Temple of Artemis at Ephesus

“ One privilege Ephesus secured; the Roman governor of Asia always landed and first assumed office there: and it was long the provincial centre of the official cult of the emperor, and seat of the Asiarch. The Goths destroyed both city and temple in the year A.D. 262, and although the city revived and the cult of Artemis continued, neither ever recovered its former splendour. A general council of the Christian Church was held there in 431 in the great double church of St Mary, which is still to be seen. ”

“ If Greek artists built and decorated the temple of Artemis, they attempted no doubt to represent the goddess under the form which her Greek name suggested, the beautiful huntress-goddess; but the Greeks never in fact succeeded in {36} affecting the thoroughly Asiatic and oriental character of a worship which had nothing Greek about it except the name. The interest of Ephesus as an Asiatic city centred about that ancient worship which had its home in the plain below the Greek settlement. ”

“ Men of Ephesus, what man is there who does not know that this city is the guardian of the temple of the great Artemis and of the statue that fell from heaven? As these facts cannot be denied, you should keep calm and do nothing reckless. You have brought these men here who are neither robbers of temples nor blasphemers of our goddess. If Demetrius and his fellow workers have a complaint against anybody, there are the courts and the Roman officials ”

“ We have already noticed the lex templi, said to have been written in Greek characters. It is a still more striking fact that there was in this temple a ξόανον, or wooden statue of Diana, closely resembling that of Artemis at Massilia, which was itself derived from the famous temple at Ephesus [843] . The transference to Diana of the characteristics of Artemis was no doubt quite natural and easy; for, hard as it is to distinguish the Greek and Italian elements in the cult, we know enough of some at least of the latter to be sure that they would easily lend themselves to a Greek transformation. ”

“ It is very well known how the Asiatic nature-worships flooded the Roman empire, and even at Rome itself became by far more popular than the traditional state religion. And among these Asiatic worships none was more popular than the worship of Artemis of Ephesus, whose temple was the wonder of the world, and who not only was worshipped publicly at Ephesus, but was the object of a cult both public and private in widely-separated parts of the empire. Such a temple and such a worship would naturally collect a base and corrupt population ”

“ It was an important business center, much of the commerce between east and west passing along the great highway which connected Ephesus with the Euphrates. It thus became a natural center for the Christian Church in Asia Minor. The city was celebrated as the guardian of the image of Artemis or Diana, and there was a large manufacture of silver shrines of the goddess. The magnificence of her temple was proverbial. ”

“ A goddess holding in each hand a water fowl or other animal is common in Aegean art; and a god in the same attitude, is a gold figure of the Aegina treasure (circ. 850 B.C.) , in the British Museum. In the contemporary and later finds in the temple of Artemis Orthia, at Sparta, such female figures are very common, and in the earliest Ionian temple at Ephesus. They persist into the sixth century B.C., and are representations of Artemis as a goddess of the wild things, Homer's Artemis Agrotera. ”

“ His example consecrated the abnormal post-Homeric vices of Greece. He is capable of metamorphosis into various beasts, and his temple courts are thronged with images of frogs, and mice, and wolves, and dogs, and ravens, over whose elder worship he throws his protection. He is the god of sudden death; he is amorous and revengeful. The fair humanities of old religion boast no figure more beautiful; yet he, too, bears the birth-marks of ancient creeds, and there is a shadow that stains his legend and darkens the radiance of his glory.
Artemis. ”

“ Fragment of votive relief. Artemis stands with the right arm on her right thigh, and leaning on what appears to be a torch. She wears a huntress dress, with short chiton, and has a hound standing beside her. On the right is an altar at which a male worshipper appears to be making an offering. On the extreme right is the hand and drapery of a female figure making a gesture of adoration.—Ephesus. J. T. Wood.
Ephesian marble; height, 1 foot 1 inch ”

“ The Greeks of Ephesus identified her with their own Artemis, and claimed that her birthplace Ortygia was near Ephesus, not in Delos. She has much in common with the oriental prototype of Aphrodite, and the Cappadocian goddess Ma, another form of Cybele. The usual figure of the Ephesian Artemis, which was said in the first instance to have fallen from heaven, is in the form of a female with many breasts, the symbol of productivity or a token of her function as the all-nourishing mother. ”

