Listed 6 sub titles with search on: Information about the place for destination: "DIDYMA Ancient sanctuary TURKEY".
Didyma or Branchidai (Didim, previously Yoran) Turkey. Lies on a limestone plateau of the Milesian peninsula to the S of
Miletos, with which it was once connected by the Sacred Way. To the NW is the
port of Panormos (Kovella); to the W, Cape Poseidon (Tekagac burnu). According
to a late tradition, it was known just before the Ionian settlement as a fountain
oracle of Apollo (Paus. 7.2.6), whose prophets were descended from the Carian
Branchos, the spring having apparently belonged at one time to a local goddess,
comparable to the Greek Leto. The earliest literary references are in Herodotos
(e.g., 1.157; 2.159; 1.92). The dedications of Necho II and Croesus show the wide
influence of the oracle in archaic times. When the Ionian rebellion collapsed
in 494 B.C., the Persians burned the Temple of Apollo (Temple II), which was still
under construction, and carried off to Persia the cult statue of Kanachos, the
treasures (Hdt. 6.19), and the Branchidian priests (Strab. 14.1.5; 11.11.4). Our
knowledge of the sanctuary in the 5th and 4th c. B.C. rests on little evidence
(SIG 57). The oracle was first revived in 331 B.C. (Strab. 17.1.43). Probably
at this time the plan for the latest Temple of Apollo (III) was completed and
construction begun (Vitr. 7 praef. 16). The work continued off and on during the
next six centuries (Suet. Calig. 21). Ancient authors mention its unfinished state
(Strab. 14.1.5; Paus. 7.5.4). Even in the post-archaic period it received royal
endowments. Ca. 300 B.C. the Seleucids contributed to the construction and the
elaboration of the rest of the sanctuary, and returned the stolen cult figure
(Paus. 1.16; 8.46). The sanctuary was further enlarged in Hellenistic-Roman times;
in addition to the main temple there were other shrines, a grove, and a settlement
(Strab. 14.1.5). Inscriptions testify to the existence of Sanctuaries of Artemis,
Zeus, and Aphrodite, and of other structures. The oracle appears to have been
used, as was that of Apollo at Klaros, to give theological answers, and was finally
silenced by the Theodosian Edict of A.D. 385. Signs of decline are evident prior
to A.D. 250: the Hellenistic structure was plundered to provide for the erection
of new buildings. The destruction of the shrine in which the cult figure stood
and of other structures provided material for the building of a Christian basilica
in the adyton, which stood, in spite of several earthquakes and a fire, until
late into the Middle Ages. The earthquake of 1493 brought down the "whole
massive marble structure of the temple" (Knackfuss).
Temple III, which lies in a hollow, rests on a seven-tiered foundation
and is reached on the E by steps (stylobate 51.13 x 109.34 m). There was an inner
ring around the cella (8 x 19 columns) and an outer one (10 x 21 columns). The
plan is based on a series of axes, with the proportions of the whole determined
by a standard intercolumniation (5.3 m). The deep pronaos contains 12 columns.
There is no direct entrance to the cella. In the middle of the wall of the pronaos
is a portal (5.62 x ca. 14 m) with a sill too high to step over. An intervening
two-columned room was so dimly lit that its interior was largely invisible. Two
passageways without steps led down from the inner corners of the pronaos to the
adyton, treated as a courtyard open to the sky. The lower portion of its walls
are plain, the upper articulated with pilasters which were of the same height
as the outer colonnades. A wide flight of steps leads upward toward the two-columned
room. In the parastades of this stair are the doorways leading from the tunnels.
The courtyard contained the oracle spring and laurels in the W part, where Zeus
and Leto celebrated their nuptials; the naiskos with the cult figure was also
here. The two predecessors of Temple III lay in the W half of the courtyard or
adyton: the foundations of the adyton of Temple II, begun in 550-540, consisting
of limestone slabs with projections for pilasters, lie between socles and the
foundations of the naiskos. This temple has been reconstructed as having a pronaos
with a great portal and high sill and double colonnade with 9 columns on the back,
8 with greater intercolumniation on the front, and 7 along the side, the columns
having a height of some 15 m. This plan corresponds to the greater Samian Rhoikos
temple (21 columns) as the column reliefs and bases in the pronaos and on the
facade do to those of the Artemision at Ephesos. To Temple II belong, on the E,
the surrounding round altar, brook, protecting wall of the consecration terrace
with its two treasuries (later covered by the foundations of several pedestals),
and in the S the stadium (starting-blocks near the SE corner of Temple III).
