Oldal 53 [53]
THE STATUE OF ÁRTEMIS EPHESIA...
The original cult statue must have been a simple wooden xoanon?
which was dressed up, and as a result, we can find very richly ornamented
copies. The goddess must have had a significant wardrobe—at least, this is
what the number of variations seems to reflect. According to some modern
researchers, different clothes were worn by the statue for celebrations.
There are necklaces, female figures and astrological signs on the chest part
of the statues. The female figures and the astrological signs often appear in
a common “scene”. This can have several variations (Table 1): two figures
inside the floral wreath with one or three astrological signs; four figures with
five astrological signs between them; four figures with astrological signs
under their feet; four figures inside the wreath and astrological signs outside
the wreath. On some statues, only the female figures or only the astrological
signs are visible on the chest.
The most common variant is where two female figures hold a wreath above
a Cancer. This is the example I am going to explain in detail below. That
the scene appears frequently is indicated by the fact that the astrological signs
and the female figures appear together in 21 cases on the statues, of which
in twelve cases only the Cancer appears with the two female figures. In four
other cases, we see several other astrological signs next to the female figures,
but the sign in the middle is always the Cancer. In the remaining cases, if
there is a middle sign, it is Gemini, as we can see on two statues; or there is
no middle sign, as the astrological signs are under the women’s feet or outside
the wreath.
If we want to understand the meaning of this scenario, we have to
decode what the given figures represent together and what they represent
separately.
In most cases, the female figures are turned toward each other and hold
a wreath with ribbons over the Cancer, often with a palm leaf in the other
hand. At first glance, we would certainly tend to identify them as Nike or
Victoria, to judge by the objects they have in their hands (Table 1). But
while there are often two female figures, sometimes there are four" or six"
of them.
13 Fleischer, Artemis, 121-125.
Stefan Karwiese, Artemis Ephesia Sebasteia. Ein Entzifferungsbeitrag, in P. Scherrer
— H. Taeuber — H. Thür (eds.), Steine und Wege: Festschrift für Dieter Knibbe zum 65.
Geburtstag, SoSchrÖAI 32, Wien, Österreichisches Archäologisches Institut, 1999, 61-62.
Lichtenecker identified them as Nike, and she meant that they belong among the oldest
elements of the statue’s adornments, cf. Elisabeth Lichtenecker, Die Kultbilder der Artemis
von Ephesos, unpublished dissertation 1952, 104-108. According to Karwiese, they represent
Victoria, and they became part of the statue’s ornaments only in the period of Augustus, cf.
Karwiese, Artemis, 70-72.
A10, A30, A31, A39. See the catalogues of Artemis Ephesia’s sculptures and upper body
fragments in Table 2.
17 A32.
Daréczi-Sepsi-Vassänyi_Initiation_155x240.indb 51 6 2020.06.15. 11:04:11