DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4945#0334
323
CHAPTER XVIII.
THE GODDESS.
By D. G. Hogarth.
(Plate LII.)
One important result of our re-examination of the Artemision has been
to bring to light on the site itself a considerable number of representations
of the Goddess in various materials and of several periods. Almost all
these are of earlier date than the Ephesian representations hitherto known.
Authority for the local personification has hitherto been, in the main,
Ephesian and other coins upon which a certain type of cultus-figure
begins to appear in the 2nd century B.C. The earliest representations
are countermarks upon certain cistophori of Ephesus and Tralles, ascribed
to a date not long before 133 B.C. (B.M.C. Ionia, p. 63, no. 144).
Until the Empire this numismatic type remained rare; but thenceforward
it occurred very frequently on the coinage of Ephesus and other Asian
cities, and is usually regarded as representing the " multimammia"
personification referred to by early Christian writers,1 and preserved to
us by plastic art of the Roman period, e.g. by a well-known alabaster
figure at Naples.2 In these representations the Goddess stands stiff, with
high nwdius on her head, and feet placed close together. She is swathed
from waist to ankles in mummy-like wrappings, which are sometimes
decorated with figure-scenes, and sometimes present a scaly appearance.
The whole front of the figure from throat to waist is covered with pendent
dugs, and the arms are extended from the elbow. Behind the head
is a sort of nimbus. In coin representations two lines usually fall from
the hands, sometimes converging towards the feet of the figure (PI. Hi.,
nos. 1, 2, 3), or, in some representations, e.g. at Colophon (B.M.C. Ionia, p. 43,
no. 53), ending below in finials of very enigmatic nature. Sometimes also,
but rarely, stags appear in heraldic opposition on either side, not grasped
or touched by the figure's hands. The lower part of this figure is commonly
1 i-.;,-., Jerome! Comm. in cpist. Pauli ad Eplies. xxvi, 441 ; M. Minucius Felix, OctaV. 225.
impire also a Cyrenaean statuette-torso in the British Museum (Cat. Sculp, ii, no. 1430), which, however,
more probably represents the local goddess, Cyrene, than Artemis Ephesia.
2 T 2
CHAPTER XVIII.
THE GODDESS.
By D. G. Hogarth.
(Plate LII.)
One important result of our re-examination of the Artemision has been
to bring to light on the site itself a considerable number of representations
of the Goddess in various materials and of several periods. Almost all
these are of earlier date than the Ephesian representations hitherto known.
Authority for the local personification has hitherto been, in the main,
Ephesian and other coins upon which a certain type of cultus-figure
begins to appear in the 2nd century B.C. The earliest representations
are countermarks upon certain cistophori of Ephesus and Tralles, ascribed
to a date not long before 133 B.C. (B.M.C. Ionia, p. 63, no. 144).
Until the Empire this numismatic type remained rare; but thenceforward
it occurred very frequently on the coinage of Ephesus and other Asian
cities, and is usually regarded as representing the " multimammia"
personification referred to by early Christian writers,1 and preserved to
us by plastic art of the Roman period, e.g. by a well-known alabaster
figure at Naples.2 In these representations the Goddess stands stiff, with
high nwdius on her head, and feet placed close together. She is swathed
from waist to ankles in mummy-like wrappings, which are sometimes
decorated with figure-scenes, and sometimes present a scaly appearance.
The whole front of the figure from throat to waist is covered with pendent
dugs, and the arms are extended from the elbow. Behind the head
is a sort of nimbus. In coin representations two lines usually fall from
the hands, sometimes converging towards the feet of the figure (PI. Hi.,
nos. 1, 2, 3), or, in some representations, e.g. at Colophon (B.M.C. Ionia, p. 43,
no. 53), ending below in finials of very enigmatic nature. Sometimes also,
but rarely, stags appear in heraldic opposition on either side, not grasped
or touched by the figure's hands. The lower part of this figure is commonly
1 i-.;,-., Jerome! Comm. in cpist. Pauli ad Eplies. xxvi, 441 ; M. Minucius Felix, OctaV. 225.
impire also a Cyrenaean statuette-torso in the British Museum (Cat. Sculp, ii, no. 1430), which, however,
more probably represents the local goddess, Cyrene, than Artemis Ephesia.
2 T 2