The side walls of Temple I, which dates from the 7th or 8th c. B.C.,
lie within the adyton foundation of Temple II. It consists of blocks of poros
lying on the S between the first and third foundation projection, in the N by
the fourth projection. The oldest naiskos as well as a hall under the steps outside
Temple II on the SW date from a period of expansion. Thus, the adyta of Temples
II and III, which contained the cult image, surrounded the courtyard of their
predecessor. The position of the spring and the design of Temple III indicate
that there must have been steps in front of the E wall of the adyton, which was
pierced by three doors, to give access from the courtyard to the two-columned
room, whose narrow side contains two staircases ("labyrinths") leading
to the roofed part of the pronaos. The last temple did not alter the old arrangement
in front of the new building. The Sacred Way, of which a segment is Visible in
the NW of the site, appears to have passed here.
The chronology of individual parts of Temple III can be sketched quickly:
1) the socle wall of the adyton, the naiskos, the two tunnels and parts of the
krepidoma were built until 230 B.C. up to the orthostate; 2) the 29 wall segments
with pilasters of the adyton, the two staircases, the doors, and the main portal
were added before 165-164 B.C. At the end of this phase of construction the columns
began to be transposed (12-column room, surrounding colonnade) and the limestone
was leveled to receive the foundations of the colonnade, this unfinished work
being carried on alrpost throughout the entire Imperial period; 3) the columns
of the E face; and 4) after the 2d c. A.D., the addition of the Gorgon frieze
and the treasury ceiling.
The finds from Didyma are in the museums in Didyma, Izmir, Istanbul,
Berlin, Paris, and London (the famous "Branchides").
K. Tuchelt, ed.
This text is from: The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites,
Princeton University Press 1976. Cited Nov 2002 from
Perseus Project URL below, which contains 65 image(s), bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.
Region: Ionia
Periods: Dark Age, Geometric, Archaic, Classical, Hellenistic, Roman
Type: Sanctuary
Summary: The major Anatolian sanctuary dedicated to Apollo.
Physical Description:
Located ca. 10 km S of the city of Miletus and inland from
the small port of Panormos, the site of Didyma (a pre-Hellenic name) was a cult
center with a spring and sacred grove before the arrival of the Ionian Greeks.
In the Archaic period the first temple of Apollo was constructed and a Sacred
Way, lined with sculptures, led from Panormos to the sanctuary. Additional structures
at the sanctuary included a temenos wall, stoas, and a circular altar and a sacred
well before the temple. The open-cella Archaic temple was replaced by a larger
unroofed temple in the Hellenistic period. The Hellenistic temple of Apollo, although
never completed, survives as one of the largest and most impressive examples of
ancient Greek architecture. The temple housed a small Naiskos within the open
cella and had an unusual room between the pronaos and cella which may have served
as the Chresmographeion (office of the oracle). Also present at the sanctuary
were other shrines, a stadium, and a settlement of priests and attendants. Although
musical and drama contests were held as part of the Festival of the Great Didymeia
every four years, there is no theater nor odeion at the sanctuary.
Description:
Didyma was originally a pre-Greek cult center with a spring
and sacred grove. The Ionian Greeks adopted and Hellenized the center and by the
7th century B.C. the fame of its oracle had spread to as far as Egypt. The earliest
temple of Apollo on the site was an unroofed Ionic building enclosing the sacred
spring and a Naiskos. It was completed in the first half of the 6th century B.C.
A second and larger temple on the same spot was destroyed by the Persians early
in the 5th century B.C. while it was still under construction. Little is known
about activities at Didyma during the 5th and 4th centuries B.C., it it seems
to have suffered a decline. The sanctuary and the office of the oracle was revived
at ca. 311 B.C. when the sacred spring reappeared (or was rediscovered) on the
occassion of a visit from Alexander the Great. In the following decades Selencus
embellished the sanctuary and commissioned the new Hellenistic Temple of Apollo.
The sanctuary grew in wealth and fame and work on the temple continued for the
next 200 years. In 278 B.C. the sanctuary suffered under the raids of Gauls, but
construction work on the temple was resumed. At 70 B.C. the sanctuary was sacked
by pirates and work on the temple stopped. The sanctuary continued to function
and in A.D. 100. Trajan commissioned a new paved road to the sanctuary from Miletus.
