DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.14696#0475
Artemis and the Oak
scape-reliefs already described1 twice represent an old oak growing
beside a Diana-pillar, and once show its trunk spanned by an
archway, which we now know to be a ianns, the very embodiment
of Diana's consort Dianus2.
(^) Artemis and the Oak.
Similarly on Greek soil the earth-goddess, who under various
names fulfilled the same functions as Diana, was frequently con-
nected with the oak. The Amazons, when they founded the cult in
the Artemision at Ephesos, set up the effigy of their goddess 'beneath
an oak-tree of noble girth3'; and in Roman times the image of
Artemis Epkesia wore a garland of flowers with a necklace of acorns
hanging below it (figs. 307, 315)4. Again, Neleus, son of Kodros,
1 Supra p. 150 n. 3 figs. 91, 92.
2 Supra p. 354 ff. Cp. a fragmentary relief at Copenhagen (L. Miiller Muste-Thor-
valdsen Troisieme partie. Antiquites. Section i et ii. Copenhague 1847 p. 140 f. no. 81,
Gerhard Ant. Bildw. p. 359 pi. in, 4, T. Schreiber Die hellenistischen RelieJ bilder
Leipzig 1890 pi. 69, Einzelaufnahmen no. 1480 Mitte with Text v. 113 by P. Arndt), on
which a Diana-pillar, with Itknon, phallSs, and lagobdlon, is seen beneath an arched tripod
(?) or round altar (?) bearing a goat's-head (?). Height o'i5m.
3 Kallim. h. Artem. 237 ff". aol /ecu ' Afxa^ovides troXtfiov eiri9vfir)TeLpat. | iv ivore (the older
codd. read ev Kore, whence O. Schneider cj. eyKvri—a thoroughly bad emendation)
vapaKir; 'E<picnp (3piras ISpvaafTo | <pVlV ^7r' euTpefJ-vy (so A. Hecker, followed by
A. Meineke and O. Schneider, for <priy<+ inrb itpep.vy codd. U. von Wilamowitz-
Moellendorff still retains in his text the impossible reading of the manuscripts) ■ reXeaev
8e tol iepbv linnl)' | k.t.\. With this cp. Dionys. per. 827 ff. TrapaXlrjv "Ylcpeaov, pLeydXriv
tt6\lv 'Ioxeaipr;s, \ tvda. 6erj wore vr\bv ' A/uafoviSes rervKovro \ irpefivLp tvi TrreXirji, irepubaiov
avbpdai davfxa. The oak-tree is here changed into an elm, perhaps because the original
oak had long since decayed, whereas in later days the city (presumably one quarter of it)
was called after a conspicuous elm-tree (Plin. nat. hist. 5. 115 Ephesus...multis antea
expetita nominibus...vocata ..et Ptelea, Steph. Byz. s.v. "E0euos-..AkoKeito 5e...Kal HreX^a.'
o TroXtTTjs ilreXeatos... Kai ilreXedr^s 6 tto\itt]s).
The scientific excavation of the Artemision, commenced by Mr Hogarth in 1904, has
made it probable that the first sanctuary on the site was in fact a small tree-shrine
(D. G. Hogarth Excavations at Ephesus London 1908 p. 72 'The tree-shrine maybe
held to be represented by our Basis A with its altar or dependent platform on the west,
enclosed within a paved temenos; and the building erected over it, by the restoration B,
which amplified these central structures and united them in one platform, in a manner
hardly to be accounted for except on the supposition that a considerable superstructure
was to be erected on the new platform' with p. 52 ff. fig. 13 ff. and Atlas pi. r f. See also
W. R. Lethaby ' The earlier temple of Artemis at Ephesus ' in the Joum. Hell. Stud.
1917 xxxvii. 15 fig. 15). It is even possible that the isolated column, which in the sixth-
century building (D. G. Hogarth op. cit. p. 283 f. Atlas pi. 12) and again in the fourth-
century building (see Plin. nat. hist. 36. 95) stood immediately behind the cult-image,
was an architectural substitute for the sacred tree. A column in such a position might
well be differentiated from the rest (cp. the one Corinthian column in the temple of
Apollon Epiko&rios at Bassai: Durm Baukunst d. Gr? p. 270 fig. 240 b, p. 346 fig. 331,
p. 349 fig. 335, a, b, c, p. 429 fig. 391) and adorned with carving rightly or wrongly
attributed to Skopas (Plin. loc. cit., where the text una a Scopahas been needlessly altered
by J. j. Winckelmann and K. L. von Urlichs to uno scapo, by A. S. Murray to imo scapo).
