Artemis Anahita. Persian Trace in The Culture and Identity of the Roman City

The article analyses historical sources, mainly Greek and Latin, on the goddess Artemis Anahita, of Persian origin, who became an important part of the urban culture of several cities in Asia Minor during the Hellenistic and Roman periods. In terms of functions and visual representations, the Persian goddess Anahita was incorporated into the Greek worldview under the “appearance” of Artemis, not in the iconography of the well-known Hellenistic statue by Leochares, but in a form similar to the statue of Artemis of Ephesus. During the second and third centuries AD, the magistrates of Sardis, Hypaepa, and Philadelphia adopted this goddess as one of the symbols of their cities. Coin types featuring Artemis Anahita appeared not only on issues of autonomous minting but also alongside the busts of emperors. Thus, numismatic sources reveal the visual representation and function of the goddess in maintaining the local identity of city elites of the Roman provinces in Asia Minor

Hellenistic Period · Iconography · Identity (music) · Persian · Representation (politics) · Statue · TRACE (psycholinguistics) · Ancient Mediterranean Archaeology and History · Classical Antiquity Studies · Eurasian Exchange Networks

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