Temple of Artemis
The Temple of Artemis or Artemision (
The earliest version of the temple (a
Its reconstruction, in more grandiose form, began around 550 BC, under Chersiphron, the Cretan architect, and his son Metagenes. The project was funded by Croesus of Lydia, and took 10 years to complete. This version of the temple was destroyed in 356 BC by an arsonist.
The next, greatest, and last form of the temple, funded by the Ephesians themselves, is described in Antipater of Sidon's list of the world's Seven Wonders:
I have set eyes on the wall of lofty
tomb of Mausolus; but when I saw the house of Artemis that mounted to the clouds, those other marvels lost their brilliancy, and I said, "Lo, apart from Olympus, the Sun never looked on aught so grand".[2]
Location and history
The Temple of Artemis (Artemision) was located near the ancient city of Ephesus, about 75 kilometres (47 mi) south from the modern port city of İzmir, in Turkey. Today the site lies on the edge of the modern town of Selçuk.
The sacred site (temenos) at Ephesus was far older than the Artemision itself. Pausanias was certain that it antedated the Ionic immigration by many years, being older even than the oracular shrine of Apollo at Didyma.[3] He said that the pre-Ionic inhabitants of the city were Leleges and Lydians. Callimachus, in his Hymn to Artemis attributed the earliest temenos at Ephesus to the Amazons, legendary warrior-women whose religious practise he imagined already centered upon an image (bretas) of Artemis, their matron goddess. Pausanias believed that the temple pre-dated the Amazons.[3]
Pausanias's estimation of the site's antiquity seems well-founded. Before World War I, site excavations by
In the 7th century BC, a flood
Second phase
The new temple was sponsored at least in part by
Foundation deposit
A rich foundation deposit from this era, also called the "Artemision deposit", yielded more than a thousand items, including what may be the earliest coins made from the silver-gold alloy
Fragments of bas-relief on the lowest drums of the temple columns, preserved in the British Museum, show that the enriched columns of the later temple, of which a few survive (illustration below) were versions of this earlier feature. Pliny the Elder, seemingly unaware of the ancient continuity of the sacred site, claims that the new temple's architects chose to build it on marshy ground as a precaution against earthquakes, with lower foundation layers of fleeces and pounded charcoal.[12]
The temple became an important attraction, visited by merchants, kings, and sightseers, many of whom paid homage to Artemis in the form of
Destruction
In 356 BC, the temple burned down. Various sources describe this as a vainglorious act of arson by a man, Herostratus, who set fire to the wooden roof-beams, seeking fame at any cost; thus the term herostratic fame.[15] For this outrage, the Ephesians sentenced the perpetrator to death and forbade anyone from mentioning his name; but Theopompus later noted it.[16] Aristotle's Meteorology describes the temple's conflagration, but not its cause.[17] In Greek and Roman historical tradition, the temple's destruction coincided with the birth of Alexander the Great (around 20/21 July 356 BC). Plutarch remarks that Artemis was too preoccupied with Alexander's delivery to save her burning temple; he does not specify a cause for the fire.[18]
Herostratus' part in the temple's destruction has been questioned in modern scholarship. Stefan Karweise notes that any arsonist would have needed access to the wooden roof framing;[19]: 57 Dieter Knibbe writes of an "entire corps" of attested temple guards and custodians.[20]: 88–89 The fire might even have been deliberately and covertly set by the temple's administrators, aware that the temple's foundation was sinking, but prevented from re-siting it elsewhere by religious constraints;[20]: 89 Bammer has noted the conservation of the original sacred location throughout successive rebuildings, despite continued problems with flooding and foundations.[21] Karwiese questions the motive of Herostratus since he only divulged his purpose under torture, which does not fit a man seeking fame.[19]: 57 Dieter Knibbe considers Herostratus a "useful idiot in the service of the priesthood."[20]: 89
Third phase
Alexander offered to pay for the temple's rebuilding; the Ephesians tactfully refused, saying "it would be improper for one god to build a temple to another",[22] and eventually rebuilt it after his death, at their own expense. Work started in 323 BC and continued for many years. The third temple was larger than the second; 137 m (450 ft) long by 69 m (225 ft) wide and 18 m (60 ft) high, with more than 127 columns. Athenagoras of Athens names Endoeus, a pupil of Daedalus, as sculptor of Artemis' main cult image.[23]
Further claims of destruction
This reconstruction survived for 600 years, and appears multiple times in early
