Diana

Diana of Versailles

Artemis with a hind, better known as "Diana of Versailles" as it was long exhibited in the Versailles Castle. Marble, Roman artwork, Imperial Era (1st-2nd centuries CE). Found in Italy, maybe at Nemi (Latium).

Diana of the Ephesians. Naples Museum

Seems difficult, if not impossible, to reconcile the two Goddesses of Ephesus. Here they are side by side.

Diana of the Hunt

Tunisia, Tunis, Bardo Museum, Roman Mosaic, Hunting Scene

Diana, as found in the Terrace Houses of Ephesus

The Romans more easily embraced the Goddess as the Huntress. Her she is, awkwardly tucked away in a corner, in the Selçuk Arceological Museum near Ephesus

Diana the Huntress by Giuseppe Giorgetti

This sculpture depicts Diana as a huntress, with a bow and a quiver of arrows on her back. It is housed in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.

Statue of Diana, fresco
from Pompeii, 50–1 BCE

“Diana from the Sea”

After the eternal home of a cat from ancient Egypt, the Unseen Museum hosts Artemis from the sea.

This is a bronze statuette of Artemis, dated to the end of the 4th cent. B.C., which was retrieved from deep waters in the sea area of Mykonos, in May 1959 and since then has been kept in the storerooms of the National Archaeological Museum. The bronze goddess, the venerated virgin, the mistress of wild animals, the patroness of wild nature, of fertility, of infants, of young girls, of women’s life – its joys and hardships

Apollo, Diana and Leto in procession. Marble relief in the Louvre

The archetypal und archaic Anatolian goddess, Cybele, was revered not only throughout Anatolia but also on the neighboring (modern day) Greek islands.

Evidence of her cult can still be seen today in the cave formations and niches carved into hillsides. Her great gift to humanity is the mystery of rebirth.

Many of these caves symbolize the birth canal and end in womb-like forms. On the island of Samos, for example, one enters the caves as if stepping back into the darkness of the womb—not of a biological mother and father, but of the Great Goddess of eternity.

During our journey through Anatolia, we will visit many such places—caves and rock niches where Cybele was likely venerated long before the appearance and unveiling of the many goddesses who later emerged in human consciousness, in our hearts and in our souls.