A rare image of hanged Artemis?

[kirispupis]

First a disclaimer: I’m actually in Kenya right now trying to stay up as late as I can so I’m writing this post on my phone. Last night our flight from Istanbul was supposed to land at 2 am but actually landed at 7 am because there was so much fog we were diverted to Arusha which is in a different country. I haven’t slept in a very long time but I need to stay up because we’re on safari tomorrow and I need to get on this time so please excuse my errors.

Recently I won this coin at auction. It’s a rare Roman provincial for me, but from a rare mint and I suspect the reverse may be extremely interesting.

Laureate head of Septimius Severus to right. Rev. Artemis running to left, her head turned back to right with her veil billowing around her, holding torch in her right and bow in her left. 22mm 6.3g

 

The attribution comes from this example listed by Nomos, who didn’t buy it. They instead suggested it was a serpent, but I don’t buy that either. I don’t believe Artemis was typically associated with a serpent (though her brother was) and thus doesn’t look like a serpent pose.

I found two other examples that just ignored whatever is over Artemis’ head and another that suggested a halo, which also doesn’t make sense to me because halos weren’t a common feature at the time. Another mentions a veil, which could be possible but I doubt.

Instead, my suspicion comes from this passage by Pausanias.

About a stade distant from Kaphyai is a place called Condylea, where there are a grove and a temple of Artemis called of old Condyleatis. They say that the name of the goddess was changed for the following reason. Some children, the number of whom is not recorded, while playing about the sanctuary found a rope, and tying it round the neck of the image said that Artemis was being strangled. The Kaphyaians detecting what the children had done, stoned them to death. When they had done this, a malady befell their women, whose babies were stillborn, until the Pythian priestess bade them bury the children, and sacrifice to them every year as sacrifice is made to heroes, because they had been wrongly put to death. The Kaphyans still obey this oracle, and call the goddess at Condyleae, as they say the oracle also bade them, the Strangled Lady from that day to this.

It’s my suspicion that this may be a depiction of “strangled Artemis”. What surrounds her head is a rope. I’ve also read that in rituals, changing deities (including Artemis) were often observed with ‘swings”, which may be what is depicted here.

So, that’s my theory and what pushed me to acquire this rare provincial. If true, then it seems to be a very rare depiction as the coin is otherwise unpublished (though BCD had one). 
 

What do you think of my theory? 

Edited July 28 by kirispupis

[Roman Collector]

Sometimes Diana/Artemis is depicted as a torch-bearing (Diana Lucifera/Artemis Phosphoros) figure with a billowing veil behind her head. I explored this iconography in an installment of Faustina Friday elsewhere.

Faustina I, 138-140 CE.
Roman Æ as or dupondius, 9.30 g, 25.6 mm, 11 h.
Rome, 150 CE.
Obv: DIVA FAVSTINA, bare-headed and draped bust, right.
Rev: AVGVSTA S C, Aeternitas-Diana with crescent on head, advancing left, with right hand holding starry veil which billows around head, and lighted torch in left hand.
Refs: RIC 1183; BMCRE 1587; Cohen —; Strack 1284; RCV 4650; Hunter 112.

[Deinomenid]

There's a very similar reverse on a coin of Hieron II, which is NEVER satisfactorily explained as far as  I can tell.

Either a young lady, girl or "goddess" though Artemis' brother Apollo is  on the obverse. I'd love to  know what's going  on.

SYRACUSE. Hieron II, 274 - 216 BC (brilliant precise dating!) . 2 1/2 Litrae 14mm (1.84g). Obv.: youthful head of Apollo with laurel wreath l. Rev.: ΣΥΡΑΚΩΣΙΟΝ, goddess with velum and a partly unrolled scroll.

[Anaximander]

We would certainly benefit from seeing more examples.

The LHS description is Kaphyai, Assarion (AE 22 mm 5.72 gm), c. 198-209. Artemis running to left, looking back, with her veil billowing around her, holding torch and bow. I find that plausible, at least the part about the veil. My earlier 2.5 litra from Syracuse has a similar reverse figure with billowing veil.  That figure is holding sistrum (Pegasi Numismatics) or scroll (CNG) and filleted palm frond, which I'm loth to suggest in your case (even though Artemis was born on the island of Delos under a palm). 

