Cult of Artemis at Brauron

Artemis worshipers were found all over the ancient Greek world. One of the most famous worshiping sites for Artemis was in Attica at Brauron. Artemis is said to have presided over all the biological transitions of females from before puberty to the first childbirth. “Young girls began to prepare for the event of the first childbirth at an early age. Even before menarche young girls danced for Artemis, in some places playing the role of animals. At the Attic site, or Brauron, in the rite called arkteia, girls representing the polis of Athens imitated she-bears, arktoi." “The initiation ritual for girls was called the Brauronia, after the location of Artemis' shrine at Brauron, in Attica, where the ritual, performed by girls before they reached puberty, took place.”Brauron is the site where Iphigenia, Agamemnon’s daughter, is said to have established a temple to Artemis by decree of Athena, as told in Euripides’ Iphigeneia in Tauris.

One of the many myths surrounding the Cult of Artemis at Brauron originates with the story of Iphigeneia. In the story of the Trojan War, as described by Aeschylus, the Greeks had earned the disfavor of Artemis by shooting one of her sacred stags and thus were unable to put to sea against the Trojans due to disfavorable winds, conjured by the goddess. In Euripides' 'Iphigeneia at Tauris' lines 1446–1468 we find a reference to this origin myth: "And you, Iphigeneia, beside the holy stairs of Brauron you must hold the keys for the goddess herself: where you will die and be buried, and – as a delight for you – they will dedicate the finely woven material of woven cloth which by chance women having lost their lives in childbirth abandon in their homes. I command you to send forth these Greek women from the ground due to their correct intentions.”

...
Wikipedia