Cult of Artemis Ephesus, 1st Century AD

Cult of Artemis Ephesus, 1st Century AD

A Narrative

by

William Wolfman

My name is Hermolaos, Roman citizen, silversmith, and member of the cult of Artemis at Ephesus, the coast of Asia Minor. It is 59 AD and I am afraid of a small monotheistic group that has expanded due to the apostles and their quest looking for converts. St. Paul and his followers title this religion “Christianity” and have come to the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus to convert many of the gentiles, some of which have belonged to our cult. We respectfully reiterated the value of our deity, Artemis, daughter of Leto and Zeus, and the twin of Apollo, is the goddess of the wilderness, the hunt and wild animals, and fertility. She is the helpers of midwives as a goddess of birth.

With the presence of Paul and the slow rise of Christianity, my career in sculpture has taken a hit in earning a stable income. My works of art that are created for the greek goddess Artemis has, and most certainly will lose interest of the people due to the development of this new religion. As warned by many of our philosophers, Christianity—unlike Judaism, uses an unusual model in their construction and in their visualization of a single, spiritual entity that is considered the creator of all things. We simply could not tolerate this concept as it had conflicted with that of our own paganist beliefs. Though, we too, centrally focus on one single deity, Artemis, it does not diminish any of our respect toward the predominant emphasis of the Greek Classical Gods that came about and manifested centuries ago, including Apollo and Zeus. Members of our cult are too, keenly aware that what the earth goddess provides is limited in context to that of the Christian God. This, once again, does not change or alter our religious faith in any way of the great and powerful Artemis. Here, at Ephesus, we place greater value above all other aspects of life, in the harvesting of grains, fruits and wheat for better fortune in the spring. That she provides for our women maternity, providing strong and healthy children for the future of our community. These are the aspects of life at Ephesus which distinguishes us from other parts of the Empire. It is this small town located at the coast of Asia Minor that Roman citizens come and visit to embrace the luxuries of harvest and maternity.

As mentioned by Antipater years ago, he described how nothing compared to the sight of the Temple of Artemis:

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 labour of the high pyramids, and the vast tomb of Mausolus; but when I saw the house of Artemis that 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.

(Antipater, Greek Anthology IX 58)

Ephesus has a rich history of being far too significant for yielding to a spiritualistic practice that has been reduced to a single note and which takes its roots from a place of lesser value, significance and power, Jerusalem. When Augustus became emperor in 27 BC, he made Ephesus the capital of proconsular Asia in its place of Pergamum. Ephesus then has entered an era of prosperity since, and becoming both the place of the governor and a major focus of commerce at the Roman Empire. As I have agreed with Strabo in his recordings of Ephesus, it is the second in importance and size only to Rome.

In this current era of divided cults, we believe that the Christians have begun to provide a limited lexicon of ideas compared to the complex particular areas of worship that the cults have embraced and sacrificed for here; our own, single deity is in their eyes, a fixation of a quality easily capsuled by the Christian God. This, is in itself a delusion to pretentiously convert the gentiles, not through religious, but through socio-political means. Their offering of monotheism is not through faith but instead through unity and morale which will benefit the whole socially than that of the Pagan religion. We can only hope that the Emperor only does something about this unnecessary second-class citizenship that continues to threaten the socio-political status of the empire.

Two years ago---in 57 AD, Paul was obliged to leave Ephesus. My friend named Demetrius, also a silversmith, and who made silver shrines of Artemis, brought no little business to the craftsmen. These he gathered together, with the worker men of like occupation, and said, 'Men, you know that from this business we have our wealth. And you see and hear that not only at Ephesus but almost throughout all Asia this Paul has persuaded and turned away a considerable number of people, saying that gods made with hands are not gods. And there is danger not only that this trade of ours may come into disrepute but also that the temple of the great goddess Artemis may count for nothing, and that she may even be deposed from her brilliance, she whom all Asia and the world worship.' When all our people heard this they were enraged and cried out, 'Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!' So the city was filled with the confusion; and they rushed together into the theater....for about two hours they all with one voice cried out, 'Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!' And when the town clerk quieted the crowd, he said, 'Men of Ephesus, what man is there who does not know that the city of the Ephesians is temple guard of the great Artemis, and of the sacred stone that fell from the sky?’. And thus, you see that the art of silver I provide will be tarnished with the arrival of Christianity. As the disagreement between paganism and monotheism continues, a conquering of some sort will result. Paganism with its hints to polytheism and the broader lexicon of ideas it encompasses will be reduced to a single note if Christianity succeeds.

It is my fear and expectation that the majority of Paul’s converts will start from the lower-class as the morals he provides in his proposition promises better sustainability to their socio-political status. This however, is ineffective toward the higher-class citizens; the groups of entitlement in our society.

It is also in my fear that he will persuade much of the female population into being converts as I have been informed through several of my peers from Brauran. This is particularly problematic for a cult such as ours which worships a goddess that protects fertility and promises our female population an acceptance in spiritual custom. Our relationship to Brauran is just as vital as it is at Lycenti or any other where the cult of Artemis is present.

It is my surmise that his quest will conclude when he will reach, and have to inevitably face the Empire’s infrastructure located in Rome. Nero, as I have been informed, has grown vastly impatient and disdainful with the sudden rise of Christianity. The up-rise in murders and deaths suggests that second-class citizenship—the category that Christian citizenship falls under, is in great danger of being persecuted. Though it is in my temptation to alter our rite and custom in defense of their expansion, I simply cannot do as we were inquired. The spiritual structure of our land remains divided, and any alteration to the religion of our own eliminates the practices we cherish deeply and hold sacred.