Artemis with Dress and Bow

Apollo’s Twin Sister

Artemis was Apollo’s twin sister, and they both had bows of gold or silver. Artemis used her bow for hunting and for sending death by illness to individuals. At the same time, though a virgin goddess, she aided women in childbirth, and cared for the very wild beasts she hunted. Apollo also was a god of contradictions. With the curved strung instrument we call a bow, he gives death, while with the curved strung instrument we call a lyre he gave the Greeks the very flower of life: music, dance and song. The Greeks painted their statues and temples in vivid colors; ancient Greece was not all white. In this statue, modern technicians have reconstructed the original paint on plaster casts. This statue comes from the century before those of classical Fifth Century Athens, in an art style called ‘archaic’. It rejoices in elaborate patterns, as on her dress, rather than the classical style’s aim at reducing forms to their simplest essence.

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