Title: Artemis: Wild Goddess of the Hunt
Series: Olympians #9
Previous books in this series: Zeus: King of the Gods (#1) | Athena: Grey-Eyed Goddess (#2) | Hera: The Goddess and her Glory (#3) | Hades: Lord of the Dead (#4) | Poseidon: Earth Shaker (#5) | Aphrodite: Goddess of Love (#6) | Ares: Bringer of War (#7) | Apollo: The Brilliant One (#8)
Author: George O'Connor
Genre: Middle Grade, graphic novel, fantasy, Greek mythology
Publication date: January 2017
Published by: First Second
Source: Purchased paperback
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Synopsis: Shunned even before she was born and destined to live a life of solitude, Artemis, Goddess of the Hunt, finds power through her skilled hunting ability and mighty bow. She slays those who wish to do harm to the innocent and takes care of the young and helpless. She protects women and young girls, helps in childbirth, soothes, and is unrivaled in her hunting abilities.
In the latest volume of Olympians, New York Times–bestselling author George O'Connor continues to turn his extensive knowledge of the original Greek myths into rip-roaring graphic novel storytelling.
This volume focuses on Artemis, the Greek goddess of the moon, hunt, wild animals, protector of girls, and so many other things. This goddess has had a very interesting life, even her birth was interesting. She is the twin sister of Apollo and she actually helped her mother deliver Apollo minutes after she was born! It’s insane! But hey, her mother was in a tough predicament because of Hera, of course.
This volume also goes into the myth of Niobe and how she insulted Leto, the mother of Artemis and Apollo, and how the twins retaliated. I was familiar with this myth, but I didn’t know that Tantalos was her father!! That guy was insane!! I also didn’t know that there’s a mountain in Turkey called “The Weeping Rock” that’s named after her because it looks like Niobe weeping over her children!! It’s so cool!
We also see the myth about Actaeon, the hunter who spied on Artemis and the nymphs while they bathed and things did not end well for him.
This volume also touches on the myth about Atalanta, the Aloadai twins, and Orion. The Orion myth has a couple of versions, but every single one doesn’t end well for Orion and it just makes me sad for Artemis. Orion was a hunter friend of Artemis, a good friend who sometimes, depending on the version, wanted to be more than friends with Artemis. But Artemis is a virgin goddess who vowed to remain chaste and unmarried, soooo yeah. In some versions, her brother Apollo gets jealous and kills him, in other versions Apollo tricks Artemis into killing him, but the outcome is the same for Orion. In the author’s notes, he mentioned that the version he went with, he wanted Artemis to have agency of her own, and I love that! I actually really liked the way he retold the myth and had Artemis make her own decisions about this so-called friend. I really enjoyed it. And I liked the entirety of the graphic novel overall! It was so well done! And I learned some new things, which I always appreciate because I love Greek mythology!
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