Artemis of Ephesus (Ephesian Artemis)

Cult statue from Ephesus called the "Beautiful Artemis" (1st cent AD).
Photo Julian Fong.


Side view of "Beautiful Artemis." Photo © Andrys Basten.


Cult statue from Ephesus called the "Great Artemis" (2nd cent. AD).
Photo © Andrys Basten.


All that remains of the Temple of Artemis is a single reconstructed
column standing in a marsh. Photo © Nick Leonard.

Aerial view of the Temple of Artemis site in Ephesus. For a larger view
see our Ephesus Map or get our free Google Earth download.

The following is an excerpt from the author's master's thesis on the religious history of ancient Ephesus, submitted in June 2007 at the University of Oxford. Subtitles and links have been added for publication here.

Ancient Ephesus was known across the Greek world for its devotion to the goddess Artemis and for its monumental temple dedicated to her. The Ephesian Artemis was a unique combination of the Greek virgin-huntress Artemis with an indigenous Anatolian goddess, manifested in the famously enigmatic cult statue covered in apparent fertility symbols. Three marble copies of the cult statue that stood in the temple survive and are displayed in the Ephesus Museum.[1]

Patronage

Generally speaking, the Greek Artemis was a goddess of virginity, women’s concerns, the hunt and the underworld. She presided over the transition of a woman from virgin (parthenos) to married woman (gyne) and protected the virginity of those who were unmarried or wished to remain virgins. In Achilles Tatius’ story of Leukippe and Kleitophon, a central theme is Artemis’ protection of her devotees’ virginity. When Thersandros, an Ephesian, attempts to rape Leukippe, the victim cries out, ‘Tell me, aren’t you afraid of your goddess Artemis? You rape a virgin in the virgin’s own city? Lady goddess, where are your arrows?’[2] Virginity was especially emphasised in the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus: only virgins and men were permitted access and married or sexually active women were excluded under penalty of death.[3]

A Mother Goddess?

Artemis also oversaw marriage, childbirth and assisted with child-rearing. The novel of Xenophon indicates that maidens preparing for marriage would visit the temple on a daily basis for prayer and sacrifice.[4] Inscriptions indicate that Artemis received garments in thanks for a happy marriage or successful childbirth.[5] One Greek inscription refers to her as the ‘soother of child-bed pangs’.[6]

In addition to these feminine concerns, Artemis was strongly associated with the wilderness and wild animals and thus also with hunting and the rites of transition to manhood.[7] In Ephesus, Artemis was thus a natural Hellenic successor to the Phrygian Mother Goddess, who also presided over wild animals. Yet there are notable distinctions between the two. Artemis was an avowed virgin, for example, whereas the Mother Goddess oversaw fertility and had Attis for a lover.[8]

The Mysterious Cult Image

Artemis of Ephesus is commonly regarded as a fertility goddess, primarily because of the multitude of ‘breasts’ that cover her cult image. But as Richard Oster has cautioned, this interpretation relies heavily on the polemic of Christian writers, who are responsible for coining the epithet ‘multibreasted’.[9] Jerome is one such writer, who in the preface to his Commentary on Ephesians attributes the epithet to ‘the Greeks.’[10] Minucius Felix used the strange form as an example of the ridiculousness of pagan gods, writing:

Diana sometimes is a huntress, with her robe girded up high; and as the Ephesian she has many and fruitful breasts; and when exaggerated as Trivia, she is horrible with three heads and with many hands.[11]

Modern scholarship has come to no consensus with regard to the protrusions on the cult image, although many theories have been advanced.[12] A dominant theory has it that on certain occasions, bulls were sacrificed to the goddess and their testicles were affixed to her statue as a way of renewing her strength, so that she might better assist her worshipers.[13] Moreover, Artemis Ephesia seems to have been brought into conformity with the Greco-Roman Artemis from an early date, as we will see below. Oster therefore concludes:

One cannot doubt oriental and Anatolian influences on the history of the goddess, nor the presence of non-Greek and non-Roman aspects of the cult even in the Roman period. Nevertheless, none of this leads to the conclusions, especially without explicit corroborating evidence, that a sexual fertility goddess was prominent in the period of the early Roman Empire.[14]

Hecate & Magic

Artemis was also associated with death and the underworld[15] and came to be associated with magic, astrology, and the dark goddess Hecate. In Athens, Hecate was worshipped as Artemis Hecate and also as Kalliste, another of Artemis’ cult titles. Sacrifices to Artemis Hecate were performed in Hecate’s shrine at Erchia in Attica.[16]

