Welcome to the I Can't Sleep Podcast,
Where I help you drift off one fact at a time.
I'm your host,
Benjamin Boster,
And today's episode is about the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.
The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World,
Also known as the Seven Wonders of the World,
Or simply the Seven Wonders,
Is a list of seven notable structures present during Classical Antiquity.
First established in the 1572 publication Octo Mundi Miracula,
Using a combination of historical sources.
The Seven Traditional Wonders established by the Octo Mundi Miracula are the Great Pyramid of Giza,
The Colossus of Rhodes,
The Lighthouse of Alexandria,
The Mausoleum at Halicarnassus,
The Temple of Artemis,
The Statue of Zeus at Olympia,
And the Hanging Gardens of Babylon.
Using modern day countries,
Two of the wonders were located in Greece,
Two in Turkey,
Two in Egypt,
And one in Iraq.
Of the seven wonders,
Only the Pyramid of Giza,
Which is also by far the oldest of the wonders,
Remains standing,
While the others have been destroyed over the centuries.
Remains exist from the Lighthouse,
Temple of Artemis,
And the Mausoleum,
Either in situ or in museums.
There is scholarly debate over the exact nature of the Hanging Gardens,
And there is doubt as to whether they existed at all.
All known ancient and classical lists of wonders differ from the Octo Mundi Miracula version.
The first known list of seven wonders dates back to the 2nd to 1st century BC.
At least eight full lists and ten partial lists are known.
Three other wonders appear more than twice across these lists,
The Walls of Babylon,
The Palace of Cyrus the Great,
And the Pergamon Altar.
Alexander the Great's conquest of much of the Western world in the 4th century BC gave Hellenistic travelers access to the civilizations of the Egyptians,
Persians,
And Babylonians.
Impressed and captivated by the landmarks and marvels of the various lands,
These travelers began to list what they saw to remember them.
Instead of wonders,
The ancient Greeks spoke of zeomata,
Which means sides.
Later,
The word for wonder was used.
Hence,
The list was meant to be the ancient world's counterpart of a travel guidebook.
The first reference to a list of seven such monuments was given by Diodorus Siculus.
He did not provide the list itself,
Mentioning only the Walls of Babylon and the pyramids.
The epigrammist Antipater of Sidon,
Who lived round or before 100 BC,
Gave a list of seven wonders,
Including six of the present list,
Substituting the Walls of Babylon for the Lighthouse of Alexandria.
I have gazed on the walls of impregnable Babylon,
Along which chariots may race,
And on the Zeus by the banks of the Alpheus.
I have seen the hanging gardens,
And the Colossus of the Helios,
The great man-made mountains of the lofty pyramids,
And the gigantic tomb of Mausolus.
But when I saw the sacred house of Artemis,
At Towers to the Clouds,
The others were placed in the shade,
For the sun himself has never looked upon its equal outside Olympus.
Greek Anthology 9.
58 Another ancient writer,
Who perhaps dubiously identified himself as Philo of Byzantium,
Wrote a short account entitled,
The Seven Sites of the World.
The surviving manuscript is incomplete,
Missing its last pages.
Still,
From the preamble text,
It is possible that the list of seven sites exactly matches Antipater's.
The preamble mentions the location of Halicarnassus,
But the pages describing the seventh wonder,
Presumably the Mausoleum,
Are missing.
Earlier and later lists by the historian Herodotus,
Circa 484 B.
C.
To circa 425 B.
C.
,
And the poet Callimachus of Cyrene,
Circa 305 B.
C.
To circa 240 B.
C.
,
Housed at the Museum of Alexandria,
Survive only as references.
The listing of seven of the most marvelous architectural and artistic human achievements continued beyond the ancient Greek times to the Roman Empire,
The Middle Ages,
The Renaissance,
And to the modern age.
The Roman poet Marshal and the Christian bishop Gregory of Tours had their versions.
Reflecting the rise of Christianity and the factor of time,
Nature,
And the hand of man overcoming Antipater's seven wonders,
Roman and Christian sites began to figure on the list,
Including the Colosseum,
Noah's Ark,
And Solomon's Temple.
In the 6th century,
A list of seven wonders was compiled by St.
Gregory of Tours.
The list included the Temple of Solomon,
The Pharos of Alexandria,
And Noah's Ark.
