A Myth of Epic Proportion

Facebook has these utterly foolish quizzes that I occasionally take... just to see, y'know? I swallow an extremely large grain of salt along with the results of any of them because I sincerely doubt the intelligence of the people who write them - they're filled with spelling and grammatical error, and the questions leave much to be desired. However, after yesterday's post about the Goddess Athena, I couldn't resist the quiz that popped up today saying, "Which Greek Goddess Are You?"

And the result is, I quote: You are Artemis! The Greek Goddess of the moon and the hunt. Many people don't understand your personality, but you don't care. You're a rebel and you usually fall on the outskirts of society. You're unique and you embrace every aspect of that. Some say you're a wild child, and like Artemis, you know you are!

Well, I could hardly argue with any of that! No wonder the full moon always flips my world and makes me feel the need to be on the prowl. Well, being the research brat I am, I had to do more digging - my days of studying Greek Mythology being 30 years past. Turns out (I knew this once, but had forgotten) that Artemis is also a daughter of Zeus (hey Athena, we're sisters!) and is the twin of Apollo. She is also the goddess of forests and hills (nod...). When she was three years old, she sat on Zeus's lap and asked him to grant her six wishes, one of which was hounds to be her companions (I may have to change my middle name). Of course, she also asked for a lifetime of chastity and that is where we part ways. Artemis is described in several myths as not taking shit from anyone, especially men. In fact, if they challenge her she usually turns them into stags and hunts them down and kills them (or allows the dogs to do the work) - the list includes big names like Adonis and Orion.

I like this goddess. Obviously, I can very much identify with Artemis's love of the wilderness. I can picture her trodding through my woods, stopping by my river to let the hounds drink, becoming angry because some guy says she can't do something because she's a girl, or because he thinks he's better than her. She wanted to be far from society, to roam wherever the moon took her, she wanted space.

I love Greek Mythology, always have. The gods and goddesses fascinate me. I love their power, I love the way they screw with the world, I love their passion, I love their faults. If there were gods I could truly believe in, they'd be the ones... and it's the faults that would get me on my knees. I think if there is a singular thing that keeps me from believing in the type of god that everyone would like me to believe in, it's that I don't (I simply can't) believe that there is such a thing as a perfect being (talk about a myth!). If there is one true god, it's a god that will reveal him or her self and say, "Geez, I'm so sorry. I really screwed up that day... what was I thinking?"

In the meantime, I'm off to trod the snowy woods with my hounds. (Yes, it's snowing again today - Mother Nature's little April Fool's joke.) Should I meet up with Artemis, I will bow low and thank her for the trees and the moon.