Against this, a Roman edict of 162 AD acknowledges the importance of Artemesion, the annual Ephesian festival to Artemis, and officially extended it from a few holy days over March–April to a whole month, "one of the largest and most magnificent religious festivals in Ephesus' liturgical calendar".[a]
In 268 AD, according to Jordanes,[27] a raid by the Goths, under their leaders "Respa, Veduc, and Thurar",[b][c] "laid waste many populous cities and set fire to the renowned temple of Diana at Ephesus."[27] The extent and severity of the damage are unknown; the temple may have lain derelict until its official closure during the persecution of pagans in the late Roman Empire,[29] Ammonius of Alexandria comments on its closure, perhaps as early as 407 CE,[29] or no later than the mid 5th century. After closure and after the city had become Christian, the name of Artemis appears to have been erased from inscriptions throughout Ephesus.[29]
At least some of the stone from the abandoned temple was used in construction of other buildings.[31] A legend of the Late Middle Ages claims that some of the columns in the Hagia Sophia were taken from the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus, but there is no truth to this story.[32][33]
The main primary sources for the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus are
Rediscovery of the temple
The site of the temple was rediscovered in 1869, after six years of searching by an expedition led by John Turtle Wood and sponsored by the British Museum. These excavations continued until 1874.[37] A few further fragments of sculpture were found during the 1904–1906 excavations directed by David George Hogarth. The recovered sculptured fragments of the 4th-century rebuilding and a few from the earlier temple, which had been used in the rubble fill for the rebuilding, were assembled and displayed in the "Ephesus Room" of the British Museum.[38] In addition, the museum has part of possibly the oldest cache of coins in the world (600 BC) that had been buried in the foundations of the Archaic temple.[39]
Today the site of the temple, which lies just outside Selçuk, is marked by a single column constructed of miscellaneous fragments discovered at the site.
Cult and influence
The archaic temenos beneath the later temples clearly housed some form of "Great Goddess" but nothing is known of her cult. The literary accounts that describe it as "Amazonian" refer to the later founder-myths of Greek émigrés who developed the cult and temple of Artemis Ephesia. The wealth and splendor of temple and city were taken as evidence of Artemis Ephesia's power, and were the basis for her local and international prestige: despite the successive traumas of Temple destruction, each rebuilding – a gift and honor to the goddess – brought further prosperity.[42] Large numbers of people came to Ephesus in March and in the beginning of May to attend the main Artemis Procession.[43]
Artemis' shrines, temples and festivals (Artemisia) could be found throughout the Greek world, but Ephesian Artemis was unique. The Ephesians considered her theirs, and resented any foreign claims to her protection. Once Persia ousted and replaced their Lydian overlord Croesus, the Ephesians played down his contribution to the temple's restoration. On the whole, the Persians dealt fairly with Ephesus, but removed some religious artifacts from Artemis' Temple to Sardis and brought Persian priests into her Ephesian cult; this was not forgiven.[44] When Alexander conquered the Persians, his offer to finance the temple's second rebuilding was politely but firmly refused.[d] Ephesian Artemis lent her city's diplomacy a powerful religious edge.
Under Hellenic rule, and later, under Roman rule, the Ephesian Artemisia festival was increasingly promoted as a key element in the pan-Hellenic festival circuit. It was part of a definitively Greek political and cultural identity, essential to the economic life of the region, and an excellent opportunity for young, unmarried Greeks of both sexes to seek out marriage partners. Games, contests and theatrical performances were held in the goddess's name, and Pliny describes her procession as a magnificent crowd-puller; it was shown in one of Apelles' best paintings, which depicted the goddess's image carried through the streets and surrounded by maidens.[47] In the Roman Imperial era, the emperor Commodus lent his name to the festival games, and might have sponsored them.[48]
Ephesian Artemis
From the Greek point of view, the Ephesian Artemis is a distinctive form of their goddess Artemis. In Greek cult and myth, Artemis is the twin sister of Apollo, a virgin goddess of the hunt, the wilderness and the moon, who, despite being a goddess of childbirth was nevertheless known for her chastity. At Ephesus, a goddess whom the Greeks associated with Artemis was venerated in an archaic, pre-Hellenic cult image[49] that was carved of wood (a xoanon) and kept decorated with jewelry.
