Sue Humble dumfordk@aol.com    
EPHESUS - VIRGIN MARY'S LAST HOUSE - MUSEUM OF EPHESUS

On Tuesday the 18^th we went to a Mosque to have a visit. Here Meli talked with us a long time about several things. She began by saying that Ephesus is a ruin and an archeological site.  It was first built about 4000 BCE and it soon rose to fame as the centre for the worship of Cybele, the Anatolian Goddess, sometimes known as Aretemis. The city we saw was founded in the 4^th century BCE. It was under the Romans that it became the chief port on the Aegean Sea.  There were 2 great Christian church councils held here. One in 431 CE and the other in 449 CE.

At the city’s early founding there was Neolithic life, life that was simple, based on the fertile land. The government was centered around city states.  In the 3^rd century a meteor came from the sky and landed in an orchard. Since the people at that time put a divine value on everything, they viewed this as a “reflection from heaven.”  Anatolia was a matriarchal society ruled by women.  Women were judges, involved in politics and all social and economic activities.  The names of queens from the Black Sea were called “Amazons.”  They came to see the meteor, took it and put it in the trunk of a tree that was carved into a sanctuary.  They then began to worship it, they kept track of the visitors, had organized rituals, and sacrificed bulls. They sacrificed bulls because bulls represented power.  They cut the testicles off the bulls and hung them around the tree, to represent the impregnating characteristic of nature.  The Meteor tree as the mother represented fertility for all of them.

As time developed, they built roads, and had too many goods so they had to develop an economic system to sell the goods; thus the sharing of information began.  They developed transportation, including boats. Property became an attraction.  Androcius, an Athenian prince, went to Delphi and the oracle told him that he would find happiness with a fish, a fire and a boar.  He and his entourage began island hopping but did not find happiness.  They finally decided to return home.  They decided to have one last meal, so they caught a fish.  They started to cook it and the fire got out of control and began to burn the forest around them.  Then they found a boar and shot it.  Apussa, the name of the area, became Efes, meaning fertile.

By the 8^th century there was a growing population, and they began to move to the hillside.  In not too long the people had great wealth and they wanted to put money into worship, so they decided to build a large temple to Artemis (i.e. Cybele). The temple became so grand that it and Ephesus became one of the seven wonders of the world.  They were very proud and they spent a lot of money. The citizens were called on to “build the most beautiful house”.  The trunk of the Meteor tree became anthropomorphized, and it carried all the eggs.  All the goddesses--Artemis, Isis (Egypt), Ishtar (Macedonia), Cybele, and Sybil (Anatolia)--are all celebrated here.

The people were convinced by the priests that all their treasures should be left in the temple to be protected by the mother goddess.  This is the beginning of the 1^st bank in history.

Ephesus became very stable and powerful--politically and economically. They became the most powerful Ionic city, even over Miletus and Pergamum. There were 12 Ionic cities.  Ephesus would call all of them together and tell them that they would not oppress them, we can all live as equals, and that all would decide for Ionia together. The administration would be a Pan-Ionic Federation.  This was the first confederate system.  The Pan-Ionic Federation started to work and it worked well until the Persians began to move in to have trade relations with the Eastern states.  Ephesus felt that the Persians would have no tolerance for the deities or temples, and that they were threatened. Since the female deities resided in Ephesus, it was only right that they protect the deities while the other cities fought against the Persians. When the Persians surrounded the city, they made a deal with the Persians.  Miletus had bloody wars in its harbor and they went into the dark ages in the 4^th and 3^rd centuries BCE.  Ephesus survived because of the harbor, but the river caused the sea to recede and they lost their harbor. A man started a fire in the temple to make a name for himself, and as the marble heated up it disintegrated. The temple was gone for another 1700 years.

Someone had a new idea—the mother goddess was back, she had left Ephesus to protect them and the temple was destroyed but now she was back to help them. It was believed that it was the mother goddess that was involved in the birth of Alexander the Great. They began to use the temple again.  Someone told Alexander that it was his fault the temple was sacked because the mother goddess was there when he was born and she had left the temple.  He felt guilty and rebuilt the temple.  This was now the third city in Ephesus. It was by far the most wonderful and beautiful city.

