When an Artemis daughter lacks respect for a mother whose major
roles have been the traditional ones, she is in a bind. In rejecting
identification with her mother, she usually finds herself rejecting
what is considered as feminine—softness, receptivity, and stirrings
toward marriage and motherhood. She is plagued by inadequacy
feelings—this time in the realm of her feminine identification.
ADOLESCENCE AND YOUNG ADULTHOOD
As a girl, the Artemis woman typically is a natural competitor,
with perseverance, courage, and will to win. In pursuit of whatever
the goal, she will push herself to the limit. She may be a Girl
Scout—hiking, climbing, sleeping out of doors, riding a horse,
swinging an axe as she chops wood for the campfire, or, like Artemis
herself, becoming an expert archer. The unmistakable Artemis
teenager is the “horse-crazy” girl, whose world revolves around
horses. The heroine of the movie classic National Velvet personifies
this archetypal adolescent Artemis.
The Artemis teenager is a girl with a streak of independence and
a bent for exploration. She ventures into the woods, climbs hills, or
wants to see what is in the next block and the block after that. “Don’t
fence me in” and “Don’t tread on me” are her slogans. As a girl, she
is less conforming or compromising than many of her peers, because
she is less motivated by eagerness to please others and because she
usually knows what she wants. This sureness may rebound on her,
however: others may consider her “pig-headed,” “stubborn,” and
“unfeminine.”
When she leaves home for college, the Artemis woman enjoys the
exhilaration of independence and the competitive challenge of
whatever interests her. She usually finds a group of like spirits to
“run with.” If she’s political, she may be out running for office.
And, if she’s a physical conditioning buff, she may actually be
running many miles a day, reveling in her strength and grace, enjoy-
ing the reflective state her mind goes into as she runs. (I’ve yet to
meet a woman who has run a marathon who has not had a strong
streak of Artemis in her that is responsible for the combi-
Artemis: Goddess of the Hunt and Moon, Competitor and Sister