I am completely astounded at how big Ephesus was. I mean, we saw a good chunk of the city (probably more than a square mile) and that was only 10-20% of the entirety of the ancient city. The ruins were astounding: absolutely beautiful. It had several different temples, a huge library, a theater, two different Roman baths, a concert hall, a harbor, and thousands of houses.
For those of you who are unaware, Ephesus' patron goddess was the Ephesian Artemis, different than the normal. Artemis is Apollo's sister and is the goddess of hunting and fertility; normally she is depicted as a beautiful, young huntress with some type of goat on either side of her. However, the Ephesian Artemis is depicted as a fertility goddess (more like the fertility gods of Asia Minor than a Greek goddess); she has many breasts and has all sorts of animals on her garments: goats, cattle, and the like. After Paul preached in the city for nearly three months in Acts 19 a riot finally broke about his teachings. It went something like this:
The silversmiths of the city made small replicas of the goddess Artemis, whom held great revere within the city. This trade has, actually, been found accurate within the ruins as small Artemis' have been found within the ruins. Anyway. The silversmiths get mad at Paul because he has been preaching that gods made with human hands are, essentially, idols and that only Yahweh is God. Truth, yes, but the silversmiths were going to lose money if this preaching converted the whole city as they couldn't make money off of a god no one credited as a true god. They also mention the "temple of the great goddess" and the "theater" which I will expound upon later. Anyway. So the silversmiths start a riot against Paul and his teachings shouting "Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!" (Note that they do not simply say "Great is Artemis" but must add "of the Ephesians" as the Ephesian Artemis is far different than the normal pictured goddess.) Well, thankfully, the riot was settled by a city clerk as he reassured the citizens that the goddess image "which fell from heaven" was not taken in vain by these missionaries.
So, first, the temple.
The temple of Artemis at Ephesus is recognized as one of the seven greatest structures within the ancient world. It was absolutely huge. Unfortunately the temple was completely destroyed and the marble was recycled by some people to build the evangelist, John's, tomb and the basilica that stands over it, a mosque called Jesus, and a castle for some governor. Jim and I got a hoot out of that one. It was interesting (as we visited the site a little later) to see the Greco-Roman culture, the government, Muslim, and Christian structures all within a few hundred yards of each other. Anyway, the temple was beautiful and huge.
The theater.
The theater at Ephesus is one of the largest in the ancient world. Not the steepest as seen at Pergamum, I think it was (everything is blurring together these days), but the largest. I think Cenk said it could house over 20,000, but I can't remember the numbers. Anyway, it was just so neat to be in a place that Paul would have frequently visited to hear the political powers of the day speak, and do whatever they used theaters for then. It was just astounding to imagine sitting in a seat of St. Paul. Gorgeous.
The image of Artemis.
It was believed by the ancient Ephesians that the statue within the Ephesian temple "fell from heaven," which is why it was so important and so varied from the normal image of Artemis. I mean, it's pretty crazy how that thing looked. Just saying. Anyway, so, this statue (which no longer exists. sad day.) was huge. It is believed to be around six times bigger than a doorframe or some ridiculous height like that. Seeing as we saw one of the columns erect at the temple of Artemis, I would not doubt it. That thing was so tall.
My favorite part of the Ephesian tour was a secret surprise our awesome tour guide (although I still miss Voula) prepared for us. We actually got to go on an "off site" tour with the main archaeologist of Ephesus and go see a cave from the fourth century A.D. where Christians were hiding out from persecution. Essentially we went hiking up the mountain about a mile (as Ephesus was located between two large hills with a harbor on one side) and to this small cave up on the mountain that was found around three years ago. The coolest part of this hike was inside the cave; inside the cave were fingerprints, inscriptions, and images of the twelve apostles, Abraham, Paul, and St. Thekla (a really, really early, traditional, Christian legend). We could take pictures but, unfortunately I can't post them anywhere. See, images of St. Paul are exceptionally rare especially ones from this early in the century. However, it was so neat that they trusted us enough to take pictures. I would explain the story of St. Thekla, but I didn't quite understand it so I'll let you all look it up on your own time. I don't want to get it wrong.
