Middletown transcript., 1868-07-11
Temple of Diana at Ephesus.
The temple Of Diana at Ephesus

world, on account of its extent and mag
nifcence, at the period of the birth o
Christ. The same rank was held by al
earlier temple than that which existed a
this time. Xerxes, the Persian king, who
destroyed the idol temples wherever he
came, spared that one on account of its ex'
treme magnifcence and grandeur, but il
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 wonderful building
To baulk him, it was decreed that his
name should never be mentioned; but such
u decree served only to make his name
more memorable. Alexander offered to re-
build the temple, on condition that the
Ephcsians 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 con-
tributions 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 by 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
oo,,o Jou,,, l. III .,,4o II = -, Al
Cayster.
1t is said that in this 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 a struc-
ture, Pliny says that there were laid beds
of charcoal, well rammed, and over them
others of wool and that two hundred and
twenty Cor as some copies read, one hun
dred and twenty years elapsed before this
grand temple was completed by the contri-
buttons of all the cities of Asia proper p
1t was four hundred and twenty-five feet
in length and two hundred and twenty in
breadth, supported by one hundred and
pillars sixty feet high, of
which thirty-six were curiously sculptured
and the rest polished. The pillars were
said to have been the gifts of as many
kings, and the bas-reliefs on one of them
were wrought by Scopas, one of the most
famous of ancient sculptors and the altar
was almost entirely the work of Praxiteles.
The first architect 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 Alexander. There are many coins ex-
tant which bear the different Roman en-
perors, and exhibit on the reverse the tenn
pie, with frontispiece of two, four, six,
and even eight columns.
1t was despoiled and burnt by the Gothe,
in the reign of the emperor Gallienus The
glory of Ephesus and its temple must, how
ever, have been dimmed before this by the |
progress of Christianity. The City depen-
led for its wealth upon its temple, which
attracted from all parts multitudes of wor-
shippers. The people knew this; and
hence their clamor on the preaching of the
gospel by st. Paul, and the effect of the re-
presentation made by Demetrius. The city
md temple rose and fourished and fell to-
,ether The former is now an inconsider-
ble village; and of the latter nothing re-
Mains but some fragments of ruin and some
roken columns.
The heather Goddess Diana was prima-
lily the moon, but was worshipped under
variety of names, characters and forms.
The same people sometimes worshipped the
itferent qualities attributed to her, by diff
arent names and different impersonations.
The was the Goddess ofhunting, of travel
ing, of chastity, of childbirth, of enchant-
lents, &c. and in her different characters
he was Diana, Luna, Lucina, Hecate,
'roserpine, besides many other names de-
ived from the places in which she was
Her most usual figure was that of hun
ress, with a crescent on her head, and at
ended by dogs. But the Ephesian Diana
'as differently represented from any other,
eing figured with tiers-intimating that
he was at Ephesus regarded as Nature,
ne mother of mankind The image wore
sort of high-crowned cap or mitre and
$ feet were involved in the garments. =
Notwithstanding what the town clerk" ;
lys, in Acts, chapter xix, verse 35, about
the image which fell down from Jupiter"
seems that Musianus, who had been three {
mes consul, learnt at Ephesus that this
mons image was the work of very an {
ent sculptor named Canetias. s
1t seems to have been an ugly little
atue, made of several pieces of wood
enerally said to be ebony, but Musianus +
fought vine-wood-which precludes the
herwise possible idea that the material :
light have fallen from the sky in the form :
an erolite, and shows that the priests !
yailed themselves of the remote antiquity .
Id the uncouth form of this image to per- !
lade the people Of its divine origin. :