An amulet in a third-century Roman tomb in Austria contained a magic charm against migraines, which took the form of a story involving Artemis: a female demon arises from the ocean in a frenzy, but Artemis Ephesia meets her and exorcises her. Interestingly, the same charm is found in medieval Greek collections of magical prayers.[17]

In Ephesus, Artemis’ great supernatural powers were reflected in titles such as Artemis of the First Throne, Queen of the Cosmos, Lord, Saviour, Heavenly Goddess, Greatest and Holiest[18] Her power over astrological fate was symbolised by the iconography of the zodiac on her cult image, and she also gave oracles.[19]

The Greek Artemis

That the Ephesian Artemis was distinct from the Greek Artemis is clear, especially in light of the cult image of Artemis Ephesia. Yet the forms tended to be blended, even in Ephesus. An early description of the Ephesian Artemis describes here as being a ‘shooter of swift arrows’.[20] And in the ancient Greek novels Ephesiaka and Leukippe and Kleitophon, it is the Greek virgin huntress who is portrayed as the city’s goddess. As Christine Thomas points out, it is virtually impossible that these authors were unfamiliar with the ‘iconographic peculiarity’ of the cult image of Artemis Ephesia. [21]

Furthermore, both forms of the goddess celebrated their birthday on 6 Thargelion,[22] and the Greek Artemis (a short-skirted huntress) is depicted on Ephesian coins from at least the third century.[23] The cult image of Artemis Ephesia begins to appear on coins beginning in the second century BC, then both forms appear on various Ephesian coins into the late Roman Empire.[24] In light of this blending in Ephesus and elsewhere, Thomas concludes:

In the Hellenistic period, the city of Ephesus itself actively encouraged the identification of its patron goddess with the most generic characterization of Artemis. Although the archaeological record demonstrates that the peculiar image of Artemis Ephesia remained beloved throughout the Hellenistic and Roman period, the novels themselves may be taken as evidence that Ephesus succeeded in its policy of identification.[25]

Rick Strelan suggests further that: ‘it is most likely that in most cultic practices, it was the Greek-influenced Artemis who dominated the minds of people, even if some of the symbolic forms of Artemis (such as images) remained traditionally Asiatic’.[26] Strelan also proposes that one’s personal choice of a form of Artemis was in part a matter of politics:

Undoubtedly, there was… occasional tension between the aboriginal Ephesians who wanted to maintain their traditional Asian symbols in traditional forms vis-à-vis the claims of those Greeks in Ephesus who saw Artemis as their own and so preferred their traditional forms of the goddess. The use of a particular symbol (such as an image) of Artemis made a political statement with the aboriginal Ephesians more likely to adopt Asian forms of Artemis to maintain their culture and their historical claims to rights in Ephesus, while the Greeks adopted the Grecan Artemis forms to symbolise their claims to political power in the city.[27]

Artemis and the Ephesians

In the ancient world, ‘religion was inextricably connected with politics and culture’.[28] It is no surprise, then, that as patroness of the city and sole resident of a glorious temple famed around the world, Artemis played a central role in the civic life, identity and pride of ancient Ephesus. Christine Thomas has calculated that of all the substantive references to Ephesus in the Thesaurus Linguae Graecae, ‘fully one-third of the passages referring to Ephesos or things Ephesian refer to the goddess, her sanctuary, or her cult personnel’.[29] The cult of Artemis was a civic affair and her festivals were an important aspect of the life of the city.

A central ritual was a great procession along the Sacred Way, which passed through the cemeteries at the base of Panayirdag and attracted great crowds.[30] The cult statue of Artemis, adorned by women of high society, was carried aloft to the temple by night, lit by torchlight.[31] In the Temple of Artemis, rituals conducted before the goddess involved offerings of incense and sacrifices of a wide variety of animals.[32] From inscriptions we learn that money from her temple’s lands were sometimes used for public works[33] and that the temple’s funds were sometimes misappropriated for selfish gain.[34]

Alongside this civic cult, there was a warm relationship of devotion and sympathy between the goddess and her individual worshippers. This is illustrated in the Ephesus-centred novels by Xenophon and Achilles Tatius[35]  as well as the array of devotional inscriptions to the goddess that have been found, some by temple officials (νέοποιος) but many others not. Two inscriptions from around the turn of the first century, neither one commissioned by a temple official, describe the author as φιλάρτεμις, Lover of Artemis.[36] The index to Die Inschriften von Ephesos yields hundreds of inscriptions with personal names beginning with the stem Artem-.[37] Many other inscriptions indicate a fervent belief in Artemis’ ability to answer prayers.[38]

A Decline in Popularity?

