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ZSUZSANNA TURCSÁN-TÓTH
As far as Nike and Victoria are concerned, we know of representations in
which more than one of them appear. (Actually, it is more often the case that
there are two of them.) For example, the Artemis Leukophryene, honoured in
Magnesia on the Maeander, was represented together with two flying Nikes
on the coins of the Roman imperial period." But according to Lichtenecker,
she was connected with Nike, since an inscription from the second century
BC names her Niknp6poc. © As for Victoria, the most typical examples are
the so-called statua loricata, where regularly two Nikes appear as ornaments
on the armour.” Although in the case of both goddesses, sometimes we can
see two or three of them, there is no known example of four or six Victorias
or Nikes appearing on the same object," except as building ornaments.”
The other details which make it possible to identify the female figures are
the attributes visible in their hands (Table 1).** However, we observe not only
palm leaves and wreaths in their hands but also some other objects. When
they are four, some of them are holding sticks with curved ends, and in some
of the representations, the two figures in the middle are holding a thyrsos.
These attributes are not characteristic of Nikes and Victorias.
The interpretation of the female figures is facilitated by the fact that they
appear not only on the replica of the cult statues. They can be observed
on some of the coins from Ephesus, although in another context. The first
coins of this type date back to the era of Claudius. Most of them were made
during Hadrian’s reign, and the last pieces are from the middle of the third
century AD.
On the reverse of these coins, we can see the front of the Artemision at
Ephesus. The representation of the sanctuary is detailed. The small parts, for
example the crepidoma, the decoration of the columns, and the details of the
pediment, are discernible. The representations of the pediment are not always
the same, but there are some elements which often appear: oblong openings,
female figures, and circles. In most cases, there are three openings, one in
the middle and the others in the corners; the two figures are in a posture
18 Fleischer, Artemis, Tafel 62-63.
1% Lichtenecker, Die Kultbilder, 104-105; cf. Otto Kern (ed.), Die Inschriften von Magnesia am
Maeander, Berlin, W. Spemann, 1900, Nr. 100.
Karwiese, Artemis, 71.
2° Asitis visible on A10, A30, A31, A32, A39.
2 Jean Ch. Balty, Victoria, in Hans Christoph Ackermann — John Boardman (eds.), Lexicon
Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae, Vol. 8, 1, Zürich, Artemis Verlag, 1997, 257-258.
Turcsän-Töth Zsuzsanna, Alapvetes az Artemis Ephesia szobrok ikonográfiai programjának
elemzéséhez, 2015, 131-133.
http://www.idi.btk.pte.hu/dokumentumok/disszertaciok/turcsantothzsuzsannaphd.pdf
accessed 20. December 2015.
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