Artemis the Huntress

This large statue was found in 1970 at Perge.  It was carved from a finely grained white marble.  Artemis is depicted as a dynamic, moving athletic young girl.  Her cap is in the form of a crescent and her wavy hair is tied in a ponytail at her back.  She wears a short, thin peplos above her knees.  She is depicted as hunting together with her dogs.  Her head is turned backward and she is plucking an arrow with her right hand from the quiver on her back.  She held a bow, now missing, in her left hand.

Compare the Diana of Versailles in the Louvre and contrast the Artemis of Ephesus!

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Artemis was the daughter of Leto and Zeus and the older sister of Apollo.  Apollo represented the sun and Artemis the moon.  She was a powerful goddess who was sovereign over nature and held in her hands the life and death of living beings.  She lived in the wild with the wild animals.

Click Here for an online Wikipedia article.