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ZSUZSANNA TURCSÁN-TÓTH
Despite the fact that we are talking about the cult of a popular and widely
worshipped goddess, we only have indirect evidence about the appearance of
her cult statue before the second century BC.
We do not have any original cult statues of the great Ephesian goddess.?
Only replicas have survived. Ihe type of representation, actually known as
Artemis Ephesia, can be found first on Ephesian coins from the middle of
the second century BC.? The first replica of the goddess’ cult statue probably
comes from the era of late Hellenism, but most the statues of her were made
during the second century AD.* This means that we have details regarding
the appearance of the cult statue of Artemis Ephesia only from the second
part ofthe almost thousand-year-long history of her cult.
Richard Oster characterizes the history of Artemis Ephesia and her cult
in his essay about Ephesus’s religious life under the Principate as a motion
picture, not as a single snapshot.’ After all, this statement is true not only for
her cult, but also for her cult statue, with the addition that while the film is
being screened, the scene goes dark several times, and more details are visible
towards the end of the story than at the beginning.
The cult statue of Artemis Ephesia should not be considered evidence that
a representation of the goddess had appeared around the seventh or sixth
centuries BC and then remained in the same form since then. Rather, it should
be viewed as a result of a long developmental period.°
We can be sure that by the second century AD, a more or less uniform
representation of the goddess had emerged. Some details like the posture,
the “breasts”, the polos, and the veil (also known as nimbus) had been
standardized, while some other minor ornaments, such as mythological
creatures and animals’ protomes and reliefs, could have bigger variation.
The question of how many cult statues existed in the millennium-long life of the cult is
a matter of dispute. Some scholars believe there was only one, while others think we should
suppose the existence of three cult statues; see Robert Fleischer, Artemis von Ephesus
und verwandte Kultstatuen aus Anatolien und Syrien, EPRO 35, Leiden, Brill, 123-125;
Ulrike Muss, Zur Dialektik von Kultstatue und Statuetten im Artemision von Ephesos,
in H. Friesinger — F. Krinzinger (eds.), 100 Jahre Österreichische Forschungen in Ephesos.
Akten des Symposions Wien 1995, Wien, Verlag der Osterreichischen Akademie der
Wissenschaften, 1999, 597-598.
Fleischer, Artemis, 39, Tafel 51b. These cistophores were undated, but according to Karwiese,
they were made between 159 and 133 BC, cf. Stefan Karwiese, Ephesos, Paulys Realencyclopädie
der classischen Altertumswissenschaft, Supplementband 12, 1970, cols. 323.
Fleischer, Artemis, XI, 129-130. We do not know the original cult statue or cult statues of
the great Ephesian goddess.
5 Richard Oster, Ephesus as a Religious Center under the Principate I, W. Haase (ed.), Aufstieg
und Niedergang der römischen Welt Vol.18, 3, Berlin etc., Walter de Gruyter, 1990, 1699.
° Robert Fleischer, Neues zum Kultbild der Artemis von Ephesos, inH Friesinger - F.Krinzinger
(eds.), 100 Jahre Österreichische Forschungen in Ephesos. Akten des Symposions Wien 1995,
Wien, Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1999, 609.
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