sigmund freud's collection an archaeology of the mind

Artemis
Greek, Hellenistic period, from Myrina, 2nd century BC
terracotta, 31.0 x 13.0 x 8.3 cm
LDFRD3273
Collection Freud Museum London
Artemis was a free-spirited virgin goddess whose realm was nature,
the wilder the better, where she roamed and hunted with a band
of women. Artemis has lost her arms and, presumably, her bow
and arrows but it does not detract from her vigour and personality,
emphasised by her stance and fl owing robes. She is on the move and
inspires others to do the same.
This statue comes from the ancient city of Myrina (now near Aliaga
on Turkey’s Aegean coast). In the late nineteenth century, many
treasures were excavated from a necropolis on the site. The haul by
the French School at Athens found its way to the Louvre Museum while
other antiquities, pillaged by the locals, surfaced in the marketplaces of
Vienna, Athens and Paris.
Freud noted the continuity of pagan prototypes despite Christianity’s
attempts to obliterate them. In his essay, ‘Great is Diana of the
Ephesians’, he describes how, after the destruction of the famed
temple to Artemis [Diana is her Roman name] at Ephesus in Turkey
in 301 AD, a basilica to the Virgin Mary was built, ’the new mothergoddess
of the Christians ... Now once again the city had its great
goddess and, apart from her name, there was very little change.’ 1
1. Sigmund Freud, ‘Great is Diana of the Ephesians’, (1911), S.E., vol XII, p.343.
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