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Herostratus

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For the 1967 British film, see Herostratus (film).
Herostratus
Ηρόστρατος
Diedc. 356 BC
Cause of deathExecution
Known forDestroying the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus

Herostratus (Ancient Greek: Ἡρόστρατος) — or Erostratus — was a 4th-century BC Greek arsonist, who sought notoriety by destroying the Temple of Artemis, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. His acts prompted the creation of a damnatio memoriae law, forbidding anyone to mention his name. Nevertheless, his name has become a metonym for someone who commits a criminal act in order to become noted.

History

A modern model of the Temple of Artemis.

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 337 feet long and 180 feet wide with its pillars standing 40 feet tall.[3] The sculpted bases of the pillars contained life-sized carvings and the roof opened to the sky around a staute 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 to many people in the ancient world.[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 mentions the name of Herostratus in his Philippic,[7] and it appears again later in the works of Strabo.[8] It is said that in fact his name has outlived the names of his judges, and in his Hydriotaphia Sir Thomas Browne said:

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?[9]

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.

Legacy

Herostratus's 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, thus winning herostratic fame.

In language

The term "Herostratic fame" refers to Herostratus and means "fame [sought] at any cost".[10]

In media

See also

References

  1. ^ Bammer 1990, p. 142
  2. ^ Pausanias, Description of Greece 7.7 - 8.
  3. ^ a b c Robert Wurtz II (2015). Love in Crisis: Modern Parallels to the Church at Ephesus. Creation House. ASIN B014C54MU2.
  4. ^ Rawlinson, George (1859). The History of Herodotus. Vol. 1. New York: D. Appleton and Company. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
  5. ^ a b The Intellectual Devotional Biographies. Rodale. 2010. ISBN 978-1594865138. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |authors= ignored (help)
  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. ^ Albert Borowitz (January 2005). Terrorism for Self-glorification: The Herostratos Syndrome. Kent State University Press. pp. 6–. ISBN 978-0-87338-818-4.
  8. ^ Strabo of Amaseia (13 February 2016). Delphi Complete Works of Strabo - Geography (Illustrated). Delphi Classics. pp. 4279–. ISBN 978-1-78656-368-2.
  9. ^ The Works of Sir Thomas Browne Volume III p. 139. Pub: Edinburgh John Grant 1907 https://archive.org/details/cu31924064959640
  10. ^ Fawcett, Julia H. (2016). Spectacular Disappearances: Celebrity and Privacy, 1696-1801. University of Michigan Press. p. 33. ISBN 9780472119806.
  11. ^ James Bowman (April 18, 2001). "From Heroes to Herostratus". JamesBowman.net. Retrieved September 19, 2011.
  12. ^ Geoffrey Chaucer (1379–1380). "The House of Fame". The Works of Geoffrey Chaucer. Georgetown University. Retrieved September 19, 2011.
  13. ^ Frederick A. de Armas, "The Burning at Ephesus: Cervantes and Alarcón's La verdad sospechosa," Studies in Honor of Gilbert Paolini, ed. Mercedes Vidal Tibits. Newark, Delaware: Juan de la Cuesta, 1996, pp. 41–55.
  14. ^ Herman Melville. "Mardi, and a Voyage Thither". Retrieved February 12, 2014.

Bibliography

  • HEROSTRATUS in Smith, William, ed. (1870) Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, V. 2, p. 439.
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