However, that was pretty much the best part of the day. Oh it was so wonderful. That was pretty much the highlight of yesterday.
Love y'all.
For those of you who are unaware, Ephesus' patron goddess was the Ephesian Artemis, different than the normal. Artemis is Apollo's sister and is the goddess of hunting and fertility; normally she is depicted as a beautiful, young huntress with some type of goat on either side of her. However, the Ephesian Artemis is depicted as a fertility goddess (more like the fertility gods of Asia Minor than a Greek goddess); she has many breasts and has all sorts of animals on her garments: goats, cattle, and the like. After Paul preached in the city for nearly three months in Acts 19 a riot finally broke about his teachings. It went something like this:
The silversmiths of the city made small replicas of the goddess Artemis, whom held great revere within the city. This trade has, actually, been found accurate within the ruins as small Artemis' have been found within the ruins. Anyway. The silversmiths get mad at Paul because he has been preaching that gods made with human hands are, essentially, idols and that only Yahweh is God. Truth, yes, but the silversmiths were going to lose money if this preaching converted the whole city as they couldn't make money off of a god no one credited as a true god. They also mention the "temple of the great goddess" and the "theater" which I will expound upon later. Anyway. So the silversmiths start a riot against Paul and his teachings shouting "Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!" (Note that they do not simply say "Great is Artemis" but must add "of the Ephesians" as the Ephesian Artemis is far different than the normal pictured goddess.) Well, thankfully, the riot was settled by a city clerk as he reassured the citizens that the goddess image "which fell from heaven" was not taken in vain by these missionaries.
So, first, the temple.
The temple of Artemis at Ephesus is recognized as one of the seven greatest structures within the ancient world. It was absolutely huge. Unfortunately the temple was completely destroyed and the marble was recycled by some people to build the evangelist, John's, tomb and the basilica that stands over it, a mosque called Jesus, and a castle for some governor. Jim and I got a hoot out of that one. It was interesting (as we visited the site a little later) to see the Greco-Roman culture, the government, Muslim, and Christian structures all within a few hundred yards of each other. Anyway, the temple was beautiful and huge.
The theater.
The theater at Ephesus is one of the largest in the ancient world. Not the steepest as seen at Pergamum, I think it was (everything is blurring together these days), but the largest. I think Cenk said it could house over 20,000, but I can't remember the numbers. Anyway, it was just so neat to be in a place that Paul would have frequently visited to hear the political powers of the day speak, and do whatever they used theaters for then. It was just astounding to imagine sitting in a seat of St. Paul. Gorgeous.
The image of Artemis.
It was believed by the ancient Ephesians that the statue within the Ephesian temple "fell from heaven," which is why it was so important and so varied from the normal image of Artemis. I mean, it's pretty crazy how that thing looked. Just saying. Anyway, so, this statue (which no longer exists. sad day.) was huge. It is believed to be around six times bigger than a doorframe or some ridiculous height like that. Seeing as we saw one of the columns erect at the temple of Artemis, I would not doubt it. That thing was so tall.
My favorite part of the Ephesian tour was a secret surprise our awesome tour guide (although I still miss Voula) prepared for us. We actually got to go on an "off site" tour with the main archaeologist of Ephesus and go see a cave from the fourth century A.D. where Christians were hiding out from persecution. Essentially we went hiking up the mountain about a mile (as Ephesus was located between two large hills with a harbor on one side) and to this small cave up on the mountain that was found around three years ago. The coolest part of this hike was inside the cave; inside the cave were fingerprints, inscriptions, and images of the twelve apostles, Abraham, Paul, and St. Thekla (a really, really early, traditional, Christian legend). We could take pictures but, unfortunately I can't post them anywhere. See, images of St. Paul are exceptionally rare especially ones from this early in the century. However, it was so neat that they trusted us enough to take pictures. I would explain the story of St. Thekla, but I didn't quite understand it so I'll let you all look it up on your own time. I don't want to get it wrong.
However, that was pretty much the best part of the day. Oh it was so wonderful. That was pretty much the highlight of yesterday.
Love y'all.
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