The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1868-06-26
Temple or Diana at Eph es.ss.

Temple Of Diana at Ephessss.
! The temple of Diana at Ephesus was
counted as one of the seven wonders of the
world, on account of its extent and magni-
fcence, at the period of the birth of Christ
The same rank was held by an earlier tenn
/ pie than that which existed at this time
Xerxes, the Persian king, who destroyed
the idol temples wherever he came, spared
that one on account of its extreme magni-
| ficence and grandeur, but it was set on fire,
on the night Alexander the Great was born,
and burned to the ground. This was done
by man named Erostratus, who confessed
that he had done the deed to immortalize
his name by the destruction of this wonder
/ full building.
To baulk him, it was decreed that his
name should never be mentioned; but such
a decree served only to make his name more
memorable. Alexander offered to rebuild
the temple, on condition that the Ephesians
would allow his name to be placed in front;
but this offer was respectfully declined
! The materials saved from the fire were sold,
and the women parted with their jewels
and the money thus raised served to carry
on the work till other contributions came
in. These were sent most literally from all
parts, and in short time amounted to an
immense treasure.
The new temple stood between the city
and the port, and was built at the base of a
mountain, at the head of marsh, which
situation is said - Pliny to have been
chosen as less liable to earthquakes. 1t
however had the effect of doubling the ex-
penses; for vast charges were incurred in
making drains to convey the water that
came down the hill into the morass and the
Cayster.
1t is said that in ttiiIis work so much stone
was used as exhausted all the quarries of
the country. To secure the foundations
OF the conduits and sewers, which were to
support the weight Of so prodigious struc-
tuTe, Pliny says that there were laid beds
of charcoal, well rammed, and over them
Others of wool and that two hundred and
twenty Tor as some copies read, one hun
dred twenty years elapsed before this grand
temple was completed by the contributions
four hundred and twenty-five feet in length
and two hundred and twenty in breadth, sup
ported by one hundred and twenty-seven
pillars sixty feet high, of which thirty six
were curiously sculptured and the rest pol
ished. The pillars were said to have been
the gifts of as many kings, and the bas-re-
liets on one of them were wrought by Sco-
pas, one of the most famous of ancient
sculptors; and the altar was almost entire
ly the work of Praxiteles. The first archi-
tect and he who appears to have planned
the work, was Dinocrates, who built the
city of Alexandria, and who offered to
carve Mount Athos into a statue of Alexan-
der. There are many coins extant which
bear the different Roman emperors, and ex-
hibit on the reverse the temple, with from
tispiece of two four, six, and even eight
columns.
1t was despoiled and burnt by the Cloths,
in the regin ofthe emperor Gallienus. The
glory of Ephesus and its temple must, how
ever, have been dimmed before this by the
progress of Christianity. The City Deepen
ded for its wealth upon its temple, which
| attracted from all parts multitudes of
worshippers. The people knew this; and
hence their clamor on the preaching of the
gospel by st. Paul, and the effect of the rep
resentation made by Demetrius. The city
| and temple rose and tlourished and fell to-
gether The former is now an inconsider-
able village; and of the latter nothing re-
mains but some fragments of ruin and some
broken columns.
The heather Goddess Diana was prima-
rily the moon, but was worshipped under
a variety of names, characters and FORMS
The same people sometimes worshipped the
different qualities attributed to her, by diff
ferent names and different impersoEations.
She was the goddess of hunting, of travel
ling, of chastity, of childbirth, of enchant-
ments, &c. and in her different characters
she was Diana, Luna, Lucina, Hecate, Pro-
serpine, besides many other names derived
from the places in which she was worship
ped.
Her most usual figure was that of hun
tress, with crescent on her head, and at
tended by dogs. But the Ephesian Diana
was differently represented from any other,
being figured with tiers-intimating that
she was at Ephesus regarded as Nature, the
mother of mankind. The image wore a
sort of high-crowned cap or mitre; and
its feet were involved in the garments
Notwithstanding what the town clerk"
says, in Acts, chapter xix, verse 35, about
/ "the image which fell down from Jupiter y
it seems that Musianus, who had been three
times consul, learnt at Ephesus that this
famous image was the work of very anci-
ent sculptor named Canetias.
1t seems to have been an ugly little statue,
made of several pieces of wood-generally
said to be ebony, but Mucianus thought
vine-wood-which precludes the otherwise
possible idea that the material might have
fallen from the sky in the form of an ero-
lite, and shows that the priests availed
| themselves of the remote antiquity and
the uncouth form of this image to persuade
the people of its divine origin.