the Week of Proper 28 / Ordinary 33
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Bible Dictionaries
Diana
Fausset's Bible Dictionary
or Greek ARTEMIS (Acts 19). Her original temple founded 580 B.C., finished 460, was burnt by Erostratus 356 B.C. The second temple, alluded to in Acts, was built in the reign of Alexander the Great. The Ephesian Diana in attributes resembled the Phoenician (See ASTARTE, (See ASHTORETH . She symbolized the generative and nutritive powers of nature, and so was represented with many breasts. On her head was a mural crown, each hand held a metal bar, the lower part was a rude block covered with mystic inscriptions and animals. The image was believed to have fallen from heaven, probably an aerolite. The bee was sacred to her, and her high priest was called by a corresponding name (essen), as also the hierarchy of women (Melissse) and eunuchs (Megabyzae). The temple was the public treasury and bank, and had the right of asylum.
No bloody sacrifices were allowed. As Ephesus was the capital of Asia in the limited sense, Diana of Ephesus was naturally the idol "whom all Asia and the world worshipped." (See ASIA.) Games were celebrated at Ephesus in her honor, and her worship was the He uniting politically Ephesus and other cities. In the great theater at Ephesus, on one of the walls of the entrance lobby, Mr. Wood found a letter from the emperor Hadrian to the Ephesians, dated Sept. 20th, A.D. 120, and an inscription referring to the temple of Diana, concerning its endowments and ritual, such as lists of votive statues of gold and silver with their weights and the regulations under which such objects were to be carried in procession. In the list mention occurs of many figures of Diana with two stags. This illustrates the Scripture mention of Demetrius the silversmith as the maker of silver portable models of Diana's shrine. (See DEMETRIUS.)
The inscription orders such votive objects to be carried in procession on certain days from the temple through the. Magnesian gate to the great theater, and thence through the Coressian gate back to the temple. This clause gave a clue to the discovery of the temple. First Mr. Wood found the Magnesian gate, and at a depth of 11 ft. a road with tombs on each side and the bases of piers. Secondly, near the stadium he found the Coressian gate. At the convergence of these two roads he found the enclosing wall of the temple and an inscription that Augustus built it; also a white marble pavement on a level bed of black marble and several drums of columns, 6 ft. 4 inches in diameter, including the sculptures in relief, and Ionic capitals, all now deposited in the British Museum, The intercolumniations are more than 19 ft. Gold was largely used in the decoration.
A fragment was found, composed of two astragals, between which a fold of lead enfolded a fillet strip of gold. Remains of brilliant colors too are found, blue, in the background, red and yellow, prominent. The bases of several of the columns are inscribed with their donors' names and the dedication to Artemis or Diana. The pro-naos was fenced off from the peristyle, as some of the mortises for the iron standards have been discovered. Remains of a wide portico surrounding the temple on three sides have been discovered. The base of one column remains in situ, of the outer row of columns, also one of the inner row. The temple was octastyle, eight columns in front. It has 18 on the sides, and the intercolumniations are three diameters. making the temple diastyle.
Pliny's statement is correct, the external and internal pillars being 120. The projection of the sculpture of "the 36 carved columns" is as much as 13 inches. The diameter of the columns them. selves is about 5 ft. 10 inches. The width of the platform measured at the lowest step was 238 ft. 3 1/2 inches, the length is 421 ft. 4 inches; Pliny gives the length 425 ft. The dimensions of the temple itself, "out to out," are 163 ft. 9 1/2 inches by 308 ft. 4 1/2 inches. The height of the platform was 9 ft. 5 3/8 inches. The interior was adorned with two tiers of elliptical columns, Ionic and Corinthian, fragments of which are found near the walls of the cella or inner shrine.
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Fausset, Andrew R. Entry for 'Diana'. Fausset's Bible Dictionary. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/fbd/d/diana.html. 1949.
