Unfamiliar symbols

"Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!" I wonder if any of those silver images of the temple are still around. There are statues of Artemis still around; she seems to have canes in her hands (canes are also seen in a crude lead figure, so if it was a stability artifact it was in the original--it looks top heavy). No idea what that was taken to mean. The Artemis has a garment with lions and cows and antelopes and whatnot, and women on the sides--small breasted, possibly to avoid competition with the vast array of breasts the goddess sported. I assume the multitude of breasts has to do with fertility and providing for the world. The effect is remarkably ugly.

I haven't turned up any silver images of the temple. Probably all were melted long ago.

One of the images of Artemis' head has her eyes rolled up in an expression that seems almost Hindu--which wouldn't be terribly surprising. The city clerk spoke of an image fallen from heaven. Was that a special inner shrine with a meteorite, or had stories been told that this top-heavy thing had really fallen from the sky?

I’ve suggested before that polytheism is the compromise you get when different tribes with different gods met. I think it can work a bit the other way too. If you have a pile of gods you have to keep up with the appropriate seasonal rituals with each, but perhaps one takes your fancy--say Krishna. I suspect that the more people are devoted to a single god in the pantheon, the more that one will take on aspects that others are nominally the managers of. A fertility goddess could easily pick up aspects of wrath, and even of battle--if people cared about her enough. (Priests might have a little competition going here too--one stop shopping, get all your prayers done here...)

Be that as it may, I look at the statue and find it opaque. And this is the relic of a literate people, from whom we have many documents--there's some connection between us still. And then I look at the pictures at Göbekli Tepe. Wild guesses, all.

Great was Artemis of the Ephesians Wright's site has a picture of what's left: a mismatched column with a stork's nest on top. The ruins of the temple were scavenged to build a basillica, and eventually the ruins of that for a mosque, and the mosque isn't in great shape now either.