Oldal 55 [55]
THE STATUE OF ÁRTEMIS EPHESIA...
resembling the pose of the statue. They turn toward each other, each raising
one hand, and between them we see an oblong opening. Above the opening,
we can often observe a disc.**
Several interpretations have been offered concerning the significance of
the openings on the pediment. According to some researchers, they did not
have any specific meanings; they only served to reduce the weight of the roof.
Others think that their purpose was to let the goddess see the ritual acts
taking place at the altar in front of the sanctuary or to let the moonlight shine
through during certain celebrations of the goddess and provide a particular
glow for the cult statue.”°
In my opinion, the solution was found by Peter Hommel in his study about
the symbolism of the pediment representations of the sanctuaries appearing
on coins. He is convinced that the pediment symbolizes the sky, while the
openings represent the gates of the sky.*° Hommel thought that the female
figures visible on the pediment of the Artemision were in fact the guardians
of these gates.”’
We know from the Iliad who guards the gates of the sky. In the 749" and
750" line of the fifth book, the Horae appear as the keepers of Zeus’s cloud
gates. This kind of tradition survived into the Roman imperial period,”
which is when the statues were made.
Hommelalso pointed out that the female figures appearing on the pediment
are similar to the female figures on the goddess’s statues. With this, he claims
that whenever two female figures are on the statues, we actually see the same
scene.
However, on the chest of the statues we do not see a gate similar to the
oblong openings, but the astrological sign of Cancer. If we accept Hommel’s
interpretation, we should see a gate in the place of the Cancer, or we should
suppose that the Cancer itself is actually the gate.
At this point, we can turn to Porphyry” and Macrobius* for information
on the two gates of the sky. They considered Cancer and Capricorn as two
gates through which the souls descend into human existence and through
which, in turn, they leave it:
4 There are some other variants of the pediment’s decoration on the coins—for example, only
female figures and no openings are visible, or to the contrary, the number of the openings and
the circles are different. For the variant, see Peter Hommel: Giebel und Himmel, Istanbuler
Mitteilungen, Vol. 7 (1956), 42-43; cf. Stefan Karwiese, Artemis, 1999, 74, Anhang 1.
About the theories in short, see Anton Bammer — Ulrike Muss, Das Artemision von Ephesos.
Das Weltwunder Ioniens in archaischer und klassischer Zeit, Mainz am Rhein, Zabern,
1996, 55.
2° Hommel, Giebel, 30-40.
27 Hommel, Giebel, 46-47.
28 Paus. V, 11, 7; Lucian Sacr. 8; Eus. Praep. ev. II; Hommel, Giebel, 47.
2% Porph. Antr. 22.
30 Macr. Somn. I, 21, 1.
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