Tea at Trianon: Temple of Artemis at Ephesus

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Tuesday, April 11, 2023

Temple of Artemis at Ephesus

From The Collector:

The site at which the future wonder of the ancient world would be erected at Ephesus, located on the Ionian coast of Asia Minor (near the modern town of Selçuk), had long been associated with devotion. A sacred site — known as a temenos — appears to have been known at Ephesus for as long as anyone in the ancient world could remember. Pausanias, the second-century CE geographer, even suggested that it was older than the sacred site at Didyma. Also located on the Ionian coast, Didyma was famous for its oracular shrine and was associated with Apollo, the brother of Artemis, who was worshipped at Ephesus. The site was seemingly so ancient as to be steeped in myth and legend. The Hellenistic poet Callimachus, who was active in 3rd century BCE Alexandria, attributed the worship of Artemis at Ephesus to the Amazons, the legendary warrior women.

Myth, legend, and speculation aside, modern archaeological discoveries have indicated that the ancients were correct in suggesting this was a very old sacred space. The site was occupied at least as early as the Bronze Age. A temple was first built on this site in the latter part of the 8th century BCE, although this structure was some way off the wonder that would later be erected here. This earliest temple was, however, still innovative. It was likely to have been one of the first peripteral Greek temples, meaning that it was surrounded by columns on all sides. This early temple would be destroyed by a flood in the 7th century BCE. From out of the destruction, a wonder would rise…(Read more.)