Septimius Severus
193-211 CE
Æ 22mm, 6,30g
Head with laurel wreath right /
Artemis with torch, bow and head turned back, hurrying to the left
BCD Peloponnesos 1385
I was originally interested in this coin, besides due to the rarity of the city, from this passage of Pausanias.
About a stade distant from Kaphyai is a place called Condylea, where there are a grove and a temple of Artemis called of old Condyleatis. They say that the name of the goddess was changed for the following reason. Some children, the number of whom is not recorded, while playing about the sanctuary found a rope, and tying it round the neck of the image said that Artemis was being strangled. The Kaphyaians detecting what the children had done, stoned them to death. When they had done this, a malady befell their women, whose babies were stillborn, until the Pythian priestess bade them bury the children, and sacrifice to them every year as sacrifice is made to heroes, because they had been wrongly put to death. The Kaphyans still obey this oracle, and call the goddess at Condyleae, as they say the oracle also bade them, the Strangled Lady from that day to this.
It was my theory that this is actually an image of “hanged Artemis”. However, it’s been since pointed out to me that this is a “billowing veil” that is typical of representations of Artemis in Achaia (though I still have my doubts…)
Strabo mentioned the city was in ruins, but Pausanias visited and found some life. A few ruins of the ancient city are viewable today.