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The serene face of Artemis, the Greek goddess of the hunt, gazes from the center of a golden hairnet from the third century B.C. The virgin goddess was also seen as the protector of women and children and was thought to help alleviate the pain of childbirth.

The women of ancient Greece believed that decorating their jewelry with the image of a god could impart the god’s attributes to themselves. The image of Aphrodite, the goddess of love, on a similar hairnet from Alexandria, for example, presumably made the wearer more desirable, while wearing the face of Artemis might impart strength or act as a talisman.

The use of Artemis on this bejeweled hairnet from the Karpenisi region of central Greece, is particularly appropriate: Karpenisi is mountainous and thickly forested, just the sort of place that Artemis was said to frequent as she roamed through the moonlit woods dancing with nymphs and slaying wild animals. The remote region, deep in the Pindus Mountains, was one of the few areas not conquered in either the Byzantine (third century A.D.) or Turkish occupations (19th century) of Greece, although it was not spared during World War II, when at least one village was destroyed. But the region’s imposing monasteries and remarkable treasures, such as elaborate woodcarvings, works of silver and sacred icons, survived even those attacks.