History Major In A Historical City: Adventures in Istanbul & Beyond: The Mother of God Meets a Goddess for Mothers: Turkey's Connection with Mary and Artemis at Ephesus

Zeus, God of the Sky and King of the Gods at Mount Olympus, sires a daughter, who goes on to become the goddess of fertility and the Hunt. Her name is Artemis. After her birth, Artemis helps her mother, Leto, give birth to Apollo, the god of healing, medicine and music. It is here that she starts to pave her legacy as a patron for mothers.

Artemis, Ephesus Museum

She is granted eternal virginity, upon her request. Members of her Cult on Earth vow the same code of chastity. She protects women in labor, as she did her mother. She further devotes her time to the safety of young children. However, balancing her power to facilitate life is her equally mighty ability to take it away; her arrows are known to cause death in childbirth, and she disseminates disease, like leprosy, in league with her brother, Apollo.

Further to the East of the lands under Artemis’ eyes, another feminine figure of influence is born an ordinary Jew in Galilee, a region under Roman jurisdiction. Her life story varies based on who’s speaking. Over 2 billion people today would say that she was betrothed to a carpenter, while another 2 billion (or so) think she was never engaged to such a man. Both groups of billions agree on this: an angel appeared to her, on God’s behalf, and announced that she had conceived a child through immaculate means. This child would grow up to be the Messiah. According to the first 2 billion, he is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, who will die for the good of all humanity, per the Holy Father’s direction, out of love and hope that “the world might be saved through Him” (John 3:17). And this innocent woman was up to the task of carrying this manifestation of God to term, and to raise him to become the one who carries humanity on His shoulders.

Mary, Chora Church in Istanbul (not my photo)

"The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God" - Luke 1:35

This woman was Mary, the venerated mother of Jesus of Nazareth, who is deemed the Savior in Christianity and a holy prophet in Islam. In fact, Mary is mentioned more in the Quran than she is in the Bible. In fact, she is the only woman identified by name in the Quran. In both religions, Mary was a virgin who became pregnant through a miracle of God, and who carried and delivered the Messiah.

Statue of Mary, Ephesus

In some alternate universe, a quasi-religion believes a different version of Mary’s story. The Prophecy reads:

Three quarters of a year before the convergence of the red and orange globes of the celestial body, a woman not of nobility or divine descent will conceive a child, out of faith and love, under the influence of the Fertility Goddess, who seeks to send a messenger and icon for all of humanity to follow, as a means to share light and life with the world.

I’m certain that in this religion, Artemis, the goddess of fertility in the Greek tradition, facilitates Mary’s immaculate conception. She observes Mary as she carries the baby boy to term, and around the feast of Saturnalia, when Mars and Jupiter may have aligned in the sky, forming what the theologians have deemed the Star of Bethlehem, she gives birth to Jesus, whose life story has circulated around the globe and whose message has survived 2000 years.

So why am I bringing this up? Why are we getting so dogmatic and religious? How are Mary and Artemis related?

Well, their roles in religions and their backgrounds in lore have severe overlap. Both are seen as symbols of fertility, chastity and motherhood. Mary was the famous virgin who gave birth to Jesus by the will of God. She is seen by many as a motherly figure, a queen among mothers, and the Mother to both Jesus and to Christians.

Depiction of Artemis as Fertility Goddess

Artemis was also a virgin, and she was the goddess of fertility in the ancient Greek tradition; her mother happened to be the goddess of motherhood. She helped women in labor, including her own mother when she delivered Apollo. Her motherly nature inspired cults, statues, buildings and a city; while treated as more of a goddess of the Hunt in Peloponnese Greece, she is mostly depicted as a fertility goddess in Asia Minor.

