Bölümler | Kategoriler | Konular | Üye Girişi | İletişim


Ephesus

1. THE TEMPLE OF ARTEMIS
The worship of Cybele- Artemis an the social structure of the temple:
Many statues of Cybele and Artemis have been discovered in Turkey. Those found in Çatalhöyük, (dated to 7000 B.C.) and Hacılar (dated to 6000 B.C.) are the oldest. These statuettes were made of baked clay, and since they were intended to look reprodiuctive, their hips, breasts and genital organs were exaggerated. Although at first these were thought to be statues of Venus, later it was established that they represented the mother goddess. As time went by, the mother goddess changed from and her popularity spread everywhere in the prehistoric world. She acquired the local characteristics but never lost her essence. Althought we do not know what thepeople of Çatalhöyük and Hacılar called the mother goddess, she was known as Isis in Egypt, Lat in Arab lands, Kubala, Cybele, Hepa and Artemis in Anatolia. Cybele was most popular name in Anatolia and was worshipped the most. Her famous temple and cult centre is in Persinus Oren (village of Ballıhisar) of Sivrihisar near Ankara. The evolution of the mother goddess in antiquity reached a turning point in Pessinus which was an important centre in Phyrigia. Here, she seems diopetic (from the sky). In Pessinus, a meteorite similar in shape to her diopetic form was worshipped for many years as the statue of Cybele. In the reliefs found in many locations in Phyrigia ( some of them on rocks), the figure of the mother goddess was carved without detail, similar to her diopetic form. During the reign of Attalos I, the King of Pergamum, the meteorite was taken to Rome, in the hope that it would help end the war between Rome and Carthage with the victory of Rome. It waserected on Platina hill.
The mother goddess also has a Xoanic form. Xoanic means “carved out of wood”. The oldest statue of Artemis in Ephesus is thought to be of Xoanic type, carved out of wood without detail.
The mother goddess who hwas taken t Romr from Pessinus, received a great deal of respect. Elagabalus, one of the Roman emperors, during a ceremony, cut off his male organ as required according to the worship of Cybele, and presented it to the mother goddess. The incident proves the respect she received in Rome. The fact that Cybele-Artemis always lokked definitely eastern becomes evident when her statues in the Ephesus Museum are examined. The legs of the satues are motionless as thogh fused. Althought the nodes on her chest were oncethought to be breasts, it has become apparent that they represent the testes of bulls sacrificed for her. Testes symbolize fertility since they produce “seeds”. The bulls, lions and sphinxes that are on her skirt, indicate that she was the protectress of animals. The lions depicted on both sides of Cybele in her reliefs are seen on her arms in these statues.
The hierarchy among the priests in the temple was different from the hierarchy in the West. Even the terms used were different from the terms used by the Greeks, althought during the Roman period, Greek was used. The temple was administered by only a few priests. The male organs of these priests and the head priest called Megaysos, were removed. According to Straba, the priests were chossen from the middle of Anatolia and especially from the east. Becoming Megabysos were virgins similar to the Vestal Virgins of Rome.
Some say that the worship of Artemis, the Temple of Artemis and the religious hierarchy were all modelled on the social structure of bees. The bee was the symbol of Ephesus, and it is often seen on coins and statues in Ephesus.
Another class of priests who served Artemis was called the Curetes. According to mythology, Curetes were demigods related to Zeus. While Zeus was creating Dionysos from his leg, Curetes stayed by him and made a noise so that Hera could not hear anything. Also, while Leto was giving birth to Artemis, Curetes stayed by her and made a noise. Every year this event was celebrated by a festivals in Ortygia known as the birthplace of Artemis.
There was another class of twenty priests who were thought to be probably involved with the dances which took places during ceremonies. They may be referred to as “the acrobats” or “the tiptoers”. The worship of Artemis and Cybele was the most important factor in the development of Ephesus. Teh number of priests, priestesses and guards reached hundreds.
The Temple of Artemis in Ephesus also served as a bank. The Megabysos was in charge of accepting gifts either presented or entrusted to the temple, and lending Money from the treasury of the temple. The temple also had certain privileges. For example, anyone who seeked shelter in the temple enjoyed immunity (right of asylum). Therefore, people often took refuge in the sacred area surrounding the temple. During the time of Alexander, the sacred area and the borders of the refuge were enlarged, and King Mithridates enlarged this area even more, so that the sacred area streched as far the spot where an aroow shot from the pediment of the temole would land. Emperor Marcus Antionius,inspired by what Julius Caesar had done in Didyma, doubled this sacred area which thus included a section of the city too. Citizens critical of the fact that many criminals took refuge here and in other temples in the Empire, requested that the right asylum be lifted. In 22, Emperor Tiberius discussed the issue with the representatives of other famous temples, yet, the Temple of Artemis continued to serve as refuge.
The Archaic Artemision:
Strabo notes that the temple was destroyed and rebuilt seven times, and that even in those days it was considered one of the seven wonders of the world. Although the temple was located by the sea in antiquity, today, it is found 5 km. inland, on the right of the Selçuk-Kuşadası road. So far excavations have revealed only for phases of construction. The oldest relics found were dated to the 7th century B.C.. they are pieces of bowls decorated with geometricc designs, decoratives gold objects and a group of ivory objects. The temple which is as old as these objects, was probably destroyed by the Cimmerians.