The features are most similar to Near-Eastern and Egyptian deities, and least similar to Greek ones. The body and legs are enclosed within a tapering pillar-like term, from which the goddess' feet protrude. On the coins minted at Ephesus, the goddess wears a mural crown (like a city's walls), an attribute of Cybele as a protector of cities (see polos).[49]
The traditional interpretation of the oval objects covering the upper part of the Ephesian Artemis is that they represent multiple breasts, symbolizing her fertility. This interpretation began in late antiquity and resulted in designations of the Ephesian goddess as Diana Efesia Multimammia and other related descriptions.
Evidence suggests that the oval objects were not intended to depict part of the goddess' anatomy at all. In some versions of the statue, the goddess' skin has been painted black, likely to emulate the aged wood of the original, while her clothes and regalia, including the so-called "breasts", were left unpainted or cast in different colors.[50][page needed]
Robert Fleischer suggested that instead of breasts, the oval objects were decorations that would have been hung ceremonially on the original wood statue (possibly eggs or the scrotal sacs of sacrificed bulls
On the coins she rests either arm on a staff formed of entwined
A votive inscription mentioned by Florence Mary Bennett,[56] which dates probably from about the 3rd century BC, associates Ephesian Artemis with Crete: "To the Healer of diseases, to Apollo, Giver of Light to mortals, Eutyches has set up in votive offering [a statue of] the Cretan Lady of Ephesus, the Light-Bearer."
The Greek habits of syncretism assimilated all foreign gods under some form of the Olympian pantheon familiar to them—in interpretatio graeca—and it is clear that at Ephesus, the identification with Artemis that the Ionian settlers made of the "Lady of Ephesus" was slender. Nevertheless, later Greeks and Romans identified her with both Artemis and Diana, and there was a tradition in ancient Rome that identified her with the goddess Isis as well.[50][page needed]
The Christian approach was at variance with the syncretistic approach of pagans to gods who were not theirs. A Christian inscription at Ephesus[57] suggests why so little remains at the site:
Destroying the delusive image of the demon Artemis, Demeas has erected this symbol of Truth, the God that drives away idols, and the Cross of priests, deathless and victorious sign of Christ.
The assertion that the Ephesians thought that their cult image had fallen from the sky, though it was a familiar origin-myth at other sites, is only known at Ephesus from Acts 19:35:
What man is there that knoweth not how that the city of the Ephesians is a worshipper of the great goddess Diana, and of the [image] which fell down from Jupiter?
Lynn LiDonnici observes that modern scholars are likely to be more concerned with origins of the Lady of Ephesus and her iconology than her adherents were at any point in time, and are prone to creating a synthetic account of the Lady of Ephesus by drawing together documentation that ranges over more than a millennium in its origins, creating a falsified, unitary picture, as of an unchanging icon.[58]
Panorama
See also
Footnotes
- ^ The Roman edict of 162 AD was made as a form of official apology and compensation: A senior Roman official had unwittingly offended the goddess by conducting business during one or more of her holy days. The need for, and extent of, the edict shows that the political, economic, and religious importance of Ephesian Artemis was undiminished in 162, more than one hundred years after Paul's visit.[26]
- ^ The names Respa, Veduco, and Thurar are otherwise unknown; see Wolfram (1979, 1988).[28](p 52 and note 84)
- ^ Date 268 CE from Wolfram (1979, 1988)[28] who correlates multiple sources to correct the date of the Gothic advance into the Aegean.[28]
- ^ The intended offering might have included a divine statue of Alexander himself, or simply an inscription commemorating his subsidy as a gift to the Goddess, with himself as her particular protege. The Ephesians protested with great diplomacy, it being "inappropriate for a god to dedicate offerings to a god".[46]
References
- ^ John Freely, The Western Shores of Turkey: Discovering the Aegean and Mediterranean Coasts 2004, p. 148; Clive Foss, Ephesus after antiquity: a late antique, Byzantine, and Turkish city, Cambridge University Press, 1979, pp. 86–89 & footnote 83.
