1. Topographical evidence

The Temple of Artemis is situated outside the country town of Selcuk, few meters north of the highway connecting the town with Kuşadasi. The temple was built on a lowland stretch outside the ancient city. This location is by no means a conspicuous one, but apparently a number of Ionic temples were erected in similar sites, like those in Magnesia, Sardis and Didyma.

In Antiquity, the Artemisium was much closer to the sea.¹ Alluvial deposits, however, from the river Cayster have created archaeological strata 5m in height each, and have expanded the plain, causing the shoreline recede further away. According to Bammer,² the Artemisium may be likened to a seismographer, as it records all the changes the shoreline has undergone over time.

2. Historical evidence – Temple’s building phases

The site of the Temple of Artemis was a place of worship from Prehistoric times. The first settlers identified the divinity worshiped there, which bore resemblance to the Potnia Theron (‘Mistress of the Animals’), as Artemis. Mycenaean ruins support the view that some earlier shrine existed in the site. The earliest buildings, though, that can be safely identified as temples (based on the archaeological evidence) can be dated to the late 8th cent. BC, and are divided in three sub-phases. During the first phase (Phase Α) there was a sacrificial altar and a peripteral building with wooden columns (8 x 4). This temple was a model temple-structure of the period; its dimensions were 6.5 x 12m. It bore no roof and the xoanon (cult image) of the goddess stood on a base measuring 2 x 5m, which included an altar and a roof.³

A destruction stratum in Phase A of this temple was ascribed by ancient writers to an attack by the Cimmerians or the Treres.⁴ There are some, almost anecdotal, stories concerning Lygdamis, the king of the Cimmerians. There is no evidence, however, to substantiate these stories. The only incontrovertible fact is the dating of the temple’s destruction to c. 645 BC.

In Phase Β the whole area is taken up by a small temple or was simply surrounded by a new enclosure. A podium was added, and clay tiles were used for the roofing.

The small temple of Phase C, i.e. the immediate predecessor of the Archaic Artemisium, dates to c. 600 BC and was built on a plot measuring 14.63 x 28.20m, defined by a low wall. It was a simple in antis temple, with a peristasis and an open cella, were the goddess’ statue was set. A huge stereobate indicates there were plans to construct a colossal altar. The building project of Phase C was ambitious, echoing the wealth and prestige of the city in the early 6th century. Apparently it was never completed, for in the meantime it was being replaced by the subsequent Phase D, the Archaic Artemisium. This was when the Lydian king Croesus attacked the city. The Ephesians tried to keep safe by tying themselves to a rope which extended from the Temple of Artemis to their city, in the hope that this way they would be placed under the goddess’ protection. This move did not produce the desired effect: Croesus destroyed their city and relocated its inhabitants to the hinterland.

2.1. Archaic Period

Croesus showed outmost respect for the temple, he even funded the erection of the splendid building of the Archaic period, as testified by his name which appears inscribed on at least one column drum, which is exhibited in the British Museum. The Archaic phase of this temple is known as ‘Croesus’ temple’ and should be dated to around 560-550 BC, keeping in mind Croesus was defeated by the Persians in 546 BC.

The architects of this phase were the Cretans Chersiphron and Metagenes, while it is thought possible that Theodorus of Samos, the architect of the Heraion, worked with them. The latter’s contribution would have been necessary to make sure the temple was supported properly, as it was built in a marshy area, similar to that of the site of the Heraion. Furthermore, certain similarities in the architectural design of the Artemisium and the temple in Samos suggest Theodorus’ presence in Ephesus. The stylobate of the Archaic Artemisium measured 55.10 x 115.14m. This was the largest building of the Greek world and the first structure of monumental dimensions to be built exclusively of marble.⁵

The temple was dipteral, i.e. it was surrounded by a double line of columns on all its four sides; by augmenting its width the building did not appear excessively long.⁶ According to Pliny,⁷ the temple measured 225 x 425ft (66.6 x 125.8m) and featured 127 columns in total. The excavations have yielded a line of 8 columns along the building’s façade, 9 columns on the rear side, and 21 columns on its two long sides.

When the Archaic Artemisium was erected, the earlier small temple and its enclosure were incorporated in the unroofed cella of the new building. Thus, Artemis’ statue was set up in the original area of worship. This statue was either roofed under a hypostyle storey or was incorporated in a naiskos. The rear part of the cella (the adyton) was closed and there was no opisthodomos. The pronaos was similar to that of the Heraion of Phases III and IV and with the Archaic Didymaion, as it was shaped like an elongated stoa.⁸

Although the Archaic Artemisium was generally influenced by the Heraion, it incorporated a series of novelties and refinements. The height of the columns was equal to the diameter of their base multiplied by 12, thus each measured 19m in height. The bases consisted in a combination of a square plinth with a trochilus and scotia, which supported a larger spiral. This particular base design offered stability, and for the next 200 years it became a popular element of the Ionic architecture. The number of the column flutes varied between 40 and 48, while column parts bearing relief decoration have been unearthed too. These last Pliny called “columnae caeletae”, and claimed that they were 36 in number. These relief columns certainly followed eastern models and were arranged as follows: 16 on the colonnades of the façade, 2 x 6 on either side of the pilasters and 8 in the pronaos.