4 Literary and inscriptional evidence concerning the cult of Artemis at Ephesos is
scape-reliefs already described1 twice represent an old oak growing
beside a Diana-pillar, and once show its trunk spanned by an
archway, which we now know to be a ianns, the very embodiment
of Diana's consort Dianus2.
(^) Artemis and the Oak.
Similarly on Greek soil the earth-goddess, who under various
names fulfilled the same functions as Diana, was frequently con-
nected with the oak. The Amazons, when they founded the cult in
the Artemision at Ephesos, set up the effigy of their goddess 'beneath
an oak-tree of noble girth3'; and in Roman times the image of
Artemis Epkesia wore a garland of flowers with a necklace of acorns
hanging below it (figs. 307, 315)4. Again, Neleus, son of Kodros,
1 Supra p. 150 n. 3 figs. 91, 92.
2 Supra p. 354 ff. Cp. a fragmentary relief at Copenhagen (L. Miiller Muste-Thor-
valdsen Troisieme partie. Antiquites. Section i et ii. Copenhague 1847 p. 140 f. no. 81,
Gerhard Ant. Bildw. p. 359 pi. in, 4, T. Schreiber Die hellenistischen RelieJ bilder
Leipzig 1890 pi. 69, Einzelaufnahmen no. 1480 Mitte with Text v. 113 by P. Arndt), on
which a Diana-pillar, with Itknon, phallSs, and lagobdlon, is seen beneath an arched tripod
(?) or round altar (?) bearing a goat's-head (?). Height o'i5m.
3 Kallim. h. Artem. 237 ff". aol /ecu ' Afxa^ovides troXtfiov eiri9vfir)TeLpat. | iv ivore (the older
codd. read ev Kore, whence O. Schneider cj. eyKvri—a thoroughly bad emendation)
vapaKir; 'E<picnp (3piras ISpvaafTo | <pVlV ^7r' euTpefJ-vy (so A. Hecker, followed by
A. Meineke and O. Schneider, for <priy<+ inrb itpep.vy codd. U. von Wilamowitz-
Moellendorff still retains in his text the impossible reading of the manuscripts) ■ reXeaev
8e tol iepbv linnl)' | k.t.\. With this cp. Dionys. per. 827 ff. TrapaXlrjv "Ylcpeaov, pLeydXriv
tt6\lv 'Ioxeaipr;s, \ tvda. 6erj wore vr\bv ' A/uafoviSes rervKovro \ irpefivLp tvi TrreXirji, irepubaiov
avbpdai davfxa. The oak-tree is here changed into an elm, perhaps because the original
oak had long since decayed, whereas in later days the city (presumably one quarter of it)
was called after a conspicuous elm-tree (Plin. nat. hist. 5. 115 Ephesus...multis antea
expetita nominibus...vocata ..et Ptelea, Steph. Byz. s.v. "E0euos-..AkoKeito 5e...Kal HreX^a.'
o TroXtTTjs ilreXeatos... Kai ilreXedr^s 6 tto\itt]s).
The scientific excavation of the Artemision, commenced by Mr Hogarth in 1904, has
made it probable that the first sanctuary on the site was in fact a small tree-shrine
(D. G. Hogarth Excavations at Ephesus London 1908 p. 72 'The tree-shrine maybe
held to be represented by our Basis A with its altar or dependent platform on the west,
enclosed within a paved temenos; and the building erected over it, by the restoration B,
which amplified these central structures and united them in one platform, in a manner
hardly to be accounted for except on the supposition that a considerable superstructure
was to be erected on the new platform' with p. 52 ff. fig. 13 ff. and Atlas pi. r f. See also
W. R. Lethaby ' The earlier temple of Artemis at Ephesus ' in the Joum. Hell. Stud.
1917 xxxvii. 15 fig. 15). It is even possible that the isolated column, which in the sixth-
century building (D. G. Hogarth op. cit. p. 283 f. Atlas pi. 12) and again in the fourth-
century building (see Plin. nat. hist. 36. 95) stood immediately behind the cult-image,
was an architectural substitute for the sacred tree. A column in such a position might
well be differentiated from the rest (cp. the one Corinthian column in the temple of
Apollon Epiko&rios at Bassai: Durm Baukunst d. Gr? p. 270 fig. 240 b, p. 346 fig. 331,
p. 349 fig. 335, a, b, c, p. 429 fig. 391) and adorned with carving rightly or wrongly
attributed to Skopas (Plin. loc. cit., where the text una a Scopahas been needlessly altered
by J. j. Winckelmann and K. L. von Urlichs to uno scapo, by A. S. Murray to imo scapo).
4 Literary and inscriptional evidence concerning the cult of Artemis at Ephesos is