Just before 570 B.C., the architects Rhoichos and Theodoros completed the construction of the Temple of Hera in Samos. The popularity of this new temple must have encouraged the Ephesians to built a more magnificent temple than the Teple of Hera in the rival city of Samos. They engaged the architect Chersiphon and his son Metagenes of Knossos, and also invited Theodoros, because the area chosen as the site of the temple was swampy ground, like the location of the Temple of Hera. Also, they might have wanted their new temple to be similar to the Temple of Hera. The guest architectsplaced a layer of coal under the foundation, covered it with leather, and created a splendid temple measuring 55.10 metres by 115.14 metres. It is evident that the Cretan architects were quite familiar with Egyptian, Hittite and Assyrian architecture. The temple was the largest structure ever built of marble. The temple had a dipteral plan. On all four sides it had two rows of columns. Each column was 19 metres high and measured 1.21 metres in diameter. Using a double row of columns instead of a single row, gave it a wider appearance, yet cut down on its length. Pliny stated that there were a total of 127 columns. This forest of columns created an ideal setting, suitable fort he goddess.
The number of rows of columns in the front and the back of the temple was dispured for many years, but recently it has been established that there were two rows of columns, both in the front and the back of the edifice. Pliny, who lived in the 1st century, stated that the thirty-six columns in the front had reliefs on them. What he had seen was undoubtedly a Hellenistic temple. If we asume that the temple was constructed on the foundationof a previous structure, and that Pliny’s statements about the temple. The reliefs on the thirty-six colomns called columnae caelatae were located just below the capitals. The columnae were presented by the King of Lydia, Croesus. One of these, which is in the British Museum, bears the inscription “presented by Croesus”. Herodotus, too, stated that the inscription was true. It has been calculated that the architraves supported by the columns weighed twenty-four tons. Considering the equipment available then, it is difficult to comprehend how such heavy pieces could be lifted twenty metres and placed on the columns. The people believed that Artemis herself came and placed the architrave on the clomuns. No evidence has been found yet indicating the shape of the roof of the temple or how it was covered.
After the Cimmerian attacfks, the old atlar in front of the temple was rebuilt with stairs. Many votive offerings made of gold, ivory, electron silver and baked clay, as well as many electron silver coins were unearthed near the temple. These coins are the first minted money. Pyhagoras, the tyrant of Ephesus, enlarged the atlar after consulting the Delphic oracle about the recovery of his daughter who had unexpectedly become mute.
The Hellenistic Temple:
When a mentally unstable man named Herostratos who wanted a place in history, burned the temple in 356 B.C. on the night Alexander was born, the Ephesians decided to built a more magnificent temple. When Alexander came to Ephesus, the temple had not yet been completed. Although he wanted to assume all the past and future expenses of the construction of the new temple, the Ephesians did not accept his offer. The Hellenistic temple was situated on a podium ascended by a crepis of thirteen steps, and it measured 105 metres in length and 55 metres in width. The columns were 17.65 metres high. The plan of the archaic temple was not changed, and the columns in the front, as in the archaic temple, were ornamented with reliefs. Both Pliny and Vitrivius state that the reliefs on one of the columns were created by the famous sculptor Scopas. It is assumed that the sculptor Praxiteles had worked on the atlar of the temple. The atlar has a cornered ‘U’ plan and it is located in front of the temple. It has two rows of slim and tall Ionic columnsi and at the two corners in the back, there are statues of quadrigas.
On one of the columnae in the British Museum, there is a relief depicting Akestis who had volunteered to be sacrificed in order to save the life of her husband. The woman in front of Hermes who is depicted naked, is Alkestis, and the winged figure is Thanatos (death). In the 5th century B.C., a competition called the “Amazon Statue Competition” was held among the famous sculptors of the time, to choose the statue to be placed in the temple. According to Pliny, the most famous sculptors antiquity, like Phidias, Polykleitos Kresilas and Pharadmon entered the competition. At the end of the competition, the sculptors themselves were asked to choose the best statue. Each sculptor named his creation the best and Polykleitos statue as the second best. Hence, the statue created by Polykleitos won the competition and was placed in the temple. There are many Roman copies of the statue in museums all over the world. It is stil not known definitely which one of these statues is the original one created by Polykleitos. The Temple of Artemis was destroyed fort he last time by the attacks of Goths in 125 A.D.. although Cristianity was partially spread in the area, the temple was reconstructed but it did not last long. Later, when it was destroyed, most of its architectural elements were used in the construction of the Church of St. John. Upon the orders of Emperor Justinian, some of the architectural element were used in the construction of Hagia Sophia. Today, there is not much left of the Temple of Artemis to indicate its magnificence. The excavations being carried out by Dr. A. Bammer of the Austrian Archaeological Institute, have unearthed very valuable finds which have added new dimensions to archaeology.

ephesustoursway.com


Gezi Rehberi

MollaCami.Com