The entablature was made up of an epistyle with three taeniae, framed by lines of dentils above and below, and an Ionic cyma crowned by a cornice and sima. The intercolumnal space between the two front columns has been estimated to 8.74m, which means the monolithic epistyle weighed about 24 tons, a remarkable achievement for its time.⁹ Lion-head spouts that were used as drainpipes protruded from the sima at regular intervals. It was also decorated with depictions of chariots and warriors. The temple’s roof and internal entablature were made up of cedar wood. Close to the temple lay the goddess’ sacred peribolos, a wall which enclosed a grove where wild animals roamed free.

The dating of the Archaic temple is based on the ivory artefacts discovered in its foundations, like the figurine of a priestess holding a Phrygian phiale on one hand and a small oinochoe on the other, which has been dated to c. 570 BC,¹⁰ but also on the column drums that were dedicated by Croesus. The refinement of the relief sima, however, indicates that certain parts of the temple were still constructed or replaced up to the 5th cent. BC. It appears that the temple was finally completed in 460 BC.¹¹

2.2. Hellenistic Period

In 356 BC -according to a tradition on the same night Alexander the Great was born- the temple was burned to the ground; the arsonist was some madman named Herostratus.¹² He interpreted his action as an attempt to immortalize his name, which in a way he succeeded in doing.

The Ephesians immediately started the construction of an even more beautiful temple; Deinocrates (according to others Cheirocrates) is mentioned as its architect. The works on the temple were still ongoing when Alexander reached the city in 334 BC. Impressed by the temple’s splendour, he offered to cover all the expenses for its construction, provided that his name would appear on the dedicatory inscription. According to Strabo,¹³ the Ephesians turned down his offer with the excuse that it would be improper for a god to assign the construction of the temple to someone else. The building was finally completed in the mid-3rd cent. BC.

The Hellenistic Artemisium generally followed the architectural design of its Archaic predecessor. The new walls and columns were placed in the exact same spots of the older ones. The most important new elements of the temple consisted in the addition of another row of columns in the facades and the temple’s placement on a crepidoma measuring 2.68m in height and comprising 13 steps. The temple was elevated probably to protect the building from the frequent floods of this marshy area. The stepped crepidoma, however, is a popular element of Eastern architecture, which at this period beginns to be combined with Greek architectural forms.

The Mausoleum of Halicarnassus, a work of the architect Pythius, must had influenced the form of the temple, especially in terms of the addition of an opisthodomos to the building. Furthermore, the proportions of the Artemisium correspond with those of the Temple of Athena in Priene, a work by the same architect.

The stylobate of the Hellenistic temple measured 105 x 55m. Pliny mentions that the columns of the late Artemisium were 60ft high (17.65m), that is 9.6 times the diameter of the column's base. He also claims that the new columns were less plastic and slender than those of the Archaic Artemisium. As in Priene, the columns of the Hellenistic Artemisium had 24 flutes. Their bases also bore relief decoration, affected however by the style of Late Classical art. One of these columns has survived and is exhibited in the British Museum.¹⁴ Its relief decoration depicts Hermes and Thanatos (Death) and a female figure that has been identified as Eurydice or Alcestis. This is one of the best examples of 4th cent. BC sculpture, a creation of a sculptor working in the style of Praxiteles. According to Pliny and Vitruvius, one of the columns was a work of the sculptor Scopas.

The temple’s entablature was by and large faithful to its Archaic predecessor, only the lion-head spouts of the sima were replaced with simple anthemia.

In representations of the Hellenistic Artemisium on coins, the narrow sides of the temple are crowned by pediments and the building features a douple pitchedroof. In these depictions the pediment features three arched openings, which were obviously practical but must have also had some sort of a devotional function, as they are also seen in the Magnesian Artemisium. Perhaps statues of the gods were shown to the devotees through these openings.

The excavations conducted by the Austrians in 1965 yielded an altar that belonged to the Hellenistic Artemisium. This is a horseshoe-shaped structure veneered with marble, stretching out over an area measuring 32 x 22m. Various pipes have been discovered around the altar, which indicates that in the 4th cent. BC too water management constituted a central concern for the architects. A relief depicting an Amazon unearthed in 1901 in the marble pavement of the Theater Street in Ephesus (today exhibited in the Vienna Museum) is thought to have come from the altar’s decoration.¹⁵

One of the most important privileges granted to the temple was its status as a place of asylum - it was a safe haven for all persecuted persons. Alexander expanded the limits of the asylum area to include the surroundings of the temple up to a distance of one stadium. Mithridates redetermined these limits by shooting an arrow from a corner of the temple’s roof; this arrow covered a distance just over one stadium. Marcus Antonius doubled this distance, and the asylum area now included part of the city. This measure, however, was deemed excessive, as the city started attracting a large number of criminals, and so this custom was abolished by Augustus. In the Augustan period part of the temple was used for the imperial worship (Sebasteion). Thanks to the imperial cult, the city retained its nature as an asylum.

