4. The Ephesian Artemis was a divinity totally distinct from the Greek
goddess of the same name. She seems to have been the personification of the fructifying and
all-nourishing powers of nature. It is an opinion almost universally adopted, that she was an
ancient Asiatic divinity whose worship the Greeks found established in Ionia, when they
settled there, and that, for some resemblance they discovered, they applied to her the name of
Artemis. As soon as this identity of the Asiatic goddess with the Greek Artemis was
recognised, other features, also originally peculiar to the Greek Artemis, were transferred to
her; and thus she is called a daughter of Leto, who gave birth to her in the neighbourhood of
Ephesus. Her original character is sufficiently clear from the fact, that her priests were
eunuchs, and that her image in the magnificent temple of Ephesus represented her with many breasts (corona muralis), and the lower part of her body, which ended in a point,
like a pyramid upside down, was covered with figures of mystical animals. (s.
v.
Respecting some other divinities, or attributes of divinities, which were likewise regarded
as identical with Artemis in Greece, see BRITOMARTIS, DICTYNNA, and EILEITHYIA. The Romans
identified their goddess Diana with the Greek Artemis, and at a comparatively early time they
transferred to their own goddess all the peculiar features of the Greek Artemis. [DIANA.] The worship of Artemis was universal in all Greece, in Delos,
Crete, Sicily, and southern Italy, but more especially in Arcadia and the whole of the
Peloponnesus. The sacrifices offered to the Brauronian Artemis consisted of stags and goats;
in Thrace dogs were offered to Artemis. Among the animals sacred to the Greek Artemis we may
mention the stag, boar, dog, and others; the fir-tree was likewise sacred to her.
It is impossible to trace the various relations in which Artemis appears to us to one common source, or to one fundamental idea : the very manner in which such a complicated mythus was formed renders the attempt futile, or, to say the least, forced. In the case of Artemis, it is evident, that new elements and features were added in various places to the ancient local mythus; the worship of one divinity is identified with that of another, and the legends of the two are mixed up into one, or those of the one are transferred to the other, whose legends then sink into oblivion.
The representations of the Greek Artemis in works of art are different accordingly as she is
represented either as a huntress, or as the goddess of the moon; yet in either case she
appears as a youthful and vigorous divinity, as becomes the sister of Apollo. As the huntress,
she is tall, nimble, and has small hips; her forehead is high, her eyes glancing freely about,
and her hair tied up behind in such a manner, that some locks float down her neck; her breast
is covered, and the legs up to the knees are naked, the rest being covered by the chlamys. Her
attributes are the bow, quiver, and arrows, or a spear, stags, and dogs. As the goddess of the
moon, she wears a long robe which reaches down to her feet, a veil covers her head, and above
her forehead rises the crescent of the moon. In her hand she often appears holding a torch.
(Mitscherlich, de Diana Sopita, Göttingen, 1821; Müller, Dorians, book 2.100.9; Musco Pio-Clem. 1.30 ; Hirt, Mythol. Bilderb. i. p. 37.)