| “ | 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 the daughter of Zeus and the Goddess of the hunt, wild animals, the moon, forests, hills, archery, virginity and protector of young girls, bringing and relieving disease in women.
History
Early life
Artemis is a daughter 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. 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.
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 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.
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. The only exception was 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.