TEMPLE OF ARTEMIS: CHARACTERISTICS AND HISTORY - HISTORY - 2025

The Temple of Artemis was a cult building that was built in honor of the Greek goddess Artemis, in the city of Ephesus, present-day Turkey. It is estimated that its construction began under the orders of King Croesus of Lydia and that more than 120 years passed until it was completed.

Due to its sheer size and beauty, the Temple of Artemis is considered one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Today, only a few foundational ruins remain of this temple, turning its location into a tourist place of great historical attraction.

Model of the Temple of Artemis, Park of Miniatures, Istanbul, Turkey.

The excavations and investigations that have been done around the place have allowed to glimpse new details about what this place of worship and homage meant in its times of glory.

Artemis was a goddess of great importance to the Greeks, protector of nature and forests, favoring hunting for those who worshiped her. It was also related to virginity and fertility, pouring divine protection on the young maidens of Greek society.

According to history and the records found, the Temple of Artemis suffered severe damage on several occasions, which led to it being rebuilt, making it bigger and more imposing.

The version that can be found in most of the representations today corresponds to the reconstruction carried out after the passage of Alexander the Great through Ephesus.

History of the Temple of Artemis

First Temple of Artemis

Historically, the Temple of Artemis is considered to have been built for the first time in the same place where, during the Bronze Age, devotion to mother earth or her representative goddess was rendered.

It was a temple of small dimensions and without luxurious or ornamental finishes, with an altar of Artemis in the middle of its central aisle.

By then, Ephesus was still a small city and the flow of citizens and visitors was not as great as it would be years later. Years later, a flash flood destroyed the temple, whose structure could not withstand the force of the water.

Information regarding its design and dimensions is not handled on this first version of the temple.

Second Temple of Artemis

By order of King Croesus of Lydia, the architects Chersifrón and Metagenes were commissioned to design and build a new version of the temple, while sculptors such as Scopas were commissioned with the internal and external ornamentation of the place.

In the same way, other names that actively participated in the construction of such an imposing temple, during the 120 years that it took to complete, are handled.

This construction resulted in a temple 115 meters long and 46 wide; double colonnades around the entire structure, approximately 13 meters high and each one with engravings in relief; it is estimated that in total there were about 127 columns.

The interior of the temple and the altar dedicated to the goddess were apparently not as imposing as the exterior structure. The columns led to the center, where a statue of Artemis and a place of devotion stood.

Around the temple, the faithful left their gifts and offerings to the goddess Artemis in the form of jewelry and other precious goods.

In the year 356 BC, the temple would suffer its devastation from an arson caused by Erostratus, who carried out this vile act in order to gain renown and even be immortalized. The temple was reduced to ashes.

Just when the temple is burned, in another region Alexander the Great was being born, who would offer to carry out its reconstruction.

It is said that Artemis was so busy attending the birth of Alexander the Great that she could not save her own temple from being reduced to ashes.

Third and last temple of Artemis

After the fire, the Temple of Artemis would remain in ruins, until in 334 BC, Alexander the Great took the city of Ephesus and offered to pay for its reconstruction in exchange for some recognition of its structure.

The city refused this request, and they would begin to rebuild the temple themselves over the years, giving it new dimensions in size and height.

A temple much larger than the previous one was erected, measuring 137 meters long by 69 meters wide and almost 20 meters high. More than a hundred detailed columns were kept in its design.

Similarly, the altar of Artemis was enlarged and another image was built in honor of the goddess. Around the altar and the statue, carved murals and other types of inscriptions that were not previously found were added.

It is said that despite its greater size, the Temple of Artemis never regained its former splendor. Its interior was used for other purposes, such as asylum and banking.

This latest version of the temple would remain standing for approximately 600 years, being gradually deteriorated by the continuous invasions and conflicts that the city of Ephesus suffered.

The temple would eventually be totally destroyed during an invasion that the Goths carried out on the city in 268. By then, the conversion to Christianity by the Romans had caused the structure to lose all its religious interest.

Little by little it was dismantled and its large marble rocks were used for the construction of other buildings; They were mostly used for the construction of the Basilica of Santa Sofia.

Many of its remains and pieces that adorned its interiors are today preserved in the British Museum in London, since the first modern expeditions to the site of the Temple of Artemis were carried out by English researchers and archaeologists.

References

1. Biguzzi, G. (1998). Ephesus, Its Artemision, Its Temple to the Flavian Emperors, and Idolatry in Revelation. Novum Testamentum, 276-290.
2. Herrera, A. (nd). The Artemis' temple. History and Life, 26-29.
3. Jordan, P. (2014). Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. New York: Routledge.
4. Lethaby, WR (1917). The Earlier Temple of Artemis at Ephesus. The Journal of Hellenic Studies, 1-16.
5. Murcia Ortuño, J. (2012). Ephesus, synthesis of Greece and Rome. Madrid: Editorial Gredos.
6. Woods, M., & Woods, MB (2008). Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Twenty-Firts Century Books.