ARTEMIS ("Aprqus, Acts xix. 24), the Diana of the Romans, is a goddess known under various modifications, and with almost incompatible attri butes. As the tutelary divinity of Ephesus, in which character alone she concerns us here, she was un doubtedly a representative of the same power pre siding over conception and birth which was adored in Palestine under the name of ASHTORETH. She is therefore related to all the cognate deities of that Asiatic Juno-Venus, and partakes, at least, of their connection with the 11100n. Creuzer has combined a number of testimonies in order to shew how her worship was introduced into Ephesus from the coasts of the Black Sca; and endeavours to point out the several Medo-Persian, Egyptian, Libyan, Scythian, and Cretan elements of which she is compounded (Symbolik, ii. 115, sq.) Her earliest image, which was said to have fallen from heaven, was probably very rude, and, to judge from its representation on ancient coins, little more than a head with a shapeless trunk, supported by a staff on each side. There is some dispute as to the material of which her image was made. Most authorities say it was of ebony, the black colour being as Creuzer thinks, symbolical. Pliny relates that Mucianus, who had seen it, affirms that it was of the wood of the vine, and that it was so old that it had survived seven restorations of the temple (Hut.
Nat. xvi. 79). According to Xenophon, it was of gold (Ahab. v. 3). The latter image with the full development of attributes, of which we give a re presentation below, is, as Creuzer says, a Pantheon of Asiatic and Egyptian deities. Even in it, how ever, we see how little influence Greek art had in modifying its antique rudeness. It is still more like a mummy than a Greek statue. Some of the most significant attributes in this figure are--The turreted head like that of Cybele ; the nimbus behind it representing the moon; the Zodiacal signs of the bull, the twins, and the crab on her bosom ; below lem, two garlands, one of flowers and the other Df acorns ; the numerous breasts ; the lions, stags, and cows in various parts ; the bees and flowers or the sides ; and others described in Millin's i. 26. Her priests were called Megabyzi, and were eunuchs.
The Arabic version of the Acts renders Artemis, in the chapter cited, by Az Zuharat, which is the Arabic name for the planet Venus.--J. N.