The Last Goddess
How Artemis Ephesia Lost Her Crown – Lecture
Despite the attempt by the Greeks to superimpose their tradition of the Artemis, Goddess of the Hunt, known for her severe approach to chastity, virginity, and rejection of marriage, onto the attributes of the Anatolian goddess of motherhood, creation, and an all-encompassing authority, they remained unsuccessful.
Artemis Ephesia retained much of her pre-Hellenic attributes and her royal lineage. Pausanias describes an epithet within the temple of Ephesus in which Artemis is labeled “Goddess of the First Throne,” also referred to as, the womb that encompasses the world
divine authority of Artemis Ephesia is still significant. Her position as Queen is completely unrelated to her Greek counterpart and fundamentally different than any other Olympian deity. It is not difficult to trace the link between an all-encompassing Mother Goddess, the Anatolian Cybele, to the Queen of Beasts or Mistress of Animals, referring to the Greek Artemis, and finally to Artemis Ephesia, the Goddess of the First Throne.
Please enjoy this introductory lecture on some of my academic research in the tradition and ritual history of Artemis Ephesia.
Artemis Expert 