He Ain't Heavy

Question: How good is Artemis's and Apollo's relationship? Cause I just read the bit where she asked Zeus that Apollo and her always be equals and that seems kinda... how should I put this, 'you and me against the world bro', if that makes any sense. In short, a dedicated and not betrayal-ridden relationship among two of the Theoi. Any other myths of them having each others backs?

As always, the greater part of any two gods' relationship is going to be up to an individual Storyteller's take on the situation. But we're happy to give some suggestions!

Artemis and Apollo are an interesting pair; by the Platonic era of mythology, they were set up as equal and opposing forces meant to balance and function as opposites against one another. Apollo was the sun to Artemis' moon and the light to her darkness, as well as the reason to her intuition, the civilization to her wilderness, the masculinity to her femininity and the adulthood to her childhood. However, a lot of these were ideas that the twins picked up over the long continuum of Greek mythology's evolution, especially the attachment to the sun and moon, which were mostly likely absorbed from the older cult figures of Helios and Selene as they fell out of favor while Apollo and Artemis rose in importance. Even if you go back to older versions of their myths, though, they're still a contrasting set that is clearly meant to be together, twins that are inseparable in spite of their different functions.

Artemis' request to Zeus to be an equal of Apollo's is actually phrased more like "so he can't lord over me" than "so we'll be buddies": since Artemis is all about feminininty and freedom, refusing to be owned by any man or constrained to any civilization, part of her request may simply be to ensure that, like any of her male siblings, she isn't automatically demoted to second-class citizen just because of her gender. The twins are inseparable in many myths, however, often appearing in tandem to perform similar tasks or back one another up, and that started at their birth. After all, when she was born first, Artemis turned right around and acted as midwife to bring her brother into the world. That's some pretty good sibling connection right there.

There are a few other myths in which the twins seem to obviously be acting in concert or to have each others' backs. In the story wherein the Cyclopes create Apollo's golden bow for him, Artemis boldly strides into their workshop and demands a bow, too, pointing out that she is of the same birth as he is and deserves every bit as much honor, which they obviously agree with because they hop to it. When Artemis comes to take her place among the Dodekatheon, according to Callimachus, the gods all invite her to choose her seat and she readily chooses to sit beside Apollo. In the Homeric hymns, Artemis is said to often visit Apollo's house to lead the muses in dance and merriment along with him, and when Heracles in one of his labors attempts to kill the great hind sacred to Artemis, Apollo shows up along with her to stop and chastize him. And more than once, when uppity people insulted or failed to properly respect their mother Leto, both of the siblings have arrived to lay down divinely vengeful smack on whomever decided hubris was in fashion that day (seriously, Niobe... calling Apollo girly for wearing a dress and Artemis too tomboyish for wearing short skirts was a terrible, terrible move). Apollo also comes to Artemis' rescue a few times with apparent sibling affection, notably when some of the Gigantes decided to try to sexually assault her and he tricked them into murdering one another instead.

Of course, they don't always agree. During the Trojan war, when Apollo decides he really doesn't want to fight Poseidon and Hera because that would be terrible decisions, Artemis gets very pissed off at him for being a coward and berates him for backing down from the conflict and striking only from afar with his arrows. The story of Orion might be the most controversial place to look at their relationship simply because it has so many versions; in some Orion attempts to assault Artemis or compete with her in hunting so she kills him, but in others it is Apollo, jealous and suspicious of Orion's intentions toward his sister, who tricks Artemis into killing him or even takes the hunter out with extreme prejudice himself. On the flip side, there are also several stories of Apollo's lovers being shot to death by Artemis, ostensibly because they insulted her but possibly also because she just doesn't like sharing her brother with any other uppity females (and Hyginus, at least, explicitly says that at least one she killed in direct revenge for him killing Orion).

Pretty standard Greek family stuff, really - they've got one anothers' backs until death do them part, but will also be as shitty to each other as they can get away with if upset or jealous. We tend to play them about the way we would play any other set of fractious siblings - they bicker a lot, drive each other nuts on purpose and will totally play mean jokes on one another, but they would never let anyone else hurt them or do anything they thought was really bad. Like any other set of close siblings, they can be absolutely shitful to one another... but nobody else is allowed to upset their sibling but themselves, and god help you if you try.