The Odyssey Artemis Quotes

White-armed Nausicaa led their singing, dancing beat…
as lithe as Artemis with her arrows striding down
from a high peak – Taygetus’ towering ridge or Erymanthus –
thrilled to race with the wild boar or bounding deer,
and nymphs of the hills race with her,
daughters of Zeus whose shield is storm and thunder,
ranging the hills in sport, and Leto’s heart exults
as head and shoulders over the rest her daughter rises,
unmistakable – she outshines them all, though all are lovely.
So Nausicaa shone among her maids, a virgin, still unwed.

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 6, lines 112-121. As Nausicaa leads her handmaids in dancing and singing by the sea, the Phaeacian princess is momentarily glorified as a goddess. A Homeric simile compares her to the powerful goddess Artemis racing with her attending nymphs. So Nausicaa is said to outshine all her maidens.

"Here I am at your mercy, princess –
are you a goddess or a mortal? If one of the gods
who rule the skies up there, you’re Artemis to the life,
the daughter of mighty Zeus – I see her now – just look
at your build, your bearing, your lithe flowing grace…
But if you’re one of the mortals living here on earth,
three times blest are your father, your queenly mother,
three times over your brothers too. How often their hearts
must warm with joy to see you striding into the dances –
such a bloom of beauty. True, but he is the one
more blest than all other men alive, that man
who sways you with gifts and leads you home, his bride!"

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 6, lines 163-174. The shipwrecked Odysseus flatters Nausicaa in a bid to gain her assistance, even comparing her to the goddess Artemis. He compliments her beauty and compares it in a metaphor to a blooming flower.

"But tell me about yourself and spare me nothing.
What form of death overcame you, what laid you low,
some long slow illness? Or did Artemis showering arrows
come with her painless shafts and bring you down?
Tell me of father, tell of the son I left behind:
…Please, tell me about my wife, her turn of mine,
her thoughts."

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 11, lines 193-197, 201-202. Odysseus meets the ghost of his mother Anticleia in the underworld. He wants to know all about the family he hasn’t laid eyes on since he sailed for Troy many years ago. He inquires about the cause of his mother’s death, asks about his father, son and wife Penelope.

"And I with the same grief, I died and met my fate.
No sharp-eyed Huntress showering arrows through the halls
approached and brought me down with painless shafts,
nor did some hateful illness strike me, that so often
devastates the body, drains our limbs of power.
No, it was my longing for you, my shining Odysseus –
you and your quickness, you and your gentle ways –
that tore away my life that had been sweet."

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 11, lines 193-196, 225-232. The ghost of Odysseus’ mother tells him how she died and met her fate. Anticleia reveals that it was not illness or the goddess Artemis’ painless arrows that killed her, but a broken heart and longing for her son.

Hunger never attacks the land, no sickness either,
that always stalks the lives of us poor men.
No, as each generation grows old on the island,
down Apollo comes with his silver bow, with Artemis,
and they shoot them all to death with gentle arrows.

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 15, lines 457-461. Eumaeus begins his own story of how he was born into royalty on the idyllic island of Syrie. There is no hunger or sickness there and people just grow old and die a gentle death at the hands of god of archery Apollo and goddess of the hunt Artemis.

Now down from her chamber came reserved Penelope,
looking for all the world like Artemis or golden Aphrodite.
Close to the fire her women drew her favorite chair
with its whorls of silver and ivory, inlaid rings.
The craftsman who made it years ago, Icmalius,
added a footrest under the seat itself,
mortised into the frame,
and over it all was draped a heavy fleece.

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 19, lines 56-63. In a simile Penelope is compared to a goddess, the beautiful Artemis or golden Aphrodite, as she sits down on her favorite chair for her meeting with Odysseus.

"Artemis – goddess, noble daughter of Zeus, if only
you’d whip an arrow through my breast and tear my life out,
now, at once! Or let some whirlwind pluck me up
and sweep me away along those murky paths and
fling me down where the Ocean River running
round the world rolls back upon itself!"

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 20, lines 67-72. A lonely and depressed Penelope fears that Odysseus is not returning. Wishing for her own death as life without her husband is too painful, she prays to goddess of the hunt Artemis to kill her with an arrow.

"may the gods who rule Olympus blot me out!
Artemis with your glossy braids, come shoot me dead –
so I can plunge beneath this loathsome earth
with the image of Odysseus vivid in my mind.
Never let me warm the heart of a weaker man!"

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 20, lines 88-92. Penelope, still loyal to Odysseus even though he has been gone for twenty years, wakes up from her sleep and begs the gods to kill her. She would prefer to die from Artemis’ arrow than have to marry one of the suitors who pursue against her will.
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