Depiction of Artemis as Goddess of the Hunt and of Nature

"O Mary, indeed Allah has chosen you and purified you and chosen you above the women of the worlds" - from Quran, 3:42

They both cared for children. Artemis, along with her brother Apollo, served as a guardian for young children. She helped mothers usher them into the world, and she tried to protect them from danger once they were independent and walking on their own. Meanwhile, Mary was Jesus’ mother, and she nurtured him into adulthood. In the Christian tradition, she famously gave birth in the stable when there wasn’t any room at the inn. She fled with her husband Joseph to Egypt in order to escape King Herod’s slaughter of all the baby boys in the region. She lost Jesus when he was an adolescent, and tracked him down in the Temple as he lectured some rabbis. She was there, in Jerusalem, on Good Friday, and he stopped and spoke with her as he carried the cross up to Calvary while wearing the Crown of Thorns; to this day, this moment is one of the Stations of the Cross in the Passion Story. And, she watched as he dangled and died on the Cross, fulfilling God’s plan. In Islam, she is believed to have given birth alone under a tree, and then she took the infant to the Temple, where He spoke in front of the priests and authorities, thus revealing his identity as a prophet of God.

"Do not worry; your Lord has placed a stream beneath you. And shake the trunk of the palm-tree towards you, and it will drop ripe dates by you." - from Quran, 19:24

Depiction of Mary in the Muslim version of her story

Respective to the faiths, both women were both connected to the single most powerful being in the universe.

Zeus, Ephesus Museum

from Istanbul Archeological Museum

Artemis was the daughter of Zeus, whose lightning bolts and connection with the sky gave him dominion over the whole of the world; he ruled from the top of Mount Olympus, and sired Heracles, the strong and mighty warrior (as seen in this blogpost). Heracles descended from Io, the woman Zeus turned into a cow, who escaped Hera’s wrath by roaming the world, finally reaching freedom after crossing the Bosporus Strait in Byzantium, modern Istanbul. And so, by that logic, Heracles is related to Artemis through Zeus.

Jesus, Mary, John the Baptist, Hagia Sophia

"She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins." - Matthew 1:21

Concurrently, the Virgin Mary gave birth to the Son of God, who is God himself in the form of man. Through grace and power, God deemed Mary full of grace and tasked her the responsibility of carrying Him. It’s quite a burden to be asked by the benevolent and almighty Creator to carry God incarnate, yet she took it on. Jesus’ 100% divinity and 100% humanity is one of the great mysteries of the faith. Islam doesn’t exactly go this far, as he is considered a Prophet. However, Mary’s connection with the Almighty in regards to Jesus’ conception is expressed and accepted.

Jesus, Mary and Gabriel with Emperor Leo, Hagia Sophia

Lastly, both Mary and Artemis are connected to Turkey.

Allegedly, after the death of Jesus, John the Evangelist, author of the Gospel of John and the Book of Revelation, became responsible for Mary. At the Crucifixion, Jesus told John to take care of her (John 19:26-27). Mary and John may have lived together for a while in Jerusalem, and there is debate from ancient times about where Mary spent her time.

It’s best speculated that she remained in Jerusalem until the end of her days, but one narrative believes John brought her to Ephesus, where she remained until her Assumption into Heaven.

Library of Celsus, Ephesus

I've personally been to Ephesus 3 times, and it gets better and better with each visit. The photos shared here were collected from each my visits, so that's why the weather varies.

March 2015

In the Library of Celsus, 2016

Ancient Greek gives me chills.

"Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!" - Acts 19:28

At the time, Ephesus was a thriving city in the Roman Province of Asia, descended from its Greek ancestors. To this day, it is the most visited site in Turkey, and one of the best preserved ancient cities out there. St. Paul lived in Ephesus for two years, and later on wrote one of his Epistles to the Ephesian people; his adventure in Ephesus is documented in Acts 19, where he tried to spread Christianity, interacted with Jews and Sorcerers, and even witnessed a riot. He faced some pushback from people of other faiths, including those who pledged their loyalties to Artemis!

Meanwhile, the same John who cared for Mary identified it as one of the 7 Churches of Asia in the Book of Revelation. Years later, the 3rd Ecumenical Council was held in Ephesus, one of many held in what is now Turkey, along with Chalcedon in modern Istanbul and Nicaea in modern Iznik.

2015

Bruce Springsteen's tour stopped in Ephesus in 2018.

Mary’s possible presence in Ephesus rose some eyebrows throughout the 1800s. Between 1818 and 1824, a young German nun named Catherine Emmerich saw some visions about Jesus and Mary; one vision contained a house in the mountains near Ephesus, which Catherine said was the house that John had built for her to live. Details of the visions were recorded and published in 1840. 50 years later, some priests in Smyrna, what is now Izmir, read the account and formed a search party to see if these visions were true. After 3 days of searching, they found a structure that matched Emmerich’s description. It may have been a medieval church, but it was exactly what Emmerich illustrated as the dwelling of the Virgin Mary.