German classical scholar Wilhelm Heinrich Roscher's list of 18 known classical lists of wonders,
Both complete and incomplete,
Published in 1906,
Showed only two of the 18 lists being identical,
And considered the second was simply a later copy of the first.
Modern historians,
Working on the premise that the original seven ancient wonders list was limited in its geographic scope,
Also had their versions to encompass sites beyond the Hellenistic realm,
From the seven wonders of the ancient world to the seven wonders of the world.
The seven wonders label has spawned innumerable versions among international organizations,
Publications,
And individuals,
Based on different themes.
Works of nature,
Engineering masterpieces,
Constructions of the Middle Ages,
Etc.
Its purpose has also changed from just a simple travel guidebook,
Or a compendium,
Of curious places,
To a list of sites to defend or preserve.
The modern canonical list was first established in the 1572 publication Octo Mundi Miracula,
Using a combination of historical sources.
The list covered only the Mediterranean and Middle Eastern regions,
Which then comprised the known world for the Greeks.
The primary accounts from Hellenistic writers also heavily influence the places included in the wonders list.
Five of the seven entries are a celebration of Greek accomplishments in construction,
The exceptions being the Pyramids of Giza and the Hanging Gardens of Babylon.
The Colossus of Rhodes was the last of the seven to be completed after 280 BC,
And the first to be destroyed by an earthquake in 226 or 225 BC.
It was therefore already in ruins by the time the list was compiled,
And all seven wonders existed simultaneously for less than 60 years.
Of the canonical wonders,
The only one that has survived to the present day is the Great Pyramid of Giza.
Its brilliant white stone facing had survived intact until around 1300 AD,
When local communities removed most of the stonework for building materials.
The existence of the Hanging Gardens has not been proven,
Though theories abound.
Records and archaeology confirm the existence of the other five wonders.
The Temple of Artemis and the Statue of Zeus were destroyed by fire,
While the Lighthouse of Alexandria,
The Colossus,
And Tomb of Mausolus were destroyed by earthquakes.
Among the surviving artifacts are sculptures from the Tomb of Mausolus and the Temple of Artemis,
Currently kept in the British Museum in London.
The revival of Greco-Roman artistic styles caught the imagination of European artists and travelers.
Paintings and sculptures alluding to the canonical list were made,
While significant numbers of adventurers traveled to the actual sites to personally witness the wonders.
Legends circulated to further complement the superlatives of the wonders.
The Temple of Artemis or Artemision,
Also known as the Temple of Diana,
Was a Greek temple dedicated to a localized form of the goddess Artemis,
Equated with the Roman goddess Diana.
It was located in Ephesus,
Near modern-day Seljuk in Turkey.
The original temple was among the seven wonders of the world,
And was burnt down in 356 BCE by Herastratus on the eve of the birth of Alexander the Great.
While it had been destroyed and rebuilt many times in ancient history,
The last incarnation of the temple was destroyed in 401 CE.
Only foundations and fragments of the last temple remain in the present day.
The beginning of the history of the temple is unclear.
It is known,
However,
That the earliest version of the temple was destroyed by a flood in the 7th century BCE.
A more elaborate reconstruction of the temple began around 550 BCE under the leadership of the Greek architect from Creed,
Cercifron,
Funded by Croesus of Lydia.
This version of the temple lasted until 356 BCE,
When it was burned down by an arsonist,
Popularly identified as Herastratus.
The final form of the temple was funded by the people of Ephesus.
The temple was central to Ephesian life,
As it its great political and social value to its citizens.
The Ephesian Artemis,
Which was considered as separate from the Hellenic version of the god,
Had unique features and artifacts associated with her,
And was seen as a protector of the city.
The temple of Artemis was located near the ancient city of Ephesus,
About 75 km south from the modern port city of Izmir in Turkey.
Today,
The site lies on the edge of the modern town of Seljuk.
The sacred site,
Temenos,
At Ephesus,
Was older than the Artemision itself.
Pausanias was certain that it antedated the Ionic immigration by many years,
Being even older than the oracular shrine of Apollo at Didyma.
He said that the pre-Ionic inhabitants of the city were Leleges and Lydians.
Callamicus,
In his hymn to Artemis,
Attributed the earliest Temenos at Ephesus to the Amazons,
Legendary warrior women,
Whose religious practice he imagined already centered upon an image,
Bretas,
Of Artemis,
Their matron goddess.
