Statuette of Artemis, 1st Century AD – 2nd Century AD

A small statue of the goddess Artemis, wearing a short chiton that has been tucked under and girdled in the fashion of Amazon statues. The goddess holds in her left hand an arrow and has her right hand raised probably holding her bow. The left leg leans onto a tree trunk where the quiver rests and the skull of an animal on it. The right leg is extended backwards counterbalancing the body. The statue has been extensively restored with the old plinth let into a modern one. The head does not belong to the body, and may be modern, the arms are also restorations The body is a small-scale Roman copy of a Greek statue of the second half of the 5th Century BC. Although the attributes suggest Artemis, there is an affinity with some of the types of statues of Amazons made in the 5th century BC. Blundell's 'Account' records that the statue was 'found in some ruins near the Palatine Hill at Rome'.