Temple of Artemis image carried through the streets and surrounded by maidens. In the Roman Imperial era, the emperor Commodus lent his name to the festival games, and might have sponsored them. From the Greek point of view, the Ephesian Artemis is a distinctive form of their goddess Artemis. In Greek cult and myth, Artemis is the twin of Apollo, a virgin huntress who supplanted the Titan Selene as goddess of the Moon. At Ephesus, a goddess whom the Greeks associated with Artemis was venerated in an archaic, pre-Hellenic cult image that was carved of wood (a "xoanon") and kept decorated with jewelry.
Palaestra (mythology) Palaestra (mythology) In Greek mythology, Palaestra (Παλαίστρα) was a name attributed to two characters, who were both associated with the god Hermes: one was a mortal lover of Hermes, whereas the other was considered his daughter and a goddess of wrestling. Myths concerning both provided an etiology for the Greek word for wrestling school, "palaestra". According to a story recorded by Servius, Palaestra was a daughter of the Arcadian king Choricus, and sister to Plexippus and Enetus. Her two brothers would wrestle each other, and their father, finding the sight of them wrestling to be of aesthetic value, made it