ABSTRACT
As a goddess of transitions, one important role for Artemis was turning girls into women. A common way for girls-becoming-women to pay their respects to Artemis was through the dedication of a lock of hair. To be sure, Artemis was not the exclusive recipient of such dedications: Most ancient Greek deities from Apollo through Zeus, as well as various river lords and several heroes and heroines, received them. The word maiden is preferred to virgin because a parthenos need not be a physical virgin in the modern understanding. Ideally, a parthenos loses her virginity on her wedding night As such, a newly wed female is called a nymphe, translated as bride. A bride must go down to the nympheion to Artemis whenever she wishes during the Artemitia, but the sooner the better. There is no evidence of what the new bride must do in the nympheion during the Artemitia.
