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![](artemis.jpg)
The
temple of Artemis at Ephesus built for the goddess Diana was one of
the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.
The ancient people of Greece and Rome
believed in many gods and goddesses. They made up stories called myths
about each of them. When the people did not understand something in
nature, they made up a myth to explain it. These legends also told
of special powers the gods and goddesses held to help or harm others
as they pleased. They believed one had to be quite careful so as not
to anger one of these pagan gods.
Artemis, as the Greeks called her, protected
wild animals and roamed through the woods with a band of women comrades.
They also associated Artemis with the moon and said she could be seen
with the crescent or new moon. Her twin was the god, Apollo. The Romans
knew her by another name, Diana and associated her with fertility.
The Greeks built a temple in her honor and placed a statue of her
inside the roofless colonnaded interior. The temple was made of white
marble and glittered with gold. It was so grand it was said to have
"rose to the clouds."
Ephesus in ancient times was a busy
port with much commerce going on. Chersiphron and his son Metagenes
of Crete built the temple of Artemis or Artemision, at Ephesus in
Ionia more than 2,500 years ago. The base measured 377 x 180ft. and
it took many years to build. When it was finished people traveled
vast distances to see it. A sacred stone,"fallen from Jupiter,"
was kept inside the temple. It is believed that it was probably a
meteorite that had fallen from the sky.
The temple was destroyed by fire in
the rebellion of 356 BC. The people loved Artemis so much they built
an even more exquisite temple on the same site. In 550BC King Croesus
of Lydia conquered Ephesus and the temple was destroyed again. Later
it was rebuilt but this time, the temple was giving a higher base
and decorated by Scopas and Apelles.
In 333BC when Alexander The Great came
to Ephesus the temple was still under construction. Over the next
few hundred years pilgrims continued to journey to Ephesus to view
the wonder of the marvelous temple. In 57 AD St. Paul came to the
city spreading the good news of a new religion called Christianity.
Many years passed and in 263AD the Goths
burned down the Temple of Artemis. After that, the Greeks did not
rebuild it. Roman Emperor Constantine rebuilt much of Ephesus a century
later but he rejected the idea of restoring the temple. By this time
most of the people had lost interest in the religion of Artemis and
Constantine had accepted Christianity.
Today, it is known as one of the Seven
Wonders of the Ancient World. Even though it is long gone you can
still read about the temple in many books, including the Bible. The
British Museum holds the remains of some sculptured fragments dug
from the swampy field where once a grand temple stood. Today in the
country of Turkey at Ephesus you can still see the ruins of the Temple
of Artemis. ![](00001244.gif)
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