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Published: March 2nd 2010
Ephesus
Goddess NikeEphesus was a major trading centre in the pre-Christian era, and on an important trade route. As a port city it offered, in addition to business pursuits, brothels, theaters, temples and one of the world's largest libraries. Plus a huge shopping street (the Arcadian Way) apparently offering goods from throughout the Mediterranean.
In pre-Hellenic times it was the cult centre of Cybele, the Anatolian goddess of fertility. Seafaring Ionians arriving in the 10th century BC re-purposed her as Artemis, goddess of the hunt. By the 2nd century BC, Ephesus had become the capital of the Roman province of Asia and Artemis had been renamed Diana.
Ephesus eventually became Christian, but of course not without a struggle. My guidebook notes: The Gospel of Luke recounts how the city's silversmiths drove St. Paul out of Ephesus for fear that his pronouncements ("there are no gods made with hands") would lessen their sales of silver statues. After Paul addressed a gathering of townsfolk in the amphitheatre, the craftsmen rioted but he did succeed in founding an early congregation here thanks to his celebrated "Epistle to the Ephesians". St. John also visited the city around 40 AD. Tradition has it that he was
Maryema
Where Mary was said to live out her final years accompanied by Mary whom he brought to fulfill his pledge to Jesus to protect her.
We started our day by visiting Maryema - the house where Mary is supposed to have lived out her final days after arriving with John the Apostle. It is a pilgrimage site not only for Christians - many many muslims revere her and visit as well. I am told that she is mentioned in the Koran more than she is in the Bible, but I don't know if that is true. She is honoured by Muslims as the Mother of the Prophet Jesus, and for the suffering she endured.
This house is now attended to by a small group of priests and nuns, and in the summer it offers regular services to hundreds (outdoors) at a time. One of the bonuses of off season travel though is the lack of other travellers - we had the site to ourselves. I am not a religious person in the traditional sense but I can tell you that it is an extremely powerful and moving and uplifting place. Our guide also spent some time drawing parallels between Mary and mother goddesses over time which was quite
Maryema
An extremely powerful and peaceful place interesting. A beautiful setting in the hills with hundreds of singing birds and oh so peaceful.
It wasn't long before we moved along to the town of Ephesus itself (Efes in Turkish). It is a beautiful place, but I don't know - maybe we were getting a little ruin-weary because it did not knock our socks off like Hierapolis or Aphrodisias. Still a beauty, with an awful lot of excavated ruins (including terrace houses where the wealthy lived, uncovering mosaics etc) but we were absorbing a lot in a short period of time and this may have affected our view of this place.
Later we visited a weaving centre where the craft of carpet weaving is being taught. We watched silk being spun, saw the types of dyes that are used, and watched rugs being woven by young women. The silk rugs are incredibly beautiful and require a deft hand and excellent eyesight. They are expensive not due to the silk, but due to the time involved to make the rug. A small silk rug would take up to 6 months to complete depending on the intricacy of the pattern.
We also visited what is left of
Maryema
Prayers written on scraps and tied to the wall. Eventually they will be burned. the Temple of Artemis (one column). Interestingly, it is in site of a mosque and a church which demonstrates Turkey and its tolerance: a pagan ruin beside a mosque beside a church.
My son and I had not confirmed onward travel from Ephesus previously, wanting to leave things open a bit in case we were tiring. Our general plan was to take a couple of days to make our way to Gallipoli but we had not decided how we were going to do that. Now we have confirmed that we would spend another day in our current location on the beach and relax a bit. As it turned out our guide Fatma could not wrap her head around being in her beautiful country for a day without seeing sites so she offered to pick us up on the afternoon of our free day and take us to the small and scenic village of Sirince for a walkabout and a late lunch, and we agreed to meet at 2.
Arrangements have now been made to vist Bergama (Pergamom) tomorrow before heading off to Canakkale from where we will do day excursions to Gallipoli and the ancient city of Troy.
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texaswillie
Bill A. Belt
Ephesus
You have some good photos. If all goes well we plan to go again this fall.I always feel like I faield to see much of a site the first time.