From the 4^th century BCE to 4^th Century CE Romans used this as the capital for the eastern province.  They persecuted Christians at that time. Eventually most of the land around Ephesus became marsh land.  There was sickness due to the marsh land and people began to leave, believing that it was an evil spirit causing the illness.  The people asked John from the grave to help them. It apparently worked and they were so grateful they built St. John’s Basilica, built over where John was buried. They asked Isodora, the Architect for Hagia Sophia, to design and build the basilica, and they even took stones from the temple to Artemis.

After absorbing all this history we went to the Museum in Ephesus.  It was wonderful.  We saw samples of houses they had excavated.  We saw the puzzle ring, rooster statues with wheels, and toys.  I found the Homeric story in marble very interesting. It was the island of Cyclops where they poked out the eye of the Cyclops.  We saw the fountain of the emperor Trajan from the 2^nd century. We saw various statues of Venus, statues of men that were half creature and half man. We saw cremation jars, the mother goddess Ana/Cybele (like what I took a picture of in the pottery shop).  The most spectacular were the statues of Aretemis.  She was such an example of the synthesis of culture.  The lower half of her body looks like the tree that is anthropomorphized.  You see a symbol of the zodiac, see eggs hung on her representing fertility. She is in a way Isis because of her static position, but she is also Ishtar because of her stars and half moon.  She has a lion on her shoulder and bracelet representing the mother goddess of Anatolia. Her necklace is Zeus and his family.  She is mother, with feature that have common denominators: hands are stretched out protecting all creatures, and she has bee hives around her, but she is not the Greek Artemis, and she is not the hunting goddess Diana.

In another room we saw the Temple of Hadrian. We also saw a very large arm of the statue of Domitian from the altar of the temple of Domitian, and Meli pointed out that the statue was seven times larger than the arm, which was very large.  In the same room we saw busts of Augustus and Lidia, who had ordered the persecution of babies.  The Christians wanted to save them so they put a cross on the busts and baptized them 300 years after their deaths.

Our next stop was the House of Mary - the Virgin Mary.  In the 19^th century a German nun claimed that the location of the house of Mary, the mother of Jesus, was revealed to her in a dream and its location was near Ephesus.  Meli explained that Turks, under the influence of Shamanism, see God as beautiful.  What is beautiful is where God is monotheistic. Beauty has many expressions. Turks feel you must give something of yourself, so when they came to this location they gave tissues in a votive tree. Now the tissues are hung on a wall.

Many people have wanted to “own” Mary. Why do they claim this was her house? 1. Bible: at the crucifixion of Jesus, John is told to take care of Mary. No doubt that John was in Patmos, and after his time on Patmos he was in Ephesus. John is reported to have died in Ephesus in 92 AD.  They believe that John would not leave Mary.  Mary is supposed to have lived 30 years after Jesus was crucified. 

 2. Church tradition: again the new family--Daises--Jesus established the new church family at the crucifixion. There are records of bishops and early church fathers that place Mary in Ephesus. It is claimed that her sarcophagus is in Istanbul.

3. Tradition of the people: typically a church is not named after a person unless the person lived there.  The church named after Mary in Ephesus also held a conference to discuss the divine motherhood of Mary. Theotekos—carrier of God, therefore she must have lived here.  Isadora, architect of Hagia Sophia, rebuilt the house in 532.  On the 15th of August there is a big celebration of the Assumption, the time when Mary was assumed into heaven.  If there is still skepticism, go into the house and see the lovely altar.  There are altar and prayer mats in the same room, known as the “house of peace.”

“Be it unto me according to thy word” was my prayer in Mary’s house.  I saw a partial face of Mary on the wall, her head slightly tilted.  I felt like it was looking softly at me with great love (seh).

Our bus dropped us off at the Ephesus site.  Alexander the Great is said to have built the city between two hills and near the water. The city needed water, so there were five aqueducts built, plus cisterns, plumbing, and sewage.  It was quite advanced. They had an excellent knowledge of gravity.

