|
APOLLON TEMPLE (DIDYMA)
Didyma is located in the village of
Yenihisar.4 km ınland from the coast
called Altınkum(Golden sand) and 15
kms South of Akköy,near Söke.Didyma
was actually a sacred site and not a
city,in whose centre was a great
temple built in the name of the sun
sun Apollo.
However much Apollo may be considered as one of the
twelve deities dwelling on Mount
Olympus in Grek mythology,he is
actually an
Anatolian god,the counterpart of the
Hittite god,Apulunas.The research
concerning the origins of the names
of Didyma and didymaion has been a
subject of discussion going on for
years Apollo is the one of the son
of,of Zeus and twin brother to
Artemis,the Moon-goddess.The word
Didymaion means twins and this is
the reason why the place the Temple
of Apollo stands was called so.The
Greeks,believing in fate, looked
upon Apollo as an oracle as well.The
oracles received from the priests in
the temple of Apollo at Delphoi
influenced and changed the lives of
people to a great extent.The Ionians
built the temple in Didyma as the
second oracle centre,and they
constructed it with such care that
it was one of the most magnificent
temples of the times.
Apollo was renowed for his ability to prosphesy and the
communicated to people through
mediums and oracles his knowledge of
the future. The dependence of
communities on religion increased as
it was seen that gods possessed
forces to direct according to their
will,all phenomena and events
relating to nature and society.as a
natural consequence of the increase
in religion ,belief in the power to
prophesy of the gods who could
foresee events and phenomena was
intensified.
In the Archaic period the oracle of
Apollo had great fame.The number of
temples erected in Anatolia as seats
of oracles is evidence that belief
in gods had reached enormous
proportions.the most important of
the temples dedicated to Apollo were
the Temple of apollo at Delphi in
Greece and the Didymaion in Anatolia.
In the mid 7th century BC,in oracles of apollo,the god
could be consulted once a year for
offical matters and the answers
received to questions directed would
be in the form of “ye sor no”.When
in later years,consulting the god
also for private matters became a
tradition,these consultations became
gradually more frequent.the oracles
of apollo grew very rich as a result
of this and their fame and influence
spread over large areas.they became
as powerful as the state they were
effective in shaping the destinies
of persons and communities and
particularly in politics where they
played a very important role,they
very often caused wrong decisions to
be taken.
Pausanias states that the apollo
temple at Didyma had been built
before the Grek colonization(10th
century BC9.ıt is believed in the
light of this existence of Didyma,like
that of Miletus and Priene goes back
to the 2nd millennium BC.
One learns from Herodotus that valuable
votive offerings were presented to
the temple by King Necho of Egypt at
the end of the 7 th century BC and
King croesus of Lydia in the 6 th
century BC.
It is believed that the construction of the Archaic
temple was begun in the mid 6th
century BC and was completed at the
end of the same century.In the 6th
century BC,the Didymaion was
administered by a priestly caste
named Branchids.During this period
which lasted about 100 years,the
temple flourished and went through
its most brilliant era.
It was completely burned and plundred by the Persians
during the battle of Lade,the
priests of the temple were driven to
Susa and the cult statue of Apollo
was taken to Ecbatana.The statue of
Apollo which was dated back to 500
BC,was made by the sculptor Kanachus
of Sicyon and reflects Anatolian-Hittite
characteristics.
The construction of the Hellenistic temple was begun
after the victory of Alexander the
Great over the Persians.However,it
was understtod from the remains that
this Hellenistic temple was not
completed.
The Temple of which the construction was continued under
Emperor Caligula who wanted to be
though of as the god of the temple
and later under hadrian was never
completed.With the alterations made
in the 3rd century AD to protect
from plunder,the temple took on the
apperance of a fortress and
flourished under the reigns of
aurelian and Diocletian.
There are findings which indicate that work was done on the
temple during the reign of Emperor
Julian.
In the beginning of the 5th century AD,Emperor Theodosius had
a church built in the sacred
courtyard.this church which had the
appearance of a three winged
basilica,was destroyed in an
earthquake and later rebuilt with
one wing .
In the 10th century AD,the two-columned hall(Chresmographeion-hall
of the oracle) and the pronaos,which
were used as storage areas,were
greatly damaged in a fire and most
of the marble turned into lime.
After the seljuks and the Mongols conquered the region the
temple was completely abondoned
An Italian traveler who visited Didyma in 1446 records that
the wholw temple was standing,however
at the nd of the 15th century the
temple was completely destroyed by
an earthquake and turned into a heap
of marble.In the later years the
temple was used as quarry and many
of its architectural elements were
used as building material ain the
construction of dwelling and other
buildings by the local people.
EXCAVATIONS:
The first excavation in Didyma were made in 1858 by the
English under the direction of
Newton.The area was the Sacred Road.
In the temple excavations were first begun in 1872 by
the French under O Rayet and A
Thomas.the aim was to find the cult
statue of Apollo but at the end of
the work which lasted two years,the
cult statue had not been found.However,it
had been possible to determine the
dimensions of the temple and to
reconstruct its plan.
In order to finf solutions to
certain problems concerning the
temple and its surroundings,excavations
were begun again in 1962,this time
for the German Institute of
Archaology under the supervision of
R.Naumann.
|
