Columnar Goddesses
of western AsiaRoman-era coin depicting Artemis Ephesia, and clearly showing the flowers, perhaps poppies, in the garlands suspended from her wrists.
Coin with Hera Samion, in unusual side view. She wears the polos, a chest garland, and holds two poppy garlands in her hands.
The Goddess of Caria, western Asian Minor, shown like Artemis Ephesia but with veiled face and veil cascading over shoulders and back.
Atargatis, the great goddess of Syria, in her feather crown. Garlands of flowers hang from her crown, and from her shoulders, ears of grain.
This coin shows Aphrodite of Aphrodisias, another pillar goddess whose temple was in southwestern Turkey. This depiction somewhat resembles a bee, or a bundle. Aphrodite too wears the feather crown (which originated with her forebears, Ashtart of Canaan and Atargatis, Dea Syria) and is flanked by the ears of grain.
We can see a fusion in which the similarities of all these goddesses, Anatolian, Semitic, and Hellenic, are greater than their differences.
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