“ It has been mentioned that Callisto, Iphigeneia, Eilithyia, are only Artemis under different names; to these may be added Adrasteia, Atalanta, Helen, Leto and others (see Wernicke in Pauly-Wissowa’s Realencyclopädie) .
Again, various non-Hellenic divinities were identified with Artemis, and their cult gradually amalgamated with hers. The most important of these was Artemis of Ephesus, whose seat was in the marshy valley of the Caystrus. Like the Greek Artemis, she was essentially a nature goddess, the great foster-mother of the vegetable and animal kingdom. ”

“ And if the fire absorbs them they rejoice at it as a good sign, but if it rejects them they regard it as a sure sign of misfortune for the person who has thrown them in. And on the road from Bœæ to Epidaurus Limera there is a temple of Artemis called by the Epidaurians Limnas. The town is at no great distance from the sea, and is built on an eminence: and the sights worth seeing here are the temple of Aphrodite, and a statue of Æsculapius in stone erect, and a temple of Athene in the citadel, and in front of the harbour a temple of Zeus Soter. ”

“ The people of this place worship the virgin Goddess Artemis: at whose shrine they sacrifice all persons, who have the misfortune to be shipwrecked upon their coast: and all the Grecians, that they can lay hold of, when they are at any time thither driven. All these they without any ceremony brain with a club. Though others say, that they shove them off headlong from a high precipice: for their temple is founded upon a cliff. ”

“ The city of Athens especially contains numerous remains of these buildings of antiquity. On the Acropolis we may still behold, among other monuments of ancient art, the temple of Athene-Polias, and that of Theseus, the latter of which is the most entire ancient edifice in the world. In the island of Delos, also, are to be seen the ruins of the temples of Apollo and Artemis, both of which are in a wonderful state of preservation. These ruins are most valuable, being sufficiently complete to enable us to study, by their aid, the plan and character of the original structure. ”

“ She had in the grove of Altis an altar, together with Alpheus;1565 and there was there a popular legend, that Alpheus had once loved Artemis. Now the settlers that went from this district to Syracuse, in their first expedition, confined themselves to the island of Ortygia. Here they built a temple to the river-goddess Artemis; a sanctuary of so great fame, that Pindar calls the whole island “the seat of Artemis, the river-goddess.1566” There was, however, no river in Ortygia, and therefore Artemis was supposed to regret her beloved Alpheus. ”

“ And here it is proper to take notice of a circumstance of which I must continually put the reader in mind, as it is of great consequence towards decyphering the mythology of antient times. The Grecians often mistook the place of worship for the Deity worshipped: so that the names of many Gods are, in reality, the names of temples where they were adored. Artemis was Ar-Temis, the city of Themis, or Thamis; the Thamuz of Sidon and Egypt. This the Greeks expressed Αρτεμις; and made it the name of a Goddess. Kir-On was the city and temple of the Sun, in Cyprus and other places. ”

“ The colonnade and steps of the Temple to the right. A wall surrounds the court with a large grille at the extreme left. About midway in the wall a niche holds a statue of the Ephesian Artemis, before which are flowers and a burning taper. The shadow of the great image of the God Apollo is thrown across the stage from within the Temple and slowly lessens as the scene goes on.
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Libanius, Themistius, Damis, Lysis, and Opora are seated on the steps of the Temple.
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As the hymn ends Asclepiades passes slowly between the columns down the steps. ”

“ The view commanded by its bastion will become famous throughout the world. Behind this, nearer the southern side, stands the less important temple of Artemis Braurōnia. Nearer the center and directly before the entrance rises a colossal brazen statue—“monstrous,” many might call its twenty-six feet of height, save that a master among masters has cast the spell of his genius over it. This is the famous Athena Promachos, [+] wrought by Phidias out of the spoils of Marathon. The warrior goddess stands in full armor and rests upon her mighty lance. ”