Pausanias believed that the temple predated the Amazons.
Pausanias' estimation of the site's antiquity seems well-founded.
Before World War I,
Site excavations by David George Hogaris seemed to identify three successive temple buildings.
Re-excavations in 1987-1988 and reappraisal of Hogaris' account confirm that the site was occupied as early as the Bronze Age,
With a sequence of pottery finds that extend forward to Middle Geometric times.
When a peripteral temple was a floor of hard-packed clay was constructed in the second half of the 8th century BCE.
The peripteral temple at Ephesus offers the earliest example of a peripteral type on the coast of Asia Minor,
And perhaps the earliest Greek temple surrounded by colonnades anywhere.
In the 7th century BCE,
A flood destroyed the temple,
Depositing over half a meter of sand and flotsam over the original clay floor.
Among the flood debris were the remains of a carved ivory plaque of a griffin and the Tree of Life,
Apparently North Syrian,
And some drilled tear-shaped amber drops of elliptical cross-section.
These probably once stressed a wooden effigy of the Lady of Ephesus,
Which must have been destroyed or recovered from the flood.
Bammer notes that though the site was prone to flooding,
And raised by slit deposits about 2 meters between the 8th and 6th centuries,
And a further 2.
4 meters between the 6th and the 4th,
Its continued use indicates that maintaining the identity and the actual location played an important role in the sacred organization.
The new temple was sponsored at least in part by Croesus,
Who founded Lydia's empire and was overlord of Ephesus.
It was designed and constructed from around 550 BCE by the Greek Cretan architect Cursiphon and his son Metagenes.
It was 115 meters long and 46 meters wide,
Supposedly the first Greek temple built of marble.
Its peripteral columns stood some 13 meters high in double rows that formed a wide ceremonial passage around the cella that housed the goddess's cold image.
36 of these columns were,
According to Pliny the Elder,
Decorated by carvings in relief.
A new ebony or blackened grapewood cold statue was sculpted by Endoias,
And a nyscus to house it was erected east of the open-air altar.
A rich foundation deposit from this era,
Also called the Artemisian deposit,
Yielded more than a thousand items,
Including what may be the earliest coins made from the silver-gold alloy electrum.
The deposit contains some of the earliest inscribed coins,
Those of Phaines,
Dated to 625-600 BCE from Ephesus,
With the legend,
Phainos emi Seima,
Or similar,
I am the badge of Phaines,
Or just bearing the name Phainos,
Of Phaines.
Fragments of bas-relief on the lowest drums of the temple columns,
Preserved in the British Museum,
Show that the enriched columns of the later temple,
Of which a few survive,
Were versions of this earlier feature.
Pliny the Elder,
Seemingly unaware of the ancient continuity of the sacred site,
Claims that the new temple's architects chose to build it on marshy ground,
As a precaution against earthquakes,
With lower foundation layers of fleeces and pounded charcoal.
The temple became an important attraction,
Visited by merchants,
Kings,
And sightseers,
Many of whom paid homage to Artemis in the form of jewelry and various goods.
It also offered sanctuary to those fleeing persecution or punishment,
A tradition linked in myth to the Amazons,
Who twice fled there seeking the goddess's protection from punishment,
Firstly by Dionysus,
And later by Heracles.
Diogenes Laertius claims that the misanthropic philosopher Heraclus,
Thoroughly disapproving of civil life at Ephesus,
Played knuckle-bones in the temple with the boys,
And later deposited his writings there.
In 356 BCE,
The temple burned down.
Various sources describe this as an act of arson by a man,
Herostratus,
Who set fire to the wooden roof beams,
Seeking fame at any cost.
Thus the term Herostratic fame.
For this outrage,
The Ephesians sentenced the perpetrator to death and forbade anyone from mentioning his name,
Although Theopompus later noted it.
Aristotle describes the temple's conflagration,
But not its cause.
In Greek and Roman historical tradition,
The temple's destruction coincided with the birth of Alexander the Great.
Plutarch remarks that Artemis was too preoccupied with Alexander's delivery to save her burning temple.
It does not specify a cause for the fire.
Herostratus' part in the temple's destruction has been questioned in modern scholarship.
Stephen Carwise notes that any arsonist would have needed access to the wooden roof framing.
