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VI. Observations upon a Passage in Pliny's Natural History, relative to the Temple of Diana at Ephesus. By Joseph Windham, Esq.
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 July 2012
Extract
The subject of our present enquiry is a passage in the 36th book of Pliny, relating to the celebrated Temple of Diana at Ephesus: it is very concise, but so comprehensive as to have engaged the attention of many learned commentators: who in their various explanations agree in little more than in considering the text, taken as it usually stands, as genuine and uncorrupted; no verbal correction therefore can readily be admitted.
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- Copyright © The Society of Antiquaries of London 1782
References
page 69 note [a] See Chandler's Asia, p. 137. “Croesus was at the expence of many of the columns.”
(Ibid. p. 198.) Speaking of the temple at Jackly. “The fabric tottering “with age was gradually renewed, chiefly by the contributions of the Stephane “phori, or high priests. For on seven columns is an inscription, which may “be thus translated—Leo Quintus, son of Leo, when Stephanephorus gave “this column, as he had promised, with the base and capital. On five more of the “columns—Inerecrates, son of Inerecrates, chief physician of the city, when “Stephanephorus gave this column, with the base and capital, Tryphaena his “daughter herself, likewise Stephanephorus and Gymnesiarch, having provided it.”
In the court of the temple of the Sun at Palmyra are consoles projecting against the columns for supporting statues, probably of benefactors and contributors to the building. The sams may be observed in the long portico.
page 70 note [b] By the following Epigram in the Anthologia, it appears that the Temple of Diana surpassed all others in magnificence.
The idol was of very great antiquity, of wood: it was gorgeously apparelled, d. vest embroidered with emblems and symbolical devices: and, to prevent its tottering, a bar of metal, it is likely, of gold, was placed under each hand. A veil or curtain, which was drawn up from the floor to the cieling, hid it from view, except while service was performing in the temple. (See Chandler's Asia, p. 134.)
page 72 note [c] Pausanias seems to describe an Hypethros in speaking of the Minerva at Tegea.
“This temple is not equalled in splendor by any in the Peloponnesus. The “lower order of columns is Doric; upon these the Corinthian; on the outside, “the pillars are of Ionic work. The architect was Scopas.”
The two orders of columns abovementioned formed the inclosure of the Hypethros, or open space in the centre of the cella. There is a great resemblance between the temple here treated of and that at Ephesus.
page 73 note [d] See Degodetz, Piranesi Ant. tom. iii.
page 74 note [e] V. Acad. di Cortona, t. I. p. ii. pag. 29. Chandler's Asia, p. 137.
page 75 note [f] Pliny, loc. cit.