The first sanctuary (Temenos) antedated Ionic immigration by many years, and dates to the Bronze Age. Callimachus, in his Hymn to Artemis, attributed it to the Amazons. In the 7th century BC, the old temple was destroyed by a flood. Its reconstruction began around 550 BC, under the Cretan architect Chersiphron and his son Meagenes, at the expense of Croesus of Lydia: the project took 10 years to complete. The temple was desctroyed in 356 BC by an act of arson and was again rebuilt, this time as the Wonder.
The fame of the Temple of Artemis was known in the Renaissance as demonstrated in this imagined portrayal of the temple in a 16th-century hand-coloured engraving by Martin Heemskerck:
Antipater of Sidon, who compiled the list of the Seven Wonders, described the finished temple:
I have set eyes on the wall of lofty Babylon on which is a road for chariots, the the statue of Zeus by the Alpheus, and the hanging gardens, and the colossus of the Sun, and the huge labour of the high pyramids, and the vast tomb of Mausolus; but when I saw the hosue 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".
This model of the Temple of Artemis, at Miniaturk Park, Instabul, Turkey, attempts to recreate the probable appearance of the first temple:
A drum from the base of a column from the 4th-century rebuilding now housed in the British Museum:
There is so much more to be found on Wikipedia if you are interested. The pictures above come from there. It is well worthwhile checking it out.
Hari OM
ReplyDeleteWell that's spooky - I just watched a BBC history program on this at the weekend!!! Amazing to think of such a structure so long ago... YAM xx
Spooky is right...two great minds or something along those lines. xxx
DeleteA nice little history lesson. I used to love learning about temples etc in High School history, but mostly we learned about the wars and who had been King at the time. Very boring that was. I'd much rather hear about temples and how the people lived back then.
ReplyDeleteI think our history lessons too seemed to be about kings and queens or wars instead of the really interesting things like this.
DeleteHimself loved Ephesus.
ReplyDeleteAnd River is right about history as she was taught. Rulers and dates of battles. Preferably battles that the 'good guys' won. Bleah.
My word, himself has certainly travelled far and wide and seen so many interesting things.
DeleteThe truth in history depends on who is doing the writing thereof. To some one person is a hero but to others a criminal.
.. how wonderful that the people were able to build these buildings so many hundreds of years ago and we can know of them now in 2016..... and see the remains...sometimes the whole building.... History and people are amazing.. xxxx
ReplyDeleteHave a good day.. hugs... Barb xxxx
Yes the more of these ancient wonders are uncovered and discovered the more we will learn about those that went before us. xx
Delete