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About Artemis[]

Artemis devoted herself to the chase. She also discovered how to effect the healing of young children, and the foods which are suitable to the nature of babes. Goddess of the hunters, and watcher over streets and harbors, Artemis remained a maid, and those who have neglected this fact have been severely punished.

Artemis had Twin brother name Apollo. Artemis was the Goddess of The Hunt and her most common symbols we see almost everynight of her's is the Moon.

In myth, Artemis is sometimes identified with Selene, the Greek goddess of the moon. Indeed, this association between Artemis and the moon is revealed in one of the epithets used to describe the goddess - Phoebe ("the bright one").

The goddess Artemis was known as Diana in Roman mythology. her other symbols are the bow,and the deer.



Temple of Artemis[]

The Temple of Artemis was located near the ancient city of Ephesus, about 50 km south from the modern port city of İzmir, in Turkey. Today the site lies on the edge of the modern town of Selçuk.

The Temple of Artemis at Ephesus was destroyed on July 21, 356 BC in an act of arson committed by Herostratus. According to the story, his motivation was fame at any cost, thus the term herostratic fame.The Ephesians, outraged, announced that Herostratus' name never be recorded (damnatio memoriae). Strabo later noted the name, which is how we know it today.

That very same night, Alexander the Great was born. Plutarch remarked that Artemis was too preoccupied with Alexander's delivery to save her burning temple. Alexander later offered to pay for the temple's rebuilding, but the Ephesians refused. Eventually, the temple was restored after Alexander's death, in 323 BC.This reconstruction was itself destroyed during a raid by the Goths in 262, 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.

The Ephesians rebuilt the temple again. At Ephesus, according to the second-century Acts of John, the apostle John prayed publicly in the very Temple of Artemis, exorcising its demons and "of a sudden the altar of Artemis split in many pieces... and half the temple fell down," instantly converting the Ephesians, who wept, prayed or took flight. Over the course of the fourth century, perhaps the majority of Ephesians did convert to Christianity; all temples were declared closed by Theodosius I in 391.

In 401, the temple in its last version was finally destroyed by a mob led by St. John Chrysostom, and the stones were used in construction of other buildings. Some of the columns in Hagia Sophia originally belonged to the temple of Artemis.

The main primary sources for the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus are Pliny the Elder's Natural History XXXVI.xxi.95, Pomponius Mela, and Plutarch's Life of Alexander III. (referencing the burning of the Artemiseum).

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