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Artemis Kindyàs, the great goddess of Bargylia

Roberta Fabiani Università Roma Tre

According to Polybius (16, 12, 2), the inhabitants of Iasos and Bargylia claimed that “neither rain nor snow” ever fell on the statues of their two goddesses, Artemis Astiàs and Artemis Kindyàs respectively. This marvel is clearly linked to Greek religious and cultural tradition, and its manifestation in both Iasos and Bargylia can be usefully contextualized within the dynamics of rivalry between cities in the same region (Caria).
The paper will focus on Artemis Kindyàs. The statue of this goddess appears as a mintmark on the earliest known coinage from Bargylia (first half 3rd century BC). Clearly, the exceptional properties recognised in the agalma led to it being prized as a parasemon of the polis. The extremely close relationship between the goddess and the city that the aforementioned claim highlights is also mirrored in the abundant epigraphic evidence available for Bargylia. Indeed, these inscriptions show that the Bargylietans were inclined to attribute extraordinary interventions in the life of the city to the goddess and thus honour her in civic rituals with due charis. The data available for Bargylia, examined alongside those of Iasos, suggest that the renown of the statue’s extraordinary properties predates the earliest coinage of Bargylia, and may also predate the fame of Artemis Astiàs of Iasos.