Tuesday, October 18^th.

 By  Nancy Martin apricottie@comcast.net

Selcuk.  Hotel Kalehan.

Lovely, quiet morning.  From our bus windows, we could see the one single column left of the Temple of Artemis. How charming to note a giant stork’s nest on top!  Additional sights along the way included a wonderful lion head statue, tongue sticking out at us as we drove by, and a 13^th Century Turkish bath, with 600-700 years of silt built up to nearly the top of the building.

Climbed off the bus and into a quiet mosque.  Meli and the attendant were obviously well acquainted.  The usual graceful arched ceilings and colorful prayer rugs covering the floor were the perfect spot for Meli’s talk about the Ephesians.  The Sufi music playing quietly was an additional delight.

Ephesus was inhabited back to the 4^th Millennium. At that time, the people produced only enough for their own needs, so the city states of Anatolya didn’t interact much with others nearby. Then, in the 3^rd Millennium, a meteor fell into an orchard.  During that period, anything they couldn’t understand, the people made into a God.  “Reflection from heaven”; phraseology also found in Acts 19. 

Since there were no sanctuaries built yet, orchards and sheer cliffs were considered the holy places.  So, the meteor was put in the trunk of a tree to honor it.  Whoever came to pay homage was kept track of.  Sacrifice of bulls was common because bulls represent power.  The people believed if testicles were hung on the tree, it represented impregnating nature, giving fertility and prosperity. As far north as the Black Sea, the societies were matriarchal, with women involved in ruling, the military, political jobs and economically. A tribe in the Black Sea area had a woman who was Queen, ruler of the Amazons…a name later used in South America.  Apasa (queen) means bee.

 (These little pieces of information, testicles and bees,  all came together later when we saw the statues of Artemis at the Ephesus Museum, covered with these symbols)

Soon Ephesus became a huge trade center, produce coming from all over Anatolya, Mesopotamia and Egypt.  The Ephesians could write transactions for trade, as well as record information about where the goods came from.  By the 8^th Century, the city could not contain the growing population, so it shifted to the side of the hill, making the 2^nd city of Ephesus.  While they were very wealthy, and happy about it, the trade-minded men felt they should spend more on religious things.  So, instead of several temples to Isis, Kibele, Sybil, work should be done on just one temple.  The Temple to Artemis took 100 years to build…one of the Seven Wonders of the World.  In addition, the “brains” of the city said, “No matter who their Goddesses are, she lives here too.  Anyone who doubts their Mother Goddess can save their temples can put their valuables in this temple and it will be safe.  Also, the Mother Goddess will be so thrilled, she will give a little gift to each (interest) at the end of the year.”  Probably the first lending bank in history!

Up to that point, if someone got so powerful, they would invade the other city states, become a kingdom, and then an empire.  The Ephesians decided not to make such a mistake so invite all 11 cities around to reassume them, that all 12 cities would be equal, no matter what size.  This was the 1^st Pan Ionic Confederation”.  The Ephesians knew if the Persians overran them, they would destroy the Temple/Bank.  So, they persuaded all the Ionic cities to fight the Persians, telling them they must do the fighting, and the Ephesians must do the worshiping to keep the Mother Goddess with them all.

Unfortunately for Ephesus, the harbor was silting in, and a disgruntled Ephesian burned the temple.  Nobody really knows why he did this.  Meli told us many great stories, like how the “brains” got Alexander the Great to build them both a temple and the most beautiful city in that part of the world by clever flattery, “we cannot allow you to build us such a thing, we do not allow a God to build a house for another God”! 

Over the years, the city was invaded periodically by Arabs, but finally the Arabs and Persians were defeated, and the empire called Selcuk was established.  The city became the 5^th city of Ephesus.

After trying to remember all the history Meli shared with us in the Mosque, we enjoyed a visit to the Ephesus Museum.  Here, among other interesting sights, we stood in the presence of 2 different statues of the Goddess Artemis.  A unique visual indeed!

While heading back to the bus, we passed a statue of Ugur Mumcu, a journalist assassinated by terrorists in 1994.  His words touched many of us:

I am a follower of Ataturk
I am a Republican
I am a Secularist
I am an anti-imperialist
I stand for the independence of Turkey
I am a Libertarian
I am an advocate of human rights
I am against terrorism
I am an enemy of fanatics, thieves, opportunists and exploiters
They can tear my body into pieces
Every piece of my body
will bring into existence new ones who will even outdo me.

Our next stop was the Virgin Mary’s House, believed to be the house of St. John whom Jesus charged with the care of his mother.  There is enough evidence to feel this indeed was the place Mary and John lived out the rest of their lives.  A moving experience.

The crowning part of this day was of course, the city of Ephesus.  Only 12% of this city of ¼ million has been excavated, and we saw only about a quarter of that.  Many archeologists were hand digging or using cranes, carefully unearthing new treasures.  Even so, the number of arches, statues and parts of buildings is breathtaking!  This may well have been the first city to line their streets with “street lights” (torches), and there is evidence of a sophisticated system of piped running water, as well as public bathrooms.  Very public!  Highlights for me were the single standing façade of the Celsius Library with the virtues of the Ephesians in the column niches…Friendship, Knowledge, Understanding and Wisdom…and the 2300 year old theater where Paul preached, holding 24,000! Unfortunately, his preaching, in particular “there should be no man made gods” made the elders nervous, since they made a lot of money from selling silver statues of Artemis. So, he was allowed to preach in this place only in the afternoon when most people were napping. (Fortunately, a wealthy follower offered Paul his home to preach in.)Paul, the Moscow Symphony, Joan Baez, a well used venue, I’d say.  

One humorous advertisement in stone on the walkway, reads in clever symbols, if you have sadness of heart as you have walked and want a woman, you must pay.  I’m sure Paul was not pleased at that!  As we left Ephesus, we could look back to the great city, a daunting visual to picture Paul having to walk up to in order to preach, and then to our right, to where the harbor used to be at the bottom of the city where he most likely lived.

What an astonishing amount of joy to take in!

Back to Hotel Kalehan to ponder all we’d seen, learned, experienced.