Temple of Diana

“ Entirely under the influence of the priests, since the temple of Diana had been erected with its marble columns, it had impressed on everything, even the most objectionable, the stamp of her worship. Magnificent festivals attracted not only pilgrims, but hordes of suspicious characters, to whom the sanctuary afforded a safe refuge. All this mass of men, this mixture of charlatans, mountebanks, magicians, jugglers, and sorcerers, skilful in exploiting vice as well as superstition, helped to transform these fêtes into wild revels. ”

“ At one end of this terrace is a monument, probably sepulchral, in the form of a little temple. The front was adorned with four brick half columns, and there were five, or possibly six, on the sides; but internally it appears almost solid. A little farther back is the fragment of a room covered with a circular dome, which has been named the Temple of Diana. All these are so buried among vines and poplars, that it is impossible to obtain any general view of them; and as for the 197architecture, none remains; they are mere masses of brick and rubble walls, mixed with reticulated work. ”

“ The whole Artemisium shows traces of many restorations, not the least interesting being that made by Marcus Servilius Quartus, consul A.D. 3, whose tomb is on the Via Appia (Tacitus, "A." ii. 48; iii. 22) .
When Iphigenia, priestess of the Temple of Diana at Tauris in the Crimea, fled with her brother Orestes, they carried off the statue of Diana, to whom all strangers cast on the coast were sacrificed, and founded a temple near the Lake of Diana, now Nemi, on the Alban Hills (Ovid, "Ep." iii. 2; "Met." xv. 485) . "The temple is in a grove, and before it is a lake of considerable size. ”

“ The old soldier will conduct you down and open the door-way, so that you may tread upon the smooth marble where trod the little feet of the unknown Roman girls. For none know when the baths were built, or when this temple of Diana was founded. Not even of the great arena, remarkable in many respects as the Roman Coliseum, is there the slightest classic record. Nothing but its own gigantic masonry tells of its origin. ”

“ The lines of chanting priests had seized bells to ring in rhythm and fans to send up the clouds of incense. And there was heard the hunting horn of Diana coming down from the fleecy meadows of mid-heaven to pasture her stallions and mares in the ocean deeps—the vestal virgins’ high clear soprano gave back refrain to the chant of the priests—when a blast of wind from the tidal waves of Diana’s stallions and mares champing out to sea, blew through the Temple pillars, sending the clouds of incense and mist back over the worshipers.
Onesimus saw Apollos leap from the pillar to the altar stairs ”

“ There are, in fact, four places possessing temples embellished with workmanship in marble that causes them to be mentioned in a class by themselves with the highest renown. To their great excellence and the wisdom of their conception they owe their place of esteem in the ceremonial worship of the gods. First there is the temple of Diana at Ephesus, in the Ionic style, undertaken by Chersiphron of Gnosus and his son Metagenes, and said to have been finished later by Demetrius, who was himself a slave of Diana, and by Paeonius the Milesian. ”

“ It is the kick of the ass at the dying lion. It is the old oak crowning itself, and which, to heap the measure full, is stung, bitten, and gnawed by caterpillars.
How far it is from the epoch when Robert Cenalis, comparing Notre-Dame de Paris to the famous temple of Diana at Ephesus, so much lauded by the ancient pagans, which Erostatus has immortalized, found the Gallic temple “more excellent in length, breadth, height, and structure.” ”

“ The place was famous for its brown wool, and for its pottery. Considerable remains of ancient buildings, an amphitheatre, a theatre and a temple still exist. The so-called temple of Diana is more probably a tomb. ”

“ At sunrise Emily arose, and attended by her maidens, went forth to the Temple of Diana; taking with them the fire, and the incense, the garments, and the horns of mead fit to perform sacrifice. The preparation for the holy ceremony, by the purifying of her body at a well-spring, being attended to, and the sacred place being fumed with odorous gums, the maiden princess (gentle and debonair of heart) having her head crowned with a garland of oak, and her bright hair untressed, and flowing down her back, proceeded to kindle two fires on the altar. ”

“ Not only is our business in danger, but our whole city will suffer as well. People will stop coming to see the great temple which all the world admired. We must act. We must save the city and defend the great goddess!” Then all the silversmiths and goldsmiths and coppersmiths and workers in iron and brass began to make processions through the city, shouting as they marched, “Great is Diana of the Ephesians.” ”

“ The day his temple was finished was the happiest day of his life. There was a great festival, and from the city, crowds of people had come to worship Diana for the first time under a roof, and to gaze at the building itself. Small and simple, it was yet the most wonderful they had ever seen, with its columns of an entirely new shape, and its marble porch. And everyone was loud in the praise of its architect.
“That night, Dinocrates was too happy to sleep. He lay thinking of the temple which had been his life work, till suddenly a great desire to see it again swept over him. ”

“ Here are the same terraces and steps and balustrades, and a system of water-works less impressive, perhaps, but very ingenious and charming.
The whole place is a mixture of old Rome and of the French eighteenth century; for the remains of the antique baths are in a measure incorporated in the modern fountains. In a corner of this umbrageous precinct stands a small Roman ruin, which is known as a temple of Diana, but was more apparently a nymphaeum, and appears to have had a graceful connection with the adjacent baths. ”

“ In winter the snow lay long on these cold hills, and their gloomy oak-woods were believed to be a favourite haunt of Diana, as they have been of brigands in modern times. [1250] Again, Mount Tifata, the long abrupt ridge of the Apennines which looks down on the Campanian plain behind Capua, was wooded of old with evergreen oaks, among which Diana had a temple. Here Sulla thanked the goddess for his victory over the Marians in the plain below, attesting his gratitude by inscriptions which were long afterwards to be seen in the temple. ”