This is a magnificent city, with excavations still going on.  As we came in the entrance we saw the Agora - the open place where crowds gathered to speak, hold elections, etc. There were also two commercial marketplaces.  We then passed into the House of Canal, where Meli pointed out the waterway.  We also went to the Senate House and amphitheatre. Meli pointed out that one would have to use their knowledgeable imagination, for there is no drainage where the orchestra sat, so they must have had a roof and windows for light. There was a lot of harmony expressed with the number of arches we saw, so she assumes there were windows in the arches, perhaps made with stained glass.  Meli has written a book on Ephesus and played there as a child, so she is very knowledgeable about the site.  She also thought that there would have been a sloped wooden roof so that the water would run off into the waterway outside the walls.  There would have been statutes of those who performed outside.  The theatre had a seating capacity of about 700.  Lion paws were a symbol of aristocracy, and we saw them there.  The higher the rank of the person, the higher their seat was in the theatre.

We next saw the 7 pillars of the Temple of the town hall and administrative center.  Religious centers and political centers were located next to each other. In Acts 19 there is a reference to Paul’s interaction with the city clerk. There was a road that led to the upper city, town hall, and agora, built some 50-60 years before Paul was here.  There is evidence that there were torches in the center of the street to provide light at night, and we could see the holes in the marble.  There are 24 streets that would have been lit at night.  Paul walked on these streets.  Meli pointed out two symbols—one of pharmacy and one of medicine.

The largest square in Ephesus is Domitian square (the Roman emperor). He wanted it to be seen from all parts of Ephesus; it held a very large statue, the one we saw of him in the museum. In 82 CE Domitian was killed.  They didn’t know what to do with the square for 200 years. It became a place for the gods Zeus, Nike, and Asclepius.  We saw the Asclepion on the grounds. We also saw the fountain where the Homeric reliefs that we saw in the museum came from. The temple of Domitian was destroyed by the Christians.

We then passed the Monumental Fountain, built between the 1-4^th Century CE.  The fountain was 3 columns high and there were statues of women with belly buttons and wearing togas (the statues we saw in the museum).  Water poured over the statues into a basin.  At sunset the sun reflects on it and in the morning the sun shines through it.  The water breaks into the color of a rainbow.

We headed down a long walkway called Curetes Street with statues on each side. It is one of the oldest streets in Ephesus.  It was part of the old processional way.  It is paved with marble blocks with a sewer running underneath it and marble benches along the sides.  The lower end of the street contained shops.  We also saw excavations of homes, and terraced homes, where apparently there were wonderful mosaics like we saw in the museum. They also found onyx, windows, beautiful plumbing, private baths and Roman baths.  Also along this street was the latrine.  Built at the same time as the bath complex, there were public toilets with bench seats. Fresh running water ran underneath the toilets. Not private, but a social time.

At its height it is reported to have had a population of 250,000.  Curetes Street led to the Fountain of Trajan with the globe; we saw the statue of Trajan with his foot on the globe in the museum.

We arrived at the beautiful library of Ceisus.  It is probably the most recognized building in Ephesus and was built in the first part of the 2^nd century CE. It is a beautiful 2 story building with Corinthian columns.  The front is decorated with statues of four women personifying the virtues of Sophia (wisdom), arête (moral excellence), ennoia (thought) and episteme (knowledge).  I was so excited to see the statue of Sophia (seh).  The interior of the library was three stories high and contained over 12,000 scrolls.  In 262 CE the interior was destroyed in an earthquake. After the quake they erected seating for talks, with a reflection pool in the middle.  It was built right before the birth of Jesus by slaves, and slaves were emancipated here, so it is not contradictory that Paul asked that slaves be freed.  There are two slaves’ names dedicated on the building. There is also a misspelling in the writing.

Meli pointed out the oldest billboard.  It was carved in the marble on the road, and advertised the location of the brothel.  Meli pointed out that the roads were built with the middle of the road higher so the rain would run off.

We stood above the commercial agora which included 250 shops, bars and restaurants. Paul spent several weeks imprisoned in the prison up on the hill that we could see above the agora.

We then went to the large amphitheatre. It is 2300 years old and was built for Alexander the Great.  It is reported in Acts that Paul was going to speak in this theater. He was told he could speak during the siesta period and when word got out that he was going to preach, they filled the theatre.  One man, a silversmith, spoke against Paul, telling the people that they would lose money by not making statues.  This caused an uproar and Paul was saved by the city clerk by being taken to the fortress.