Temple of Artemis
From Wikinfo
The Temple of Artemis (440 BC, at Ephesus (present day Turkey)), is considered one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. It took 120 years to build, and was started by King Croesus of Lydia.
Artemis was a Greek Goddess of the Moon.
It was destroyed in 356 BC in an act of arson committed by Herostratus. According to the story, his reason for setting the fire was that he wanted to go down in history. (From his name derives the term herostratic fame.) The legend continues that Artemis herself did not protect her temple, because she was too busy tending to the birth of Alexander the Great, which took place that same night. The reconstruction of the great Temple of Artemis was destroyed during a raid by the Goths in 262 CE, in the time of emperor Gallienus "Respa, Veduc and Thuruar, leaders of the Goths, took ship and sailed across the strait of the Hellespont to Asia. There they laid waste many populous cities and set fire to the renowned temple of Diana at Ephesus" reported Jordanes in Getica (chapter xx, 107)
The temple's location was rediscovered in 1869 by an expedition sponsored by the British Museum, and several artifacts and sculptures from the reconstructed temple can be seen there today.
External links
- British Museum's Temple of Artemis (Ephesos) objects
- UnMuseum's The Temple of Artemis
- Seven Wonders' Temple of Artemis
References
- Adapted from the Wikipedia article, "Temple_of_Artemis" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temple_of_Artemis, used under the GNU Free Documentation License
