Herostratus
Ἡρόστρατος
Non-contemporary depiction
Born
Ephesus
(modern-day Selçuk, İzmir, Turkey)
Diedc. 356 BC
Ephesus
Cause of deathExecution
NationalityEphesian
Known forDestroying the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus—and, concomitantly, seeking fame at any cost

Herostratus (Ancient Greek: Ἡρόστρατος) was a 4th-century BC Greek, accused of seeking notoriety as an arsonist by destroying the second Temple of Artemis in Ephesus (on the outskirts of present-day Selçuk), one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. The act prompted his execution and the creation of a damnatio memoriae law forbidding anyone to mention his name, orally or in writing. The law was ultimately ineffective, as evidenced by surviving accounts of his crime. Thus, Herostratus has become an eponym for someone who commits a criminal act in order to become famous.

History

A modern 1:25 scale model of the Temple of Artemis, at Miniatürk, Istanbul, Turkey

Archeological evidence indicates the site of the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus had been of sacred use since the Bronze Age,[1] and the original building was destroyed during a flood in the 7th century BC.[2] A second temple was commissioned by King Croesus of Lydia around 560 BC and built by Cretan architects including Chersiphron, constructed largely of marble, and measuring 103 metres (337 ft) long and 55 metres (180 ft) wide with its pillars standing 12 metres (40 ft) tall.[3] The sculpted bases of the pillars contained life-sized carvings and the roof opened to the sky around a statue of Artemis.[3] The second temple was included on an early list of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World by Herodotus in the 5th century BC, and was well known in ancient times.[4]

Little is known about the life of Herostratus, though it is thought he may have been someone of low social standing, a non-Ephesian or a slave.[5] According to tradition, the fire that destroyed the second temple was set on the day Alexander the Great was born, 21 July 356 BC.[3] Herostratus was then captured and tortured on the rack,[5] where he confessed to having committed the arson in an attempt to immortalize his name.[6] To dissuade those of similar intentions, the Ephesian authorities not only executed Herostratus, but attempted to condemn him to a legacy of obscurity by forbidding mention of his name under penalty of death. However, the ancient historian Theopompus, who was not Ephesian but rather Chian,[7] mentions the name of Herostratus in his Philippica,[8] and it appears again later in the works of Strabo.[9] It is said that in fact his name has outlived the names of his judges, and in his 1658 work Hydriotaphia Sir Thomas Browne states:

But the iniquity of oblivion blindly scattereth her poppy, and deals with the memory of men without distinction to merit of perpetuity. [...] Herostratus lives that burnt the Temple of Diana, he is almost lost that built it [...] Who knows whether the best of men be known? or whether there be not more remarkable persons forgot, than any that stand remembred in the known account of time?[10]

Work on a third temple at the site began in 323 BC, resulting in a larger and more ornate temple that would be included by Antipater of Sidon as one of Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.[11]: 417–418 

Legacy

Herostratus' name lived on in classical literature and has passed into modern languages as a term for someone who commits a criminal act in order to achieve notoriety. According to Julia H. Fawcett, Herostratus "exemplifies a figure asserting his right to self-definition, one who strikes out against a history to which he is unknown by performing himself back into that history—through whatever means necessary." The term "Herostratic fame" refers to Herostratus and means "fame [sought] at any cost".[12]: 33 

In literature and the arts

See also

References

  1. ^ Bammer, Anton (1990). "A Peripteros of the Geometric Period in the Artemision of Ephesus". Anatolian Studies. 40: 142. doi:10.2307/3642799. JSTOR 3642799. S2CID 164151382.
  2. ^ Pausanias, Description of Greece 7.7 - 8.
  3. ^ a b c Wurtz, Robert II (2015). Love in Crisis: Modern Parallels to the Church at Ephesus. Creation House. ISBN 978-1-62998-477-3.[page needed]
  4. ^ Rawlinson, George (1859). The History of Herodotus. Vol. 1. New York: D. Appleton and Company.[page needed]
  5. ^ a b Kidder, David S.; Oppenheim, Noah D. (2010). The Intellectual Devotional Biographies. Rodale. p. 46. ISBN 978-1-59486-513-8.
  6. ^ Valerius Maximus, Memorable Deeds and Sayings, 8. 14. 5: "A man was found to plan the burning of the temple of Ephesian Diana so that through the destruction of this most beautiful building his name might be spread through the whole world." Valerius Maximus, VIII.14.ext.5
  7. ^ Flower, Michael Attyah (1997). Theopompus of Chios: History and Rhetoric in the Fourth Century BC. Oxford: Clarendon Press. p. 78. ISBN 978-0-19-815243-9.
  8. ^ Borowitz, Albert (2005). Terrorism for Self-glorification: The Herostratos Syndrome. Kent State University Press. pp. 6ff. ISBN 978-0-87338-818-4.
  9. ^ Strabo of Amaseia (13 February 2016). Delphi Complete Works of Strabo - Geography (Illustrated). Delphi Classics. pp. 4279ff. ISBN 978-1-78656-368-2.
  10. ^ Browne, Thomas (1907). Sayle, Charles (ed.). The Works of Sir Thomas Browne. Vol. 3. Edinburgh: John Grant. p. 139.
  11. ^ Price, J. R., & House, H. W., Zondervan Handbook of Biblical Archaeology (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2017), pp. 417–418.
  12. ^ a b Fawcett, J. H., Spectacular Disappearances: Celebrity and Privacy, 1696-1801 (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2016), p. 33. ISBN 978-0-472-11980-6
  13. ^ Bowman, James (18 April 2001). "From Heroes to Herostratus". JamesBowman.net. Archived from the original on 12 October 2011. Retrieved 8 March 2020.
  14. ^ Chaucer, Geoffrey (1379–1380). "The House of Fame". The Works of Geoffrey Chaucer. Georgetown University. Archived from the original on 10 August 2011. Retrieved 19 September 2011.
  15. ^ Cervantes Saavedra, Miguel de (2009). Don Quixote. Translated by Montgomery, James H. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing. p. 451. ISBN 978-1-60384-115-3.
  16. ^ de Armas, Frederick A. (1996). Tibits, Mercedes Vidal (ed.). "The Burning at Ephesus: Cervantes and Alarcón's La verdad sospechosa". Studies in Honor of Gilberto Paolini. Newark, Del.: Juan de la Cuesta: 41–55. ISBN 0-936388-78-1. OCLC 36714819.
  17. ^ Melville (1855). Mardi, and a Voyage Thither. Vol. 2. New York: Harper & Brothers. p. 61.
  18. ^ Skene, Gordon (6 October 2014). "Adolf Hitler Addresses The Reichstag – October 6, 1939 – Past Daily Reference Room". Past Daily. Retrieved 8 March 2020.

Bibliography

External links

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