“ Others, reading χόρου, render, "And in this play what part hath Pylades?" ↑ Line 1071, "By mother, father, babes—if any hath babes," is omitted by most editors, as inconsistent with line 130 of this play. ↑ Reading ὀλβίαν instead of the stock epithet λοχίαν, "For Travail-queen Artemis." The beauty that surrounds the temple (in Delos) of the beneficent Goddess worshipped in Greece is contrasted with the cheerless home of the sanguinary deity of the Taurians. ↑ Retaining reading of MSS. ↑ Or, "Thou, true to Artemis, didst reject the bait?" ”

“ We have omitted some examples of sculpture in very exceptional situations, e.g., the sculptured drums of the sixth century and fourth century temples of Artemis at Ephesos. Acroteria have also been omitted. But we have attempted to include every Greek temple known to have had pediment-figures or sculptured metopes or frieze, and have thus, for the sake of completeness, registered some examples which are valueless for the main question. ”

“ The great altar lay to the south of the temple, and a little to the east of it are what appear to be the remains of an earlier altar, built into the corner of a large square edifice of Roman date, perhaps a house of the priests. Just to the south of this are the foundations of a small temple of Artemis. The Tholos lay to the south-west of the temple of Asclepius; it must, when perfect, have been one of the most beautiful buildings in Greece; the exquisite carving of its mouldings is only equalled by that of the Erechtheum at Athens. ”

“ The Artemis to whom a fawn in a maiden's dress is sacrificed does not haunt the memory of Euripides; his Artemis is fair and honourable, pure and maidenly, a goddess wandering in lonely places unbeholden of man. ”

“ These sacrifices have been offered by men now living.
In Greece the great goddess Artemis herself appears to have been annually hanged in effigy in her sacred grove of Condylea among the Arcadian hills, and there accordingly she went by the name of the Hanged One. Indeed a trace of a similar rite may perhaps be detected even at Ephesus, the most famous of her sanctuaries, in the legend of a woman who hanged herself and was thereupon dressed by the compassionate goddess in her own divine garb and called by the name of Hecate. ”

“ On the right of the town at the distance of about 2 stades is a lofty rock, which forms part of a mountain, and on it is a temple of Artemis, and a statue of the goddess by Praxiteles, with a torch in her right hand and her quiver [Pg 291] over her shoulders, she is taller than the tallest woman, and on her left hand is a dog. ”

“ We who come from the sea, having safely traversed the Ægean, escaped rocks and sand-banks, whirlpools and storms, under the protection of the great goddess of Ephesus, salute in her name the goddess of Beauty, and receive her welcome with thankfulness. And great Artemis beseeches her sister to suffer her and the vessel with passengers and goods and crew, that she conducts and protects, to pass across the isthmus, without let and molestation ”

“ In the 4th century no new temples of importance rose at Athens; the Acropolis had taken its final form; but at Messene, Tegea, Epidaurus and elsewhere, very admirable buildings arose. The remains of the temple at Tegea are of wonderful beauty and finish; as are those of the theatre and the so-called Tholus of Epidaurus. In Asia Minor vast temples of the Ionic order arose, especially at Miletus and Ephesus. The colossal pillars of Miletus astonish the visitors to the Louvre; while the sculptured columns of Ephesus in the British Museum (Plate II. fig. 59) show a high level of artistic skill. ”

“ Round this worship of Artemis there clustered a host of minor superstitions, and Ephesus was at this time the head-quarters of the magical arts. Here were to be bought charms and incantations of all kinds; amulets to preserve men from bodily danger; formulas to ward off the influence of demons ”

“ Near this edifice stood the temple of Asclepios, the tomb of Tænaros, and temples of Poseidon Hippocourios, and Artemis Ægeinea. Turning back towards the Lesche, probably round the foot of the Hill of the Issorion, [304] you observed on the slope of the eminence towards the Tiasa the temple of Artemis Limnæa the Britomartis of the Cretans, somewhere in the vicinity of which were temples of Thetis, Chthonian Demeter, and Olympian Zeus. ”