The temple was damaged by the Goths in 263 AD, and the temple was completely ruined after the advent of Christianity. Probably from this period onwards parts of the temple were being detached and reused as building material.

3. Excavations

The Temple of Artemis was the first building to be excavated in the site of Ephesus. We owe its unearthing to an English railway engineer, J.T. Wood, for whom the discovery of the temple was a lifelong dream. The location of the temple was all but totally unknown. Wood worked in Ephesus between 1863 and 1874, spending a considerable amount of his personal fortune on making test cuts in various points of the plain. An important clue was provided by an inscription found in 1869 incorporated on the east wall of the theatre’s south parodos. It mentioned Gaius Vibius Salutaris, who in 104 AD dedicated a series of silver and gold statuetess to the temple and arranged for them to be carried on specified dates from the temple to the theatre and then back, following a specific course. This holy procession passed under the Magnesisan Gate. The evidence from this inscription was combined with a piece of information preserved in Philostratus that someone named Titus Flavius Damianus connected the Artemisium with the city via a stoa which started and the Coressus Gate.¹⁶ This road was in fact discovered: it was paved with marble slabs and led to the temple’s enclosure. Wood, however, did not manage to excavate the temple's lower layers; D.G. Hogharth and A.E. Henderson did this in 1904 and in 1905, uncovering the famous apothete of the temple’s foundations which contained a hoard of gold artefacts. The finds that came to light during the excavations by the English were carried to the British Museum.

Subsequently, the excavations in the wider area of the Ephesus were undertaken by the Austrian Institute, which had already requested the Ottoman state’s permission. In 1966 the Austrian excavators excavated west of the temple, and these digs led to the discovery of the Altar of Artemis. A large number of valuable votive offerings came to light during the excavations: in most cases it cannot be ascertained whether these were locally made or imported products. These finds testify to the multicultural background of the donors, and also to the variety of the cults in the area.

In the last decades notable finds dating to the 8th and 7th centuries have come to light, artefacts in the Geometric and Orientalizing style respectively. Among these are pieces made up of gold, ivory, faience, and bronze, as well as pottery in the ‘Ephesian’ and the ‘Red on Black’ style.¹⁷

4. Religion - worship

4.1. The goddess’ devotional statue

The Artemis of Ephesus preserved a significant amount of its eastern, pre-Greek characteristics. The goddess’ customary depiction,¹⁸ which followed the model of her original adorational xoanon, is as follows: on her head she wears a polos crown (high-pillared headdress), often decorated with animal busts. She also wears variform necklaces and the lower half of her body is covered by a garment called ependytes which bears relief figures arranged in strips. On the original devotional statue these relief decorations were probably made up of gold. The strips of oviform objects around her chest have been interpreted as breasts or (according the the latest interpretations) as eggs. In either case these oviform objects were symbols of fertility, something which does not befit the virginal nature the goddess has in Greek mythology. The many animals that are found around the goddess’ feet –bulls, lions, sphinxes a.o.– are consonant with her worship as a goddess of the hunt, while the presence of a chimaera points again to eastern influences.

4.2. Ritual

The worship of the goddess was the belonged to a priesthood whose structure was peculiar by Greek standards. Some of the words describing ranks of the priesthood are not even Greek. On the top level of the pyramid was the priest or priests – it is unclear whether there were more than one. In any case we know that it was a eunuch called Megabyzus.¹⁹ According to Strabo, he was always chosen by the non-Greek tribes and he received great honours.

The priest had a retinue of many young virgins, divided in three groups: aspirant priestesses (novices), active priestesses and those who had served as priestesses in the past and now were responsible for initiating the novices to the cult.
Another rank of priests were the Essaioi.²⁰ According to an ancient interpretation, the word ‘Essaios’ described the king of the the bees. On one interpretation, the hierarchy in Ephesus was modelled on that of a bee-hive, as the bee was the city’s emblem.²¹ Apparently the Essaioi functioned as intermediaries between the religious and secular power. They offered sacrifices to the goddess on behalf of the city and organized the public dinners that followed the religious rituals.
Another priestly body in the goddess’ service were the Curetes. In a local, Ephesian version of the myth, the Curetes helped Leto when she was giving birth to Artemis –in an area the Ephesians claimed lay close to their city– by scaring off Hera, who was resentfully watching the child-birth. This mythological event was annually celebrated in a feast, during which the Curetes conducted sacrifices and offered dinners.²²

The Acrobatai, i.e. ‘those who walk on the tips of their toes’ formed another priestly body. It is unknown why they walked in that way. We do know that they were twenty in number and offered sacrifices.
Generally the priesthood had an important role in the city’s financial life, as they received donations and money and were able to lend sums of money to private individuals.²³

In numerous publications of the last 30 years, the Artemisium is treated as a pluralistic center of worship for many divinities, notwithstanding the lack of ancient written sources supporting such a view. Certain scholars have suggested that the Lydian king Croesus replaced the earlier cults with a new, syncretistic cult of the Ephesian Artemis. This view has come under heavy criticism lately, as the –insufficient– excavational evidence do not provide any support to such theories.²⁴