By the 3rd century A.D. Christianity had become well established in the Miletus
area and the sanctuary at Didyma fell into disuse. At ca. A.D. 262 the Temple
of Apollo (which had never been completed, despite five centuries of service),
was converted into a fortress against the invading Goths.
Donald R. Keller, ed.
This text is cited Oct 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains 65 image(s), bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.
Branchidae (Branchidai). After Poseideion, the promontory in the territory
of the Milesians, is the oracle of Apollo Didymeus at Branchidae, about 18 stadia
the ascent (from the sea). (Strab. p. 634.) The remains of the temple are visible
to one who sails along the coast. (Hamilton, Researches, &c., vol. ii. p. 29.)
Pliny (v. 29) places it 180 stadia from Miletus, and 20 from the sea. It was in
the Milesian territory, and above the harbour Panormus. (Herod. i. 157.) The name
of the site of the temple was Didyma or Didymi (Diduma, Steph. s. v.; Herod. vi.
19), as we might also infer from the name of Apollo Didymeus; but the place was
also called Branchidae, which was the name of a body of priests who had the care
of the temple. Croesus, king of Lydia (Herod. i. 46, 92), consulted the oracle,
and made rich presents to the temple. The god of Branchidae was consulted by all
the Ionians and Aeolians; and Necos, king of Egypt, after he had taken Cadytis
(Herod. ii. 159), sent to the god the armour in which he had been victorious.
We may infer that the fame of this god had been carried to Egypt by the Milesians,
at least as early as the time of Necos. After the revolt of Miletus and its capture
by the Persians (B.C. 494) in the time of the first Darius, the sacred place at
Didyma, that is the sacred place of Apollo Didymeus, both the temple and the oracular
shrine were robbed and burnt by the Persians. If this is true, there was hardly
time for the temple to be rebuilt and burnt again by Xerxes, the son of Darius,
as Strabo says (p. 634); who also has a story that the priests (the Branchidae)
gave up the treasures to Xerxes when he was flying back from Greece, and accompanied
him. to escape the punishment of their treachery and sacrilege. (Comp. Strab.
p. 517.)
The temple was subsequently rebuilt by the Milesians on an enormous
scale; but it was so large, says Strabo, that it remained without a roof. A village
grew up within the sacred precincts, which contained several temples and chapels.
Pausanias (vii. 2) says that the temple of Apollo at Didymi was older than the
Ionian settlements in Asia. The tomb of Neleus was shown on the way from Miletus
to Didymi, as Pausanias writes it. It was adorned with many most costly and ancient
ornaments. (Strabo.)
A road called the Sacred Way led from the sea up to the temple; it
was bordered on either side with statues on chairs, of a single block of stone,
with the feet close together and the hands on the knees, an exact imitation of
the avenues of the temples of Egypt. (Leake, Asia Minor, p. 239.) Sir W. Gell
copied from the chair of a sitting statue on this way, a Boustrophedon inscription,
which contains topolloni, that is toi Apolloni. The temple at Branchidae was of
white marble, in some parts bluish. There remain only two columns with the architrave
still standing; the rest is a heap of ruins. The height of the columns is 63 feet,
with a diameter of 6 1/2 feet at the base of the shaft. It has 21 columns on the
flanks, and 4 between the antae of the pronaos, 112 in all; for it was decastyle
dipteral. Chandler describes the position and appearance of the ruins of Apollo's
temple at Didyma (c. 43, French Tr. with the notes of Servois and Barbie Du Bocage;
see also the Ionian Antiquities, published by the Dilettanti Society).
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited August 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Branchidae, after wards Didyma. A place on the sea-coast of Ionia, a little south of Miletus, and celebrated for its temple and oracle of Apollo, surnamed Didymeus. This oracle, which the Ionians held in the highest esteem, was said to have been founded by Branchus, son of Apollo by a Milesian woman. The reputed descendants of this Branchus, the Branchidae, were the hereditary ministers of this oracle. The temple, called Didymaeum, which was destroyed by Xerxes, was afterwards rebuilt, and its ruins contain some beautiful specimens of the Ionic order of architecture.
This text is cited Oct 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
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