Long misunderstood, misnamed, and misrepresented, Artemis of Ephesus has survived for millennia, disguised, absorbed, erased, and now, rediscovered.
In She Who Endures, Dr. Carla Ionescu delivers a groundbreaking exploration of this powerful and enigmatic goddess. From her Anatolian origins as a protector and mother figure, to her transformation into a Roman imperial icon, and finally to her veiled survival within the image of the Virgin Mary, Artemis emerges as a divine presence who never vanished, only evolved.
Combining scholarly rigor with devotional insight, Ionescu examines the iconography, rituals, priesthoods, and sacred architecture of Artemis Ephesia. She challenges long-held assumptions about the famed cult statue, reframing its so-called "many breasts" as symbols of bee eggs, lions, and divine sovereignty. Through careful analysis, this book restores Artemis’s complexity, authority, and expansive reach across time.
This is more than a scholarly study, it is a reclamation of a goddess whose endurance shaped civilizations, and whose voice still echoes beneath layers of history and myth.