Artemis

Artemis (月の女神アルテミス, Tsuki no Megami Arutemisu) is the goddess of the moon, the hunt and virginity, and twin sister of Apollo, god of the sun. She is also the elder sister of the protector goddess of Earth, Athena.

Background
She was introduced by Kurumada in his manga Saint Seiya, in chapter 15 of his current work Saint Seiya Next Dimension, the canonical continuation of his original manga. Although it should be noted that the depiction of the character in the mentioned media varies to some extent, both conceptually and design-wise.

Artemis first appareance though, was on Saint Seiya teathrical release: Saint Seiya Tenkai-Hen Josō Overture, as it was planned to follow the author Masami Kurumada's true chronology and manga plot, that later was scrapped when Kurumada decided to tell the true continuation of the story through the mangá Next Dimension.

Appareance
Artemis has the lunar symbol on her forehead. In addition, She wears golden armor (probably her divine armor), which covers her body elegantly. She also has a golden scepter, like spear sharp. She lives on Mount Olympus, in the Shrine of the Moon (located at the foot of the sacred mountain), protected by her warriors, the Satellites. Callisto is the commander of the Satellites and the personal guard of Artemis.

In a similar way to Greek mythology, Artemis is a beautiful young woman, with long, beautiful hair, dressed in a golden sumptous armor, or semitransparent silk robes in the movie.

Personality
She radiates serenity, and seriousness. She seems colder and less expressive than her older sister, and though she may be forgiving and benevolent, she can also be stern and merciless.

Abilities and attributes
Artemis has an army of female guardians at her disposal, known as the Satellites, who are lead by one of her servants, known as Callisto. In Next Dimension, he reveals she is the ruling goddess of the moon, the hunt and virginity. Artemis use her scepter as a sharp sickle. She demonstrated its ability to distort space. Also Artemisa controls the movement of the Moon.

Artemis, as she appears in the Tenkai-Hen Josō Overture movieIn Kurumada's mythos, not much is revealed about her attributes.

Saint Seiya: Next Dimension


Artemis has been confirmed as a canonical character within the universe of Saint Seiya by her apparition in Kurumada's current work, Saint Seiya Next Dimension sequel official of Saint Seiya. Artemis was mentioned by her name by Athena, who called her the goddess of the moon and younger sister to her, as well as telling Andromeda Shun to accompany her to Artemis' temple.

Artemis by Next Dimension also appears in the manga Saint Seiya Saintia Sho. A clear link between Saint Seiya Next Dimension and Saintia Sho. In both interpretations of the character, as a deity, Artemis' Cosmo is far superior to that of humans.

History
Athena arrives with Shun at the Temple of the Moon, but they are attacked by Satellites, then are greeted by Callisto, who tells them that Artemis is upset with Athena as she was not content to defeat Poseidon and Hades. Callisto also tells Athena that he is sure he will unleash Artemis' wrath if she appears before the goddess. Artemis asks Athena if she's prepared she's prepared to die,

Athena says she only has one request and explains Seiya's situation, Artemis is sad says she wasn't content that Athena sealed Poseidon and killed Hades, and that now wanted to warp time- space. After arguing, Artemis and Athena go into battle with their staffs, after an intense fight, Artemis finally says that she and Apollo don't have the power to travel in time, the only one who has this ability is the god Kronos, after that, Artemis asks Athena to withdraw and send them out of the temple. Even so, to help her sister, she orders Hecate to guide Saori and Shun to Kronos. Despitethe goddess of moon's change of heart, Callisto thinks that helping Athena will bring to Artemis the wrath of Olympus. Due to this, the Satellite acts on her own to prevent Athena from being able to save Seiya.

Overture
In the Tenkai-Hen Josō Overture movie, it is clearly stated that she is the goddess of the moon, and thus, she rules over it and the night, being able of turning day into night instantly at will. It is not stated in the movie, but it is implied that she is also the goddess of hunt, as her weapon of choice is a bow, which she tried to use to kill her older sister Athena. Unlike her rendition in Next Dimension, Artemis doesn't have an army of female guardians, but she relies on servants called Angels to protect and serve her. Also, in the movie, some of Athena's Saints switch their loyalties from Athena to Artemis.

In Overture, she also shown to possess the ability to walk in the sky. She apparently has the ability to distort reality to some extent, as she altered Athena's Sanctuary appearance greatly, when her younger sister surrendered the control of Earth to her.

The serene goddess of the moon
Artemis is a character created by Masami Kurumada, and as such, holds a canonical status. She was the sixth deity introduced by Kurumada in the universe of his manga Saint Seiya, and she first appears in the initial moments of the Tenkai-Hen Josō Overture, as Athena takes care of Seiya, who after the death of Hades, was left cursed, confined to a wheelchair and with his Cosmo depleted. (In Kurumada's original script for the movie, it was not Athena who was taking care of Seiya, but his sister Seika, with whom he was reunited after the death of Hades.)

After Poseidon's defeat and Hades' death, the Olympian Gods had decided that Athena and humans had offended them for rebelling against them, and passed sentence, which was, eradication of mankind, starting with Athena's Saints, apparently not caring that Poseidon and Hades had been trying to wipe humans and that the Saints were trying to save their own race from extinction. Artemis sent her servants, the Angels, to consummate the sentence, killing Pegasus Saint Seiya first. The Angels were unable to accomplish their mission, due to Saori Athena's intervention, so Artemis decided to arrive at the scene. Meeting her younger sister, Artemis informed her of the decision of the Olympian deities. Athena, never willing to abandon mankind, asked for mercy for it, by telling her older sister that she would surrender the control of Earth to her, if she could forgive mankind for its sins against the gods. Athena also said, that, in exchange for forgiveness for mankind, she would never allow her Saints to raise again in battle under her banner, and that she would strip them of their Sainthood, allowing them to live a normal life at last.

