Artemis von Ephesos und verwandte Kultstatuen aus Anatolien und Syrien

Description

The forerunner of this comprehensive and fully descriptive catalogue of statues and other repre-sentations was the work published in Berlin by Hermann Thiersch, Artemis Ephesia, I. Katalog der erhaltenen Denkmäler (Abh. Göttingen, 1935, recently reprinted). Fleischer has augmented the material by about one-third. His study is typological and expressly renounces any concern with the related cults or with the origin of the deities. Needless to say, it contributes vitally nevertheless to any such considerations.He defines his basic type as deriving from the Hellenistic and Roman eras, but as exhibiting, at the same time, an ancient appearance: the legs are indistinguishably closed, the upper arms lie on the line of the body, while the lower arms are symmetrically stretched out towards the beholder; the lower body and legs are often encased by a narrow-fitting sheath, and the chest is adorned with many 'breasts', heavy necklaces or other decorations. Other features are the high head-dress and the animals figured at the sides or in front. What is at first a little surprising is that, although goddesses predominate, some male deities are included in the general category; chief among them are Zeus Labraundus and Jupiter Heliopolitanus of Baalbek. The leading goddesses are the Ephesian Artemis, Aphrodite of Aphrodisias (in Caria), Hera of Samos, and Artemis of Perge (in Pamphylia). Welcome features of the present assemblage of material are the due attention given to representations on coins and the assiduous tracking down of all the more obscure deities who can be assigned to the basic type. The question of dating, with regard especially to the ultimate origin, is dealt with too — a very necessary investigation in view of theories which invoke an Anatolian or Syrian 'Renaissance'.