DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.14144#0427
THE SCULPTURED COLUMNS IN EPHESUS. 391
and fruit, and heads of bulls and fanciful monsters in rows. On
her arms are the figures of lions,1 who seem to be crawling upwards.2
The older temple of Artemis at Ephcsus was begun by the archi-
tect Chersiphron between 600 and 500 B.C., and finished by Pseonius
(the architect of the Branchida; temple) and Demetrius in 460 B.C., at
which period Ephesus was tributary to Athens. The Artemision was
the only Greek temple in Asia Minor which escaped the vengeance of
Xerxes, who recognised an Asiatic goddess in the Ephesian Artemis.
It perished, as we know, by the hand of the incendiary Hero-
stratus, on the same night in which Alexander the Great was born
(B.C. 356). A new temple was quickly raised on the same site, of
which Pliny gives a rather minute description. In a very doubtful
passage he says that Scopas was said to have carved the reliefs on
one of the thirty-six ornamented pillars. ' The length of the whole
temple,' he says,' is 425 feet, the breadth 225, and there are 137 columns
60 feet in height, 36 of which are carved in relief, one of them by
Scopas.'3 YVinckelmann suspected some corruption in the text, and
proposed to read 11/10 e scaplw of one block, i.e. monolith, in contra-
distinction to the 88 unornamented columns. This reading is sup-
ported by Brunt), and certainly removes many difficulties.'
The site of this interesting building was found in 1873 by Wood,
who brought over several fragments of sculptured columns, which
are now in the British Museum. The height of the drums is about
6 feet, and the circumference 18 feet. On the best preserved of these
fragments we see four figures, and fragments of a fifth and sixth on
each side of them. There were probably eight on the whole circum-
ference. Hermes is easily recognised by the kerykeion (caduceus), the
Pctasos, and the chlamys wrapped round his arm. Another figure
with large wings and long sword by his side is probably Thanatos
(Death), who beckons to a woman on his right hand. She is dressed
>n the sleeved chiton and the himation, which she draws over her breast
with her right hand, while her left hand holds the other corner of it
above her shoulder, like the well-known Diana of Gabii in the Louvre.
Gerhard, AfttHeBU&B. 305, 307, 30S. ' lirunn also suggests the reading, 'into
•Newton's Essays. s<afiw,' 'at the bottom of the shaft,' which
I'lin. .V. //. xxxvi. 26: 'Ex iis xxxvi. gives ■ still more probable meaning.
CMate una a Scafic'
and fruit, and heads of bulls and fanciful monsters in rows. On
her arms are the figures of lions,1 who seem to be crawling upwards.2
The older temple of Artemis at Ephcsus was begun by the archi-
tect Chersiphron between 600 and 500 B.C., and finished by Pseonius
(the architect of the Branchida; temple) and Demetrius in 460 B.C., at
which period Ephesus was tributary to Athens. The Artemision was
the only Greek temple in Asia Minor which escaped the vengeance of
Xerxes, who recognised an Asiatic goddess in the Ephesian Artemis.
It perished, as we know, by the hand of the incendiary Hero-
stratus, on the same night in which Alexander the Great was born
(B.C. 356). A new temple was quickly raised on the same site, of
which Pliny gives a rather minute description. In a very doubtful
passage he says that Scopas was said to have carved the reliefs on
one of the thirty-six ornamented pillars. ' The length of the whole
temple,' he says,' is 425 feet, the breadth 225, and there are 137 columns
60 feet in height, 36 of which are carved in relief, one of them by
Scopas.'3 YVinckelmann suspected some corruption in the text, and
proposed to read 11/10 e scaplw of one block, i.e. monolith, in contra-
distinction to the 88 unornamented columns. This reading is sup-
ported by Brunt), and certainly removes many difficulties.'
The site of this interesting building was found in 1873 by Wood,
who brought over several fragments of sculptured columns, which
are now in the British Museum. The height of the drums is about
6 feet, and the circumference 18 feet. On the best preserved of these
fragments we see four figures, and fragments of a fifth and sixth on
each side of them. There were probably eight on the whole circum-
ference. Hermes is easily recognised by the kerykeion (caduceus), the
Pctasos, and the chlamys wrapped round his arm. Another figure
with large wings and long sword by his side is probably Thanatos
(Death), who beckons to a woman on his right hand. She is dressed
>n the sleeved chiton and the himation, which she draws over her breast
with her right hand, while her left hand holds the other corner of it
above her shoulder, like the well-known Diana of Gabii in the Louvre.
Gerhard, AfttHeBU&B. 305, 307, 30S. ' lirunn also suggests the reading, 'into
•Newton's Essays. s<afiw,' 'at the bottom of the shaft,' which
I'lin. .V. //. xxxvi. 26: 'Ex iis xxxvi. gives ■ still more probable meaning.
CMate una a Scafic'