Agreeing to Athena's proposal, Artemis was handed by her the Niké Staff, symbol of her power and control over Earth. Artemis said before leaving that she would pretend humans didn't exist, but if they dared to offend the gods again, she wouldn't be to blame for their eradication. The goddess of the moon told Athena to rejoin the Greek gods in Olympus. So saying, Artemis left, taking the Niké Staff with her, and now endowed with all Athena's attributes and control over Earth.

Jabu, Ichi and Shaina, who had renounced to being Athena's Saints. Screenshot from Tenkai-Hen Josō Overture. After Athena surrendered Earth, all her attributes became Artemis'. And so became Athena's Sanctuary at Greece, which was strangely altered by the goddess of the moon upon becoming her possession.

Because Athena had forsaken Earth, Athena's Saints found themselves in a dilemma. Among them, Bronze Saints Hydra Ichi and Unicorn Jabu, along with Silver Saint Ophiuchus Shaina. All of them thought that since there weren't a protector goddess of Earth anymore, they had been abandoned by her, and therefore, they were no longer her Saints, and so they sought a new deity to pledge their loyalty to, and they found it in Artemis.

Angels : servants of the Olympians
The Angels (天闘士, Enjeru) are the chosen warriors of the Olympian Gods. Their armors are named Glories (天衣, Gurōrī). They are also some of most powerful foes Athena's Bronze Saints have ever faced. The Cloths of Seiya, Shiryu and Hyoga are all more or less destroyed in their respective battles against the Angels.
 * Icarus (イカロス, Ikarosu)
 * Voiced by: Hikaru Midorikawa, Fumiko Inoue (as a child)
 * The only human among the angels. He gives up his humanity to serve Artemis in order to be powerful like a god, and also turns out to be Tōma (斗馬?), the long lost brother of Marin. However, by the end of the movie, he sacrifices himself to protect Athena. He attacks with gold spears and electric charges. His finishing move is "Highest Altitude". He is supposed to have the same stats and attributes as Seiya, as they are the same size and share the same birthday. He was mentioned by Shaina in the original manga series, although his name was not revealed.
 * Based on Icarus, son of Daidalos; he flew too near the sun with wax-attached wings, then he fell into the sea and drowned.


 * Odysseus (オデュッセウス, Odyusseusu)
 * Voiced by: Hiroki Takahashi
 * He attacks with Energy Spheres and absorbs energy attacks, and he can redirect or combine them with his own power to make a reverse attack. He is defeated by both Hyōga and Shiryū. Much of the fight initially happens off-screen; Seiya, after regaining the Pegasus Cloth, stumbles upon Shiryu and Hyoga, who have already taken a beating from Odysseus, and Odysseus has smashed their cloths off-screen. Seiya then also takes a vicious beating from Odysseus and has his cloth shattered as well. However, Shiryu and Hyoga are able to energize their Cosmos and finally (though just barely) kill Odysseus with a combined attack.
 * Odysseus (Ulysses): King of Ithaca; husband of Penelope; wandered ten years after fall of Troy before arriving home.


 * Theseus (テセウス, Teseusu)
 * Voiced by: Toshiyuki Morikawa
 * He uses wings to attack. Arguably the weakest of the 3 Angels, his finishing move is a Solar Beam. He tends to fly more than the other Angels, and is the first of the Angels to be defeated, by both Shun and Ikki. Unlike Odysseus, he does not or is unable to shatter Ikki and Shun's Bronze Cloths. Although Ikki's attack is the one that finishes him off, Ikki would not have been able to achieve the victory without Shun's help, as Shun distracts Theseus using the 'Nebula Chain' and 'Nebula Storm' attacks.
 * Named after Theseus, son of Aegeus; slew Minotaur; married and deserted Ariadne; later married Phaedra.

Concept and Creation
In early interviews about the eventual Heaven chapter of his manga, Kurumada stated that he wanted the Olympic Pantheon from Greek mythology to make an appearance, once he had finished the Hades arc. He wanted to introduce 12 divinities, to use both as antagonist or allies to Athena's Saints. Apollo was one of the gods he wanted to use, as well as Zeus, king of the Greek gods, whom he drew in an early conceptual sketch published in the Saint Seiya Encyclopedia.

At first, Kurumada wanted to publish the Heaven Chapter in manga form, written and drawn by him, as the fourth act of his popular comic Saint Seiya, but later, he decided to present the project in OVA format, beginning with a movie that would serve as opening for the Chapter (hence the name Overture), and continue the story with the progressive release of OVAs. In Overture, Artemis plays an important role, as her participation is even longer than that of her brother Apollo.

Unfortunately, Kurumada and Toei Animation (producer company of the anime adaptation and the movies of Saint Seiya) had discrepancies regarding the script, because the Heaven Chapter started right after the death of Hades, and those critical points of Kurumada's manga (the Hades arc of the manga was still unfinished in the anime, the finding of Seiya's sister Seika, the death of Hades, to name a few) had yet to be reached by the anime adaptation, and thus Toei thought changes to the script were needed to be made, to make the movie understandable to audiences familiarized more with the anime adaptation than Kurumada's published manga. Kurumada was unhappy with the results and the Heaven Chapter project fell apart, so Artemis' participation in the Saint Seiya universe was cut short, until Kurumada decides to retake the project of publishing his Heaven Chapter, this time, in manga form, as he afterward realized it to be the best choice.

Kurumada didn't reveal much about how Artemis incarnates on Earth. But she seems to have a body of her own, and does not need a human as a vessel for her soul, unlike Poseidon and Hades. Athena recognized Artemis instantly the moment she arrived, which suggests that Artemis' body is her own, from the times of myth.