THE PROMOTION OF PERGE AS A STABLE POLITICAL FORCE: TAKING ADVANTAGE OF THE ICONIZATION OF ARTEMIS PERGAEA By KYRA RIETVELD A THESIS PRESENTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA 2017 1 © 2017 Kyra Rietveld 2 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to thank my committee chair Dr. Ashley Jones for her new insights, advice and encouragement she provided throughout this project. My fascination with Artemis Pergaea was brought back to life during a paper I wrote for Dr. Jones’s Roman art class, and her knowledge of coins allowed me to take my research in a completely new direction. I am grateful to my committee member, Dr. Mary Ann Eaverly, whose vast knowledge of Greek archeology, gender roles, and helpful sources, shaped my new understanding of the mixture of Greek and Roman cultures. This thesis would not have been possible without Dr. Susan Wood who introduced me to the cult of Artemis Pergaea and started this endless fascination. Finally, I am thankful for my family and friends who supported me throughout this entire journey and who believed in me from the start. 3 TABLE OF CONTENTS page ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ...............................................................................................................3 ABSTRACT .....................................................................................................................................5 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................................................6 History of the City of Perge ......................................................................................................7 History of Greek and Anatolian Cult Practices ........................................................................9 Worship of Artemis ................................................................................................................12 Artemis as a City Goddess ......................................................................................................14 2 ICONIZATION OF THE CULT STATUE ............................................................................19 Syncretism ..............................................................................................................................20 Function of the Cult statue ......................................................................................................22 Representations of the Cult Statue on Coins ..........................................................................27 Representation of the Cult Statue on Public Monuments .......................................................28 Effects of the Iconization of the Cult Statue ...........................................................................30 3 ICONIZATION THROUGH THE COINAGE FROM PERGE ............................................32 The Iconization of Artemis Pergaea through Roman Coins ...................................................33 The Romanization of Perge and the Mix of Traditions Represented on Coins ......................34 Greek Writing on the Coins ....................................................................................................36 Perge compared to Ephesus ....................................................................................................38 The Greek Artemis compared to the Roman Diana ................................................................40 4 THE ICONIZATION OF ARTEMIS PERGAEA THROUGH PUBLIC MONUMENTS ...44 The Statue of the Dancer ........................................................................................................44 Social status through Donations .............................................................................................48 The Statue of Artemis Pergaea in the Well ............................................................................50 The Artemis Column ..............................................................................................................51 5 CONCLUSION.......................................................................................................................54 APPENDIX: FIGURES .................................................................................................................57 LIST OF REFERENCES ...............................................................................................................59 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH .........................................................................................................62 4 Abstract of Thesis Presented to the Graduate School of the University of Florida in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts THE PROMOTION OF PERGE AS A STABLE POLITICAL FORCE: TAKING ADVANTAGE OF THE ICONIZATION OF ARTEMIS PERGAEA By Kyra Rietveld May 2017 Chair: Ashley Jones Major: Art History A cult dedicated to the goddess Artemis Pergaea was active in the city of Perge in Asia Minor. The cult came into existence after Greek immigrants merged the local Anatolian goddess Wanassas Prei with the Greek goddess Artemis. Followers believed that the goddess threw a rock with an image of her face out of the sky onto the city. During the rule of the Greeks and later on the Romans, Perge was able to establish itself as a dominant force, spreading the importance of Artemis Pergaea and the city all over the Mediterranean. This thesis examines the iconization of Artemis Pergaea that was used to promote the city. Starting with the cult statue, imagery of the goddess grew and took on different forms which contributed to the iconization of the goddess. All these different images had one overall goal: promoting the city of Perge as a stable political force. I argue that this promotion was done through three types of images, the cult statue, depictions of the goddess on coins, and public monuments. The project discusses how these depictions showcased the roots of the cult when Anatolian traditions merged with Greek traditions, throughout Greek and Roman times. By keeping the origins of the goddess at the core of the cult, Perge was able to present itself as an unchanging force. 5 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION A cult dedicated to the goddess Artemis Pergaea was active in the city of Perge in Asia Minor. Followers of the cult believed that the goddess threw a rock with an image of her face out of the sky onto the city. The cult made the miraculous aniconic image their cult statue and built a temple around it. Perge established itself as a dominant force during the rule of the Greeks and later the Romans. The city spread the cult of Artemis Pergaea and the importance of Perge over the Mediterranean area, including Rhodes, Thera, and Halikarnassos, making Perge “the most important religious center of Pamphylia.”1 As the power of the city expanded so did the influence of the cult of Artemis Pergaea. The image of the goddess was exploited to promote the city, making the aniconic rock an icon. The term iconization suggests the formation and use of the imagery of Artemis Pergaea. Iconization of the goddess led to many representations of the deity in Perge. These representations differed greatly from each other because of their different functions in society. However, all of them were used to promote the power and prosperity of Perge, making the goddess and the city inseparable from each other. Besides Perge, many cults in Asia Minor worshipped the goddess Artemis. Because of the different cultures and traditions that were in Asia Minor before Asia Minor was taken over by the Greeks, each cult of Artemis took on a unique form, combining Anatolian roots and belief systems with the new Greek regime. This paper will explore how Artemis Pergaea, through iconization of the aniconic, represented much more than a deity: she represented Perge itself and the political stability of the city, always referring back to the roots of the cult. 1 J. S. Balzat and R. W.V Catling, ed., A Lexicon of Greek Personal Names: coastal Asia Minor: Caria to Cilicia volume 2, (Gloucestershire: Clarendon press, 2014), introduction XV. 6 History of the City of Perge Achaean colonists founded Perge after the Trojan War. Under the leadership of Mopsus and Calchas, they named the region Pamphylia, meaning ‘the land of all tribes.’2 Seven statues in the courtyard of the Hellenistic gateway confirmed this name.3 However, the first settlements date as far back as the “2nd or possibly 3rd millennium B.C.”4 The name of the city was also established during the early settlements and was native Anatolian, as was the name of the patron goddess of the city, Wanassas Prei. Perge became the capital of the province Pamphylia and one of its leading cities, along with Attaleia (modern Antalya), Magydus, Sillyon, Aspendos, Side, and Lybre (later called Seleucia.)5. This prosperous area was in southwest Asia Minor. The city was well protected by surrounding mountains, the distance to the coast and its location on a flat hill.6. Groups of Greek-speaking people arrived in Pamphylia after the fall of the Hittite empire. The Greeks were not aggressive enough to relocate or absorb the existing Luwian-speaking population, but neither were the Luwians able to do the same to the Greeks. The two civilizations were politically and socially organized in clans and tribes and lived in rural settlements. They continued to live next to one another for several centuries.7 Perge adapted Greek traditions and