Mnemosyne — Classical Greek Myth Library

When Apollo refuses Poseidon, Artemis rebukes her brother for hanging back. Hera overhears and turns on the archer-goddess with scorn: Artemis would match herself against Hera? Hera seizes both of Artemis’s wrists with her left hand, snatches the bow and quiver from her shoulders with her right, and with a smile boxes her about the ears with the weapons themselves, scattering the arrows. Artemis, weeping, flees like a dove from a hawk and comes to Olympus, where she climbs onto Zeus’s knees. Zeus laughs gently and asks who has done this; she names Hera. Meanwhile Leto gathers the fallen bow and arrows. The comic, almost domestic violence among immortals contrasts with Athena’s deadly stone against Ares. Hera’s victory is maternal and hierarchical: queen of the gods disciplines the virgin huntress as an uppity child. Catalogue the boxing as a distinct theomachy pairing.