Knibb,
1998,
Writes of an entire corpse of attested temple guards and custodians.
The fire might even have been deliberately and covertly set by the temple's administrators,
Who were aware that the temple's foundation was sinking,
But were prevented from residing it elsewhere by religious constraints.
Bammer has noted the conservation of the original sacred location throughout successive rebuildings,
Despite continued problems with flooding and foundations.
Carwise questions the motive of Herostratus,
Since he only divulged his purpose under torture,
Which does not fit a man seeking fame.
Knibb,
1998,
Considers Herostratus a useful idiot in the service of the priesthood.
Alexander offered to pay for the temple's rebuilding.
The Ephesians tactfully refused,
Saying it would be improper for one god to build a temple to another,
And eventually rebuilt it after his death,
At their own expense.
Work started in 323 BCE and continued for many years.
The third temple was larger than the second,
137 meters long by 69 meters wide and 18 meters high,
With more than 127 columns.
Asenagoras of Athens names Andoius,
A pupil of Daedalus,
As sculptor of Artemis' main cold image.
Pausanias,
Circa 2nd century AD,
Reports another image,
An altar in the temple,
Dedicated to Artemis Protothronia,
Artemis of the First Seed,
And a gallery of images above this altar,
Including an ancient figure of Nix,
The primordial goddess of night,
By the sculptor Ricus,
6th century BCE.
Pliny describes images of Amazons,
The legendary founders of Ephesus,
And Ephesian Artemis' original protégés,
Carved by Scopus.
Literary sources describe the temple's adornment by paintings,
Columns gilded with gold and silver,
And religious works of renowned Greek sculptors,
Polyclitus,
Thaddeus,
Chressalus,
And Fredman.
This reconstruction survived for 600 years,
And appears multiple times in early Christian accounts of Ephesus.
According to the New Testament,
The appearance of the first Christian missionary in Ephesus caused locals to fear for the temple's dishonor.
The 2nd century Acts of John includes an apocryphal tale of the temple's destruction.
The apostle John prayed publicly in the temple of Artemis,
Exercising 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.
Against this,
A Roman edict of 162 AD acknowledges the importance of Artemision,
The annual Ephesian festival of Artemis,
And officially extended it from a few holy days over March to April to a whole month,
One of the largest and most magnificent religious festivals in Ephesus' liturgical calendar.
In 268 AD,
According to Jordanians,
A raid by the Goths under their leaders Reshba,
Veduk,
And Thur,
Laid waste many populous cities,
And set fire to the renowned temple of Diana at Ephesus.
The extent and severity of the damage are unknown.
The temple may have been repaired and opened to use again,
Or it may have lain derelict until its official closing during the persecution of pagans in the late Roman Empire.
These are the signs that it may have been of use after 268,
Since Christian authors refer to its closure in the 5th century.
Ammonius of Alexandria comments on its closure,
Perhaps as early as 407 CE,
Or no later than the mid-5th century.
After the city had been made Christian and the temple had been closed,
The name of Artemis appears to have been erased from inscriptions throughout Ephesus.
Cyril of Alexandria credited Archbishop of Constantinople John Chrysostom with destroying the temple,
Referring to him as the destroyer of the demons and overthrower of the temple of Diana.
A later Archbishop of Constantinople,
Proclus,
Noted the doings of John,
Saying,
In Ephesus he despoiled the art of Midas,
But there is little evidence to support this claim.
At least some of the stone from the abandoned temple was used in construction of other buildings.
A legend of the late Middle Ages claims that some of the columns in the Hagia Sophia were taken from the temple of Artemis at Ephesus,
But there's no truth to this story.
The main primary sources for the temple of Artemis at Ephesus are plenty of the elders' natural history,
Writings by Pomponius Mela,
And Plutarch's Life of Alexander.
The final form of the temple is described in Antipater of Sidon's List of the World's Seven Wonders.
I have set eyes on the wall of lofty Babylon,
On which is a road for chariots,
And the statue of Zeus by the Alpheus,
And the hanging gardens,
And the colossus of the sun,
And the huge labor of the high pyramids,
And the vast tomb of Mausolus.
But when I saw the house of Artemis had mounted to the clouds,
Those other marvels lost their brilliancy,
And I said,
Lo,
Apart from Olympus,
The sun never looked on aught so grand.
