Exploring the Meaning of Artemis in Greek

Artemis is the name “Artemis,” appearing in Acts 19 in connection with the city of Ephesus and the public uproar surrounding her worship. In these verses the name is tied to commercial production, a prominent temple, repeated acclamations, and civic identity.

Root and Related Words

Related vocabulary includes artemōn (ἀρτέμων), “foresail” (Strong’s G736), noted as a derived term.

Occurrences

Acts 19:24: “For a certain man named Demetrius, a silversmith who made silver shrines of Artemis, brought no little business to the craftsmen,”

Here Artemis functions as the named focus of a trade. The “silver shrines of Artemis” locate her name in the material world of manufactured religious objects, and the verse links that production directly to “no little business.” Artemis is not introduced as an abstract idea but as a named figure around whom a local economy has developed, involving both Demetrius and a broader group of “craftsmen.”

Acts 19:27: “Not only is there danger that this our trade come into disrepute, but also that the temple of the great goddess Artemis will be counted as nothing and her majesty destroyed, whom all Asia and the world worships.”

In this speech Artemis is named within a twofold fear: economic loss (“this our trade”) and religious or cultural loss (“the temple of the great goddess Artemis”). The wording frames Artemis in elevated terms—“great goddess,” possessing “majesty”—and presents her honor as something that can be publicly reassessed (“counted as nothing”) and even dismantled (“destroyed”). The claim that “all Asia and the world worships” her places her name in the mouth of advocates as a symbol of wide recognition, and the “temple” anchors that recognition in a specific, visible institution.

Acts 19:28: “When they heard this they were filled with anger, and cried out, saying, “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!””

Artemis here is the object of a shouted slogan that crystallizes the crowd’s anger into a chant. The cry “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!” fuses her name to the city’s identity: she is not invoked merely as Artemis, but as Artemis “of the Ephesians.” The line shows how her name becomes a rallying point, compressing devotion, local pride, and public outrage into a single, repeatable confession.

Acts 19:34: “But when they perceived that he was a Jew, all with one voice for a time of about two hours cried out, “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!””

This occurrence reinforces the same acclamation but highlights its duration, volume, and unanimity: “all with one voice” and “about two hours.” Artemis’ name serves as a sustained public refrain, used not as explanation but as demonstration of collective allegiance. The immediate setting—reacting to the perception that “he was a Jew”—shows the chant functioning as a boundary marker in the crowd’s mind, a way of asserting the community’s religious and civic loyalty in the face of a perceived outsider.

Acts 19:35: “When the town clerk had quieted the multitude, he said, “You men of Ephesus, what man is there who doesn’t know that the city of the Ephesians is temple keeper of the great goddess Artemis, and of the image which fell down from Zeus?”

In the town clerk’s address, Artemis is invoked to appeal to shared, public knowledge: “what man is there who doesn’t know….” Her name is paired with civic responsibility and reputation—Ephesus is “temple keeper of the great goddess Artemis.” The expression casts Artemis devotion as something officially associated with the city’s status, not merely private piety. The same sentence also brings in “the image which fell down from Zeus,” presenting Artemis’ cult in relation to a revered object and associating the city’s identity with both the goddess and that image.

Sense and Usage

Across these occurrences, Artemis is consistently used as a proper name whose force depends on public recognition. The narrative places her name at the intersection of artisan commerce, temple-centered worship, and citywide self-understanding. When Demetrius is described as making “silver shrines of Artemis” (Acts 19:24), the name is embedded in production and profit; when he warns about “the temple of the great goddess Artemis” and “her majesty” (Acts 19:27), the name becomes a shorthand for an entire religious establishment that can be honored or diminished in public estimation.

The repeated cry “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!” (Acts 19:28, 19:34) shows how the name functions in crowd speech: it is compact, declarative, and easily amplified. The addition “of the Ephesians” is not incidental; it attaches Artemis to a particular community, presenting her as a defining feature of Ephesian identity. In the town clerk’s calmer, civic register, the name continues to carry institutional weight: Ephesus is “temple keeper of the great goddess Artemis” (Acts 19:35). Thus Artemis is not treated merely as a topic of debate but as a public emblem—of worship, of economic interest, and of communal reputation.

Within Acts 19, Artemis is also spoken of through associated terms that intensify her standing: she is “great,” a “goddess,” and possesses “majesty” (Acts 19:27). The language portrays a name that can mobilize emotion (“filled with anger,” Acts 19:28), unify voices (“all with one voice,” Acts 19:34), and serve as a premise for civic persuasion (“what man is there who doesn’t know…,” Acts 19:35). The same passages present Artemis devotion as both localized—Ephesus as “temple keeper”—and claimed to be widely shared (“all Asia and the world worships,” Acts 19:27), showing how the name can be used to argue for significance on multiple scales.

Imagery in Acts 19

The name Artemis in these verses carries concrete imagery: “silver shrines” produced by craftsmen (Acts 19:24), a prominent “temple” associated with the city (Acts 19:27, 19:35), and a loud public square dominated for hours by a single repeated acclamation (Acts 19:28, 19:34). The town clerk’s reference to “the image which fell down from Zeus” (Acts 19:35) adds the picture of a revered cult object alongside the temple, so that Artemis devotion is depicted through things that can be made, housed, displayed, and loudly defended.

Sources: Lexical data from Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance and the Translators Brief Lexicon of Extended Strongs for Greek (STEPBible, CC BY). Occurrence data from the Translators Amalgamated Greek New Testament (STEPBible, CC BY). Scripture quotations from the World English Bible (public domain).