- ^ Antipater, Greek Anthology IX.58.
- ^ a b Pausanias, Description of Greece 7.2.6–8.
- ^ Bammer offers a critical re-appraisal of Hogarth's methods, findings and conclusions.Bammer 1990, pp. 137–160
- Mycenaeanpottery and crude clay animal figurines, but warned "it is still to early to come to conclusions about a cult sequence."
- ^ The flood is dated by fragmentary ceramics: Bammer 1990, p. 141.
- ^ Bammer 1990, pp. 144, 153.
- ^ see Kevin Leloux, "The Campaign Of Croesus Against Ephesus: Historical & Archaeological Considerations", in Polemos 21-2, 2018, p. 47–63 [1].
- ^ Herodotus' statement to this effect is confirmed by the conjectural reading of a fragmentary dedicatory inscription, conserved in the British Museum (A Guide to the Department of Greek and Roman Antiquities in the British Museum 84).
- Mucianus, who thought that the cult image by an "Endoios" was extremely ancient, however. Endoios' name appears in late 7th-century Attic inscriptions, and Pausanias notes works attributed to him. Most importantly, the Ephesians of Mucianus' time maintained the tradition that a particular sculptor had created the remade image (LiDonnici 1992, p. 398).
- ^ a b c CNG: IONIA, Ephesos. Phanes. Circa 625–600 BC. EL Trite (14mm, 4.67 g).
- ^ Pliny the Elder, Natural History, translated by H. Rackham et al., 36. 21., Loeb Classical Library, 1938
- ^ Rigsby, Kent J., Asylia: Territorial Inviolability in the Hellenistic World, University of California Press, 1996, ISBN 0-520-20098-5, pp. 385–387
- ^ Diogenes Laertius, Lives of the eminent philosophers, Book 9, "Heraclitus", Loeb edn.
- ^ Valerius Maximus, Memorable deeds and sayings, 8. 14. 5: "A man was found to plan the burning of the temple of Ephesian Diana so that through the destruction of this most beautiful building his name might be spread through the whole world."Valerius Maximus, VIII. 14. ext. 5
- ^ Smith, William (1849). Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. p. 439. Archived from the original on February 2, 2007. Retrieved July 21, 2009.
- ^ Aristotle. "Book 3 Part 1". The Internet Classics Archive | Meteorology by Aristotle. Translated by E. W. Webster. Retrieved 5 May 2021.
- ^ Plutarch, Life of Alexander, 1. 3. 5.
- ^ ISBN 978-3-901232-05-3.
- ^ ISBN 978-3-631-32152-2.
- ^ Bammer 1990, pp. 144, 153.
- ^ "Strabo, Geography, Book 14, chapter 1, section 22".
- ^ a b Pausanias, 10.38.6, trans Jones and Ormerod, 1918, from perseus.org. For Artemis Protothronia as a separate aspect of Ephesian cult to Artemis, see Strelan, R., Paul, Artemis, and the Jews in Ephesus, de Gruyter, 1996, p. 157.
- ^ Acts 19:27
- ^ MacMullen, Ramsay (1984). Christianizing the Roman Empire A.D. 100–400. p. 26.
- ^ Strelan, Rick (1996). Paul, Artemis, and the Jews in Ephesus. pp. 57–58, footnote 83 – via Google Books.
- ^ a b Jordanes. Getica. xx.107.
- ^ a b c Wolfram, Herwig (1988) [1979]. History of the Goths. Translated by Dunlap, Thomas J. pp. 52 ff.
- ^ a b c
Trombley, Frank R. (December 1995). Hellenic Religion and Christianization c. 370–529. Vol. 1. Brill. p. 145. ISBN 978-9004276772.
- ^ "Temple of Artemis at Ephesus". Encyclopaedia Romana. Penelope. U. Chicago. Retrieved 2020-07-05.
- ^ Foss, Clive (1979). Ephesus After Antiquity: A late antique, Byzantine, and Turkish city. Cambridge University Press. pp. 86–87 & footnote 83.
