Abstract

What did in fact see Pausanias in the Asklepieion at Messene? This complex shelters many statues, especially in the oikoi of the west stoa. Pausanias says that the statue of Artemis Phosphoros stood in one of them. Nevertheless, there is no mention of such a divinity in the epigraphic. Inscriptions mention exclusively an Artemis Ortheia. What does that mean? The Periegete’s evidence does not have to be implicate. In my opinion, it is advisable to ask why Pausanias saw a Artemis Phosphoros, where Messenians named Artemis Ortheia. This amounts to raising of the question of the identification of the divine, by name and by image.