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.
Diana the Huntress Diana the Huntress Diana the Huntress is an oil on canvas painting by an anonymous artist of the School of Fontainebleau. Painted in about 1550, it is a mythical representation of Diane de Poitiers, the mistress of King Henry II, in the guise of the goddess Diana. It is in the Louvre, which acquired it in 1840. In its linear elegance the painting exemplifies the French version of the Northern Mannerist style that was introduced to France by Italian artists such as Rosso Fiorentino and Francesco Primaticcio in the 1530s. It is one of many works by artists of the