- ^
Krautheimer, Richard (1986). Early Christian and Byzantine Architecture. Pelican History of Art (4th ed.). New Haven, CT / London: Yale University Press. p. 205. ISBN 978-0-300-05296-1.
- ^
Mango, Cyril (1985). Byzantine Architecture (1st ed.). New York: Electa / Rizzoli. p. 65. ISBN 978-0-8478-0615-7.
- ^
Natural History. XXXVI.xxi.95.
- ^ Pomponius Mela. De Situ Orbis. i:17.
- ^ Plutarch. Life of Alexander. III.5. (Plutarch mentions the burning of the Artemiseum)
- ^ "Ephesos – An Ancient Metropolis: Exploration and History". Austrian Archaeological Institute. October 2008. Retrieved 2009-11-01.
- ^ The sculptures were published in the British Museum Catalogue of Sculpture, vol. II, part VI.
- ^ "British Museum – The pot-hoard from the Temple of Artemis at Ephesos". 5 February 2015. Archived from the original on 5 February 2015.
- ^ a b Stevenson, Gregory (2001). Power and Place: Temple and identity in the 'Book of Revelation'. de Gruyter. p. 70–80.
- ^ Publius Aelius Aristides Theodorus. Concerning Concord. 25.
- ^ Stevenson (2001), p. 77[40](p 77) cites Aristides.[41] For an exposition of the mechanisms involved in these social, religious, and economic advantages, see Stevenson (2001), pp. 70–80 ff.
- ^ Bohstrom, Philippe (11 August 2016). "Archaeologists Unveil Blazing Mosaics From Apostle Paul-era Ephesus". Haaretz.
- ^ LiDonnici (1992), p. 401
- ^ Strabo. Geography. 14.1.22.
- ^ Strabo's account[45] is variously interpreted in Strelan (1996), p. 80, and Stevenson (2001), p. 79.[40](p 79)
- ^ Pliny the Elder. Natural History. 35–93.
- ^ Arnold (1972), p. 18, cites Xenophon for marriage-broking at the Ephesian Artemesia.
- ^ a b The iconic images have been most thoroughly assembled by Robert Fleischer, Artemis von Ephesos und der erwandte Kultstatue von Anatolien und Syrien EPRO 35 (Leiden: Brill) 1973.
- ^ ISBN 9788763507882.
- ^ Seiterle (1979). "Artemis: die Grosse Göttin von Ephesos". Antike Welt. 10: 3–16. accepted in the 1980s by Walter Burkert and Brita Alroth, among others, criticised and rejected by Robert Fleischer, but widely popularized.
- ^ Fleischer (1983). "Neues zur kleinasiatischen Kultstatue". Archäologischer Anzeiger. 98: 81–93.
- ^ Bammer 1990, p. 153.
- ISBN 9780520210240
- ^ Xenophon, Anabasis, 5.3.7
- ^ Florence Mary Bennett, Religious Cults Associated with the Amazons (1912): Chapter III: Ephesian Artemis (on-line text).
- ^ Quoted in Ramsay MacMullen, Christianizing the Roman Empire AD 100–400 1984, ch. III "Christianity as presented" p. 18.
- ^ LiDonnici 1992.
Sources
Further reading
- Higgins, Michael Denis (2023). The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World: Science, Engineering and Technology. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780197648155.
- Rodríguez Moya, Inmaculada; Mínguez, Víctor (2017). The Seven Ancient Wonders In the Early Modern World. New York, NY: Routledge.
- Romer, John; Romer, Elizabeth (1995). The Seven Wonders of the World: A history of the modern imagination (1st American ed.). New York, NY: Henry Holt.
External links
- World History Encyclopedia - Temple of Artemis at Ephesus
- Temple of Artemis (Ephesos) objects at the British Museumwebsite
- Florence Mary Bennett, Religious Cults Associated with the Amazons: (1912): Chapter III: Ephesian Artemis (text)
- James Grout: Temple of Artemis, part of the Encyclopædia Romana
- Diana's Temple at Ephesus (W. R. Lethaby, 1908)
- Pictures of the current situation