Mary's House, Ephesus

So while there isn’t exactly historical evidence to confirm Mary’s residence in Ephesus, faithful followers of Islam and Christianity flock to the structure, now a shrine, as a place of pilgrimage, believing her body stood under its roof, and whose spirit thrives there to this day. I sadly never made it there, as it's a bit out of the way. I wish I did, though, so hopefully next time.

A few hundred years before Mary, Artemis’ very spirit lingered around Ephesus. After the King of ancient Lydia conquered the city, he erected a Temple in her honor. This building was recognized by Herodotus, the world’s first great historian, as one of the Seven Ancient Wonders of the world.

Herodotus traveled across what is now the Mediterranean and Middle East, identifying 7 miracles of man’s creativity and abilities, seen on the map below.

He visited all of these places, and after reporting all of the others, he writes:

"...when I saw the house of Artemis that mounted to the cloud, those other marvels lost their brilliancy, and I said, 'Lo, apart from Olympus, the Sun never looked on aught so grand.'"

Herodotus to History is like Hippocrates to Medicine

This building was beautiful, and it because a site for pilgrimages and festivals. Yet, something happened that could seriously verify a belief in omnipotent forces beyond logic and reason.

According to Plutarch, the Greek writer, something catastrophic took place on July 21, 356 BCE. On this day, Artemis needed to attend the birth of a baby, the son of the King of Macedonia. With her focus elsewhere and the Temple left vulnerable, a man named Herostratus appeared at the building. Desiring to be remembered, he set the Temple of Artemis ablaze. Perhaps he knew that its patron goddess wasn’t watching the Wonder, and felt this was the best opportunity to do something grand and to leave a mark on history. Upon the destruction of the building, Herostratus was executed, but he got his wish: his name is still spoken all of these years later. To this day, someone who does something insane strictly for the purpose of being remembered in perpetuity is described as "Herostratic."

Oh, the baby whose imminent birth kept Artemis occupied on the night her Temple burned?

Alexander the Great.

So right from the start, Alexander the Great’s life started out with a bang, or rather, a fire. You could tell that he was destined for great things, when on the night of his birth, the most magnificent building in the ancient world was destroyed.

Alexander and I, Istanbul Archeological Museum, March 2018

Alexander ascended to the throne of Macedonia and began his conquests, paying a visit to Ephesus in 334 BCE. He offered to contribute to the construction of the new Temple of Artemis. I read once that Alexander knew Artemis was watching over him on the night of his birth, so perhaps he felt a unique connection to the goddess and the building, aware of its martyrdom and demise on the night of his birth.

Alexander's Empire and route of Conquest

A few hundred years later, Artemis’ religion rivaled Christianity in Ephesus. As previously stated, the Bible dramatizes Ephesian resistance to Christianity and their commitment to Artemis, especially because of her presence over the city:

"Doesn't all the world know that the city of Ephesus is the guardian to the temple of the great Artemis, and of her image, which fell from Heaven" - Acts 19:35

However, the new Temple was destroyed by Goths in 262 BCE.

From 2015 visit

To this day, the site where the Temple stood is modest. Some of the Temple’s remains were brought to the British Museum. Currently, the site simply holds a few marble blocks stacked on top of one another. You’ll often find storks resting on the pillar’s peak. The first time I went there, we saw it from our hostel and, ignorant of the entrance, snuck into the site through a fence and into the marsh. A security guard told us to come back the next day, but fortunately we didn’t get in trouble.

It also has an amazing view of other historical buildings in the town, from the Castle at Ayasuluk Hill to the Basilica of St. John, where the very John who cared for Mary is believed to be buried.

St. John's Basilica

Eda's a princess.

Standing over St. John's Burial Site

Isa Bey Mosque

So there you have it. Artemis and Mary each display influence in Turkey. They have both watched over the city of Ephesus in some way, clearly leaving their mark and spreading their spirits through architecture, worship, Scripture, revelation, and the interactions of mythological, Biblical and historical figures. And in one panoramic image, not only do you see their stories and spirits intersecting, but you also see the cultural diversity that makes Turkey so special.