guided Jason and persuaded Aphrodite to have Medea fall in love with him, and advised Odysseus, helping him think of the Trojan horse, persuading Nausicaa to help him and disguising him when he returned to Ithaka/Ithaca. She aided Perseus with slaying Medusa, telling him to go to the Hesperides for weapons and giving him a shield in which he could safely see Medusa's reflection.

She and Artemis were said to have been companions of Persephone and some authors even suggest the two goddesses were there when Persephone was abducted, although this seems unlikely as they did not tell Demeter what had happened. She also took part in the creation of Pandora, clothing her and gifting her with the talents of needlework and weaving. As an inventor she created both the bridle and the flute but she did not like how it made her cheeks puff out when she played and so cast it down, where it was found by the satyr Marsyas.

She also helped the princess Eurynome, the mother of Bellerophon find a husband, Sisyphus' son Glaucus, and also taught her skills and wisdom.

Her symbols are the owl, the aegis (her shield with the head of Medusa), the olive tree, and the helmet. Homer described her as having flashing or gleaming eyes, usually thought to be grey. She is usually shown in armour or robes, wearing a maned helmet and carrying her aegis and a spear with an owl perched on her shoulder.

Her Roman counterpart was Minerva a goddess of poetry, medicine, wisdom, commerce, weaving and crafts. She was originally the Etruscan goddess Menrva and part of a trinity with Tinia, a sky god and supreme Etruscan god, and Uni, the supreme Etruscan goddess, effectively Zeus/Jove/Jupiter and Hera/Juno. She was a goddess of many things and only associated with war in Rome in later times. She was heavily associated with the arts and had a dominion over poetry until Apollo took over the role.