“ The site of the Temple of Diana had been reached, and its style was, at once, seen to have been similar to that of the Temple of Athene Polias at Priene, and of Apollo at Branchidæ. It is scarcely possible to speak too highly of Mr. ”

“ It was, on the contrary, the building of a sanctuary of the league outside the pomerium, yet inside the civil wall; not the adoption of Diana as a Roman goddess, but the close association of the Diana of the Latin league with Rome. It was the attempt to put Rome religiously as well as politically into the position which Aricia held; and it was successful. Diana was still the league-goddess; tradition has it that the league helped to build the temple; and the dedication day of the temple, August 13, was the same as that of the temple at Nemi. ”

“ Dr. Woodward (the "Martinus Scriblerus" of Pope and his set) was especially vehement at the slaying of his hobby, and produced a small brass votive image of Diana, that had been found between the Deanery and Blackfriars. Wren, who could be contemptuous, disdained a reply, and so the matter remained till 1830, when the discovery of a rude stone altar, with an image of Diana, under the foundation of the new Goldsmith's Hall, Foster Lane, Cheapside, revived the old dispute, yet did not help a whit to prove the existence of the supposed temple to the goddess of moonshine. ”

“ The Diana whom we know in Roman literature is really Artemis; but Diana of the Aventine, when she first arrived there, was the wood-spirit of Aricia, and her temple was an outward sign of Rome's new position in Latium: it was built by the chiefs of the Latin cities in conjunction with Rome, and is described by Varro as "commune Latinorum Dianae templum."492 It was appropriately placed on the only Roman hill which was then still covered with wood, and was outside the pomoerium. ”

“ A few fine columns of that of Jupiter Olympius still remain; and the temple of Minerva (now converted into the cathedral of the city, and dedicated to the Virgin) is almost entire.
There are some remains, also, of Diana’s temple, near to the church of St. Paul; but they are not remarkable.
The palace of Dionysius, his tomb, the baths of Daphnis, and other ancient buildings, and all their statues and paintings263, have disappeared; but the Ear, of which history speaks so loud, still remains. It is no less a monument of the ingenuity and magnificence, than of the cruelty of the tyrant. ”

“ 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. ”

“ You therefore arrogate a power superior to that of Diana's self! Who, until now, ever heard of a murderer and adulterer inhabiting the chamber of a temple, instead of the dungeon of a prison? A foul adulterer under the same roof with a virgin goddess, and having for his partner a shameless woman, a slave and runaway! You it is who have entertained the worthy pair at bed and board; nay, probably have shared her bed. You have converted the temple of the goddess into a common brothel. You have made her sanctuary, a den of whoremongers and harlots ”

“ One of the most beautiful temples in the world—one of the seven “wonders”—had been built to Diana in Ephesus and in this temple stood the famous statue. Now Demetrius made a great deal of money selling his silver images to those who visited the temple. But suddenly he discovered that people were not buying as many of his silver Dianas as they used to do. He began to wonder what was happening and he hit upon the idea that all the trouble was caused by the preaching of Paul! Paul was calling people to Christ and when they believed in Christ, they no longer worshipped Diana. ”

“ The great Diana of Ephesus had more reputation than a village Diana. There were more miracles performed in the temple of Æsculapius at Epidaurus, than in any other of his temples. The statue of the Olympian Jupiter attracted more offerings than that of the Paphlagonian Jupiter. But to oppose the customs of a true religion to those of a false one, have we not for several ages had more devotion to certain altars than to others? ”

“ On the whole this temple and its cult seem a kind of anticipation of the great temple on the Capitol, in marking an advance in the progress of Rome from the narrow life of a small city-state to a position of influence in Western Italy. The advance of the Plebs, the emancipation of slaves, the new relations with Latin cities, and the introduction of Greek religious ideas are all reflected here. New threads are being woven into the tissue of Roman social and political life.
The close relation of Diana to human life is not very difficult to explain. ”

“ Before marriage, the Grecian maidens offered baskets of fruit to Diana, and many other ceremonies were performed in her temple. On account of her own aversion to wedlock, it was deemed peculiarly desirable to appease her indignation, and propitiate her favor. Sacrifices were likewise offered to Juno, Minerva, Venus, the Fates, and the Graces. When the victim was opened, the gall was taken out, and thrown behind the altar, as a symbol that all anger and malice must be cast aside. ”

“ A few instances of pagan burial-grounds lying beneath Christian churches may be cited. The oft-quoted case of St Paul’s Cathedral does not properly fall under this head. It is true that, at various times, a number of ox-skulls and boars’-tusks have been discovered beneath the foundations. Tradition says that the cathedral stands on the site of a temple dedicated to Diana [231] . The legend may be fallacious, for the finding of a heap of animal bones scarcely warrants the assumption of a pagan temple, much less of a pagan burial-place. ”

“ They could not live as too many nominal Christians are contented to live, without any family or personal acknowledgment of their dependence upon a higher power. There was no provision for public worship in the rural districts answering to our parochial system, and so they supplied the want by purchasing on occasions like this feast of Diana, shrines, little silver images, or likenesses of the central cell of the great temple where the sacred image rested, and which served as central points to fix their thoughts and excite the gratitude due to the goddess whom they adored. ”

“ It would seem also that this temple was an asylum for runaway or criminal slaves—a fact which slips out in Festus’ curious reproduction of a gloss of Verrius Flaccus [841] : ‘Servorum dies festus vulgo existimatur Idus Aug., quod eo die Servius Tullius, natus servus, aedem Dianae dedicaverit in Aventino, cuius tutelae sint cervi, a quo celeritate fugitivos vocent servos.’ The stag, as the favourite beast of Diana, may 200perhaps have a Greek origin; but the inference from the false etymology remains the same.
III. The Greek Character in the Cult. ”