    

 

[seth77]

@kirispupis I ws also following the two Peloponnesus coins, but as suspected they went for way too much for me. This one with the veil getting blown by the wind and billowing over her for Kaphyai (BCD 1385) is a very popular representation of Artemis in Achaea and Macedonia. Amphipolis has a long Imperial series with Artemis Tauropolos that most of the time shows Artemis with the billowing veil.

[Roman Collector]

22 minutes ago, seth77 said:

@kirispupis I ws also following the two Peloponnesus coins, but as suspected they went for way too much for me. This one with the veil getting blown by the wind and billowing over her for Kaphyai (BCD 1385) is a very popular representation of Artemis in Achaea and Macedonia. Amphipolis has a long Imperial series with Artemis Tauropolos that most of the time shows Artemis with the billowing veil.

I had forgotten about those!

[seth77]

1 minute ago, Roman Collector said:

I had forgotten about those!

Lovely coin!

[AncientOne]

Interesting theory. On my example the veil is coming from the shoulder/arm area where as yours is coming from the neck. The torch makes it Artemis Phosphorous IMHO.

Achaea. Arcadia, Caphyae. Septimius Severus Æ22

Obv: Laureate head right.
Rev: KAΦYI ATΩN / Artemis, with veil billowing, running left, head right, holding torch and bow.
22mm., 5.2gm.
BCD Peloponnesos 1385.

[DonnaML]

I tend to think it's just a billowing veil, like the one present on depictions of Europa.

[Anaximander]

Well, @Deinomenid, you may have gotten your post out seconds before me, but we so aligned that even the coin type we shared is a die match. Huzzah! 

[kirispupis]

Thank you everyone! So, from the other examples presented, it appears a ‘billowing veil’ is a likely answer. Perhaps what threw me off is that Nomos explicitly rejected that description. However, the examples from Syracuse and Amphipolis render my theory unlikely.

@seth77i actually purchased both Peloponnese coins. For Boura, no Hellenistic coins are known afaik so I went for it. Hellenistic Kaphyai is known but is extremely tough and I noticed other examples went for a lot more than I paid. 
 

imho even a ‘billowing veil’ attribution is intriguing because it shows Artemis more as a goddess of female pubescence than the ‘bad ass’ depiction of a goddess of the hunt, the same who turned a peeping Tom into a deer that was devoured by his hounds, or helped Apollo slaughter a vain family in Ovid, juxtaposed with ‘the muddy Artemis’ where the same goddess had to cover herself in mud to evade an attacker. 
 

Thank you for all the replies. This gives me something to ponder as I head to Amboseli this morning.

[Kaleun96]

7 hours ago, kirispupis said:

Thank you everyone! So, from the other examples presented, it appears a ‘billowing veil’ is a likely answer. Perhaps what threw me off is that Nomos explicitly rejected that description. However, the examples from Syracuse and Amphipolis render my theory unlikely.

Sorry I'm a bit confused, by Nomos are you referring to the LHS Numismatik lot you linked? If so, that lot description does say it's a veil, it just notes that F. Kovacs claimed it was a serpent but LHS reject that explanation, not the veil explanation. Or is there some other lot from Nomos that you're referring to and I missed?

[kirispupis]

2 hours ago, Kaleun96 said:

Sorry I'm a bit confused, by Nomos are you referring to the LHS Numismatik lot you linked? If so, that lot description does say it's a veil, it just notes that F. Kovacs claimed it was a serpent but LHS reject that explanation, not the veil explanation. Or is there some other lot from Nomos that you're referring to and I missed?

Yes. You are correct. This is a factor of writing the first post on 40 hours with no sleep and the second at 3 am.

[Curtisimo]

Nice coins all. Yes this is a billowing veil. The artistic convention is called “velificatio.”

It was commonly used to set apart a (usually female) deity in an artistic scene. It typically denotes a sense of rapid motion or dynamism. It was used often in the personifications of the winds and to designate female members of the imperial family that had been deified.

 

Here is my example of the personified Danube with velificatio used to suggest the powerful and turbulent flow of the river.

Edited July 31 by Curtisimo

[kirispupis]

Thank you for the detailed answer @Curtisimoand others. It’s great that there are so many experts on this forum!