Despite her long-standing civic and personal importance in Ephesus, it is possible that Artemis’ popularity began to decline before the Christianisation of the city. This is the position of Dieter Knibbe, who bases his opinion in large part on a variety of religious changes and enactments that occurred in the second century.[39] It was in the second century, for instance, that other deities who ‘appeared to be more popular and helpful’ than Artemis were allowed to join her in the Prytaneion, the chief sanctuary in the city. These included Demeter and her daughter Kore, Sosipolis (saviour of the city) and the oracular sanctuary of Clarian Apollo.[40] At the same time, Artemis began to assume new functions, most notably of those healing (like the popular Asclepius) and magic (like the popular Hecate).[41]

These changes concerned the city’s leaders and benefactors, according to Knibbe, who took steps to reverse the trend. Around 160 AD, for instance, an inscription records that the civic rulers of Ephesus decided by vote that the month Artemision should henceforth be considered ‘holy in all its days’, consecrated to the goddess, and filled with festivals and celebrations in her honour. The inscription explains the motivation for this: ‘as the goddess will be the more honoured, our city will abide for all time more famous and blessed’. At around the same time, the sacred herald (hierokeryx) of Artemis increased his distribution of offerings of oil from annually to monthly.[43]

In the year 169, the Ephesians enlarged the altar of Artemis at the Triodos with new reliefs that gave her credit for the emperor Lucius Verus’ victory over the Parthians.[44] In an inscription dated as early as the third century, a priestess of Artemis is praised for ‘having restored all the mysteries of the goddess and rendered them in accordance with ancient custom’, indicating these had been neglected.[45]

Finally, in the early third century, the wealthy Ephesian sophist Titus Flavius Damianus paid for an expensive new marble road and portico leading from the city to the Temple of Artemis, with the express purpose that ‘the sanctuary should not lack worshippers in case of rain’.[46] Knibbe regards this last event as yet another piece of evidence that

Artemis no longer occupied first place in the competition with other gods and goddesses, who offered better answers to human problems, especially to the crucial question of life after death. Thus… when rains came and the plain was flooded or muddy, they stayed at home.[47]

Similarly, in the New Guide to Ephesus the Austrian excavators conclude that by this period, Artemis and the other long-established Greek gods
were no longer able to give satisfactory answers to the anxious question concerning the fate of the soul after death, and they tried to compensate for their increasing inner emptiness with ever greater displays of pomp and material splendour.[48]

It may also be significant that after the Temple of Artemis was heavily damaged due to earthquakes and the Gothic attack of 262, it was only partially rebuilt, and that using old materials.[49]

Religious Diversity

Yet none of these changes necessarily indicate a decline in Artemis’ popularity. It was not uncommon for deities, especially major deities, to take on a wide variety of roles and duties in the lives of their worshippers, nor to be revered alongside others. Artemis was never the primary deity at the Prytaneion; Hestia was.[50] And the establishment of an oracle of Apollo at the Prytaneion has been described by a number of scholars as an example of competition between cities: with their own oracle, the Ephesians avoided the need to consult the famous oracle at Klaros.[51]

As for the decree ordering great observation of the holy month of Artemision, it was explicitly for the purpose of bringing greater honour to the city and this would be a desirable end whether or not local devotion to Artemis was waning.[52] The new marble road to the Temple of Artemis may simply be part of the flourishing urban development that took place in second-century Ephesus.[53] Knibbe admits that changes in climate may have led to such extensive flooding that before the new portico was constructed, visiting the Temple of Artemis may have been at times an impossibility, not just an inconvenience.[54]

That Artemis’ popularity declined in the second century is therefore not entirely certain. However, there was always a multiplicity of cults in Ephesus and, especially in light of the growth of Egyptian cults, one does get the sense that the religious life of Ephesus became increasingly diverse in Late Roman times. By the fourth century, Peter Brown sees in the statuary of Ephesus evidence of ‘a new preoccupation with the inner life and with the supernatural’.[55]

Footnotes

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