| “ | See, she's who we'd pray to for courage when hunting the Gorgon or the Minotaur. Of course, she's not really worship worthy anymore, uh, having lost a step and all. | ” |
Artemis is a pagan deity of the Greek Pantheon. She is also the daughter of Zeus. Artemis is the Goddess of hunt, wildlife, forests, hills, archery, virginity and protector of young girls, bringing and relieving disease in women.
History[]
Early life[]
Artemis is one of the children of Zeus, yet at an unknown time in the past, she harbored feelings for Prometheus. However, because Prometheus had betrayed the Olympians and was her father's enemy, she kept her feelings a secret.
The early hunters of Greece prayed to Artemis when hunting monsters like the Minotaur.
Zeus assigned Artemis the task of tracking Prometheus down when he went missing in an avalanche circa 2006. Because of the feelings Artemis harbored for the titan, she let Prometheus slip past her since his escape.
Season 8[]
When the recurrent death and resurrection of Prometheus began capturing the attention of more people, Artemis was forced to hunt the titan with renewed urgency. She managed to track him down, only to find that he had developed amnesia from the trauma of his multiple deaths and thus no longer remembered her. She prepared to kill him, but he fended her off with the help of Sam and Dean Winchester, and almost killed her with her own weapons. She vanished, mysteriously saying that she was his worst nightmare when he demanded to know who she was.
The Winchesters deduced the identities of Prometheus and Artemis. They summoned Zeus to lift the curse of the titan and his young son. Artemis arrived at the scene to prevent the hunters from attacking her father, and steered them away from the scene to leave Zeus free to torture the titan.
While Artemis took the hunters away, Sam taunted her, saying that she really wasn't worship worthy anymore, thinking that she lost her step on account of her taking so long to locate Prometheus, and finds it ironic how the Winchesters, who have spent their nearly whole lives hunting the supernatural, will finally meet their ends at the hands of the Grecian deity of hunting. Sam's incessant taunting took even Dean aback, wondering what his younger sibling could have in mind, or to gain, by provoking Artemis like this. She slammed them up against a wall and was about to kill Dean and Sam, but they convinced her to help them protect Prometheus and his son from Zeus.
Artemis and the hunters returned to stop Zeus. When he refused to leave Prometheus and his son alone, Artemis realized that he was no longer the father she knew. She fired an arrow at him; Zeus used Prometheus to shield himself from the attack, but the titan pushed the arrow through himself to kill Zeus as well. Artemis dropped her bow and arrows, walked over to the corpses of her father and her old love, and removed her arrow. Upon seeing that Prometheus was truly dead, she shared a look with his current lover before leaving with Zeus' remains.
Personality[]
Despite working against the Winchesters, Artemis wasn't a malevolent goddess. In antiquity she would help humans kill monsters and other evil creatures. In her encounter with the Winchesters in the motel room, she at first wasn't going to kill Prometheus until she realized that Zeus' curse had permanently damaged him and was most likely killing him out of mercy. She also didn't attempt to harm or kill the Winchesters when they tried to intervene, just incapacitating them. Even when Sam started mocking her she didn't react with anger, instead reacting more with annoyance rather than rage or malice.
Artemis was once loyal to her father, Zeus, however her loyalty does have limitations. She was at first very hesitant to follow Zeus' orders and was visibly disturbed by the sight of Prometheus being tortured. After Zeus decided to kill Oliver over and over again for eternity, she was distraught and disturbed enough to kill her father if it meant that she would save a young child from being tortured for eternity.
Physical Appearance[]
Artemis, like many other deities, had a human-like appearance. She took the form of a young adult woman in her prime with long brown hair and brown eyes. She was identified with her weapon of choice, the bow and the arrow, which signified her attunement to the hunt.
Powers and Abilities[]
As a deity, Artemis possessed several abilities that are common for her kind. However, since she specializes in hunting, Artemis also possessed related abilities such as tracking and marksmanship.
- Immortality - Artemis is thousands of years old and retained the appearance and health of a young woman. She has an infinite lifespan and is not subject to old age.
- Super Stamina - Artemis as a deity has the ability to continue indefinitely without sustenance, such a food or liquid.
- Super Strength - She overpowered Dean with ease.
- Invulnerability - Artemis was not subject to disease or any other cause of natural death.
- Telekinesis - Artemis flung and pinned Sam and Dean to the wall while applying pressure on them to keep them there and caused them slight pain.
- Teleportation - Artemis had the ability to immediately appear or vanish into thin air.
- Apporting - Artemis was able to summon her bow and arrow.
- Bowhunting - Being the Goddess of hunt, Artemis is skilled with a bow and arrow.
- Tracking is the ability to localize the position of a being.
Weaknesses[]
- Her Blade - Powerful weapon, capable of killing deities. She tried to kill Prometheus with it, and at some point, he threatened her with it.
- Her Bow and Arrows - It was used to kill Prometheus and Zeus and as a part of her arsenal, and having the same power as her blade, it could kill her as well.
Appearances[]
Trivia[]
- In lore, Artemis was a virgin goddess and hence shunned any contact with a male, which is in stark contrast to the show's character. In some versions, there was an exception in the form of Orion, son of Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades, whom she fell for, so her brother Apollo (or Gaia, depending on the source) tricked her into murdering him. For this, Artemis immortalized Orion as a constellation.
- Like Atropos, Artemis was one of the few antagonists who is not killed or even defeated at the end of the episode.
- With Azazel and Billie, she is one of the few characters to teleport on-screen, in which she vanished in black smoke.