MACEDONIA PRIMA. GODDESS of FERTILITY,WILDERNESS & HUNT Start Price USD 0.99 Current Price USD 132.50 Time Left - Bid Count 11 Buy It Now Price - Reserve Price - Start Time Saturday, October 04, 2008 End Time Saturday, October 11, 2008 Location Vienna See more about 'MACEDONIA PRIMA. GODDESS of FERTILITY,WILDERNESS & HUNT' Description                               MACEDON (Roman Protectorate), Republican period. First Region, after 168 BC. Early Phase Celtic imitation. (?)This example is marked by a beveled flan, Artemis features which are becoming indistinct and most significantly, a lowered weight. As such it is likely that this is an early phase Celtic imitation.                                                  AR Tetradrachm (16.1 gm.; 32 mm.). Amphipolis mint.                Obv.: Macedonian shield ornamented with stars in double crescents & grouped pellets between; in tondo, draped bust of Artemis right, in stephane & pendant earring, bow & quiver over shoulder.      Rev.: MAKEDONWN PRWTHS above & below horizontal club, AYP monogram above, all in oak wreath, thunderbolt outside wreath to left.      AMNG III/1, p. 54, 160. BMC Macedonia 1.                                                                                                     Artemis. The daughter of Leto and Zeus, and the twin of Apollo. Artemis is the goddess of the wilderness, the hunt and wild animals, and fertility (she became a goddess of fertility and childbirth mainly in cities). She was often depicted with the crescent of the moon above her forehead and was sometimes identified with Selene (goddess of the moon). Artemis was one of the Olympians and a virgin goddess. Her main vocation was to roam mountain forests and uncultivated land with her nymph in attendance hunting for lions, panthers, hinds and stags. Contradictory to the later, she helped in protecting and seeing to their well-being, also their safety and reproduction. She was armed with a bow and arrows which were made by Hephaestus and the Cyclopes. In one legend, Artemis was born one day before her brother Apollo. Her mother gave birth to her on the island of Ortygia, then, almost immediately after her birth, she helped her mother to cross the straits over to Delos, where she then delivered Apollo. This was the beginning of her role as guardian of young children and patron of women in childbirth. Being a goddess of contradictions, she was the protectress of women in labor, but it was said that the arrows of Artemis brought them sudden death while giving birth. As was her brother, Apollo, Artemis was a divinity of healing, but also brought and spread diseases such as leprosy, rabies and even gout. Artemis was very possessive. She would show her wrath on anyone who disobeyed her wishes, especially against her sacred animals. Even the great hero Agamemnon came upon the wrath of Artemis, when he killed a stag in her sacred grove. His punishment came when his ships were becalmed, while he made his way to besiege Troy. With no winds to sail his ships he was told by the seer Calchas that the only way Artemis would bring back the winds was for him to sacrifice his daughter Iphigenia. Some versions say he did sacrifice Iphigenia, others that Artemis exchanged a deer in her place, and took Iphigenia to the land of the Tauri (the Crimea) as a priestess, to prepare strangers for sacrifice to Artemis. Artemis with her twin brother, Apollo, put to death the children of Niobe. The reason being that Niobe, a mere mortal, had boasted to Leto, the mother of the divine twins, that she had bore more children, which must make her superior to Leto. Apollo being outraged at such an insult on his mother, informed Artemis. The twin gods hunted them down and shot them with their bows and arrows; Apollo killed the male children and Artemis the girls. Artemis was worshiped in most Greek cities but only as a secondary deity. However, to the Greeks in Asia Minor (modern day Turkey) she was a prominent deity. In Ephesus, a principal city of Asia Minor, a great temple was built in her honor, which became one of the "Seven Wonders of the Ancient World". But at Ephesus she was worshiped mainly as a fertility goddess, and was identified with Cybele the mother goddess of eastern lands. The cult statues of the Ephesian Artemis differ greatly from those of mainland Greece, whereas she is depicted as a huntress with her bow and arrows. Those found at Ephesus show her in the eastern style, standing erect with numerous nodes on her chest. There have been many theories as to what they represent. Some say they are breasts, others that they are bulls testes which were sacrificed to her. Which is the true interpretation remains uncertain, but each represent fertility.                                                       Every item offered by VIVITE LAETI is unconditionally guaranteed to be genuine & authentic. Place a Bid!