Didyma - Ancient City of Oracles and Sacred Way

Didyma, (Δίδυμα) is the name of an ancient Greek temple complex on Turkey's west coast which served as an important site for the delivering of oracles. What is an oracle? I'll explain that below.

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Visiting Didyma was a strange experience for me... a place hard to describe... mystical, confounding and overwhelming to the senses. 

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Compared to similar sites I have visited in Greece, Turkey, and Italy (especially Paestum), this temple seems to be the most intriguing and difficult to "get my head around." Two primary  reasons: "How could these fluted stone columns be so unbelievably huge?" "Who were these people, and what were they performing here?"

http://test.classconnection.s3.amazonaws.com/628/flashcards/23628/jpg/temple-of-apollo.jpg

#1.) First, how did they produce these enormous columns  Compare the size of the people to the column bases in the following pictures.

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#2.) In addition, how did they create the fabulous, well-preserved ornamentation on the columns?

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Keep in mind: these artifacts are very old - built by the Greeks, and not Romans. They date back to roughly 300 BCE - about 2300 years!

Didyma was one of the most important sites for oracles in the ancient Greek world, and was also the 4th largest sanctuary or temple in size. It centered on the oracle of Apollo. The most famous oracle site is Delphi, in central Greece.

https://sacredsites.com/middle_east/turkey/oracle_of_apollo_didyma.html

The complex measured 168 x 385 ft. (51 x 109 m) and had a 120 columns that were 65 ft. (19.7 m.) high. Unfortunately, almost all of them are knocked down today.

Each Spring visitors would first make a 10 mile / 17 km. pilgrimage along a paved road - the Sacred Way from Miletus to Didyma. While walking this route, the pilgrims stopped at ritual way-stations and pondered statues of animals and humans, some which date back to the 6th century BCE. (Click here to see several figures in the British Museum.) None of these seem to be available for viewing at the Turkish site - they were presumably taken from Didyma to England by archeologists.

Map: In the bottom, right corner you see the location of Miletus and Didyma (red dots). The Sacred Way ran between them and is not easy to locate today.

Definition:
In Greek Antiquity, an oracle was the name of a site or person where one could receive wise counsel, prophecy or predictions, as inspired and delivered by the gods. Oracles were thought to be portals through which the gods spoke to people.

The word oracle comes from the Latin verb ōrāre "to speak" and refers to a priest or priestess who uttered the requested answer or prediction (khrēsmoi, χρησμοί). Oracles were held in such high regard that leaders and influential people from countries beyond Greece often sought such counsel.

This was similar to consulting a seer (manteis, μάντεις) who interpreted signs sent by the gods through bird signs, animal entrails, and many other means. They, too, could see things hidden from normal mortals, and had the ability to predict the future and speak for the gods.

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The ancient site of Didyma is famous from legendary times. Here was a natural spring where the beautiful Leto is supposed to have spent an hour of love with Zeus, then giving birth to the twins Artemis and Apollo (didymoi).

It is the most important oracle site in Asia Minor (modern Turkey). Pronouncements were received there by Croesus, Alexander the Great and other great kings who altered the course of human history.

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From its earliest beginnings, Didyma was a pre-Greek cult sanctuary centered around a sacred grove and holy spring from the 8th - 7th centuries BC.

The sanctuary of Apollo consists of a walled enclosure measuring approximately 24 x 10 m, an open-air sanctuary, a portico 16 m in length, a sacred well and a votive altar.

Cliff Emerson

Above: Within the sanctuary complex, this rectangular area 175 ft. x 70 ft. (53.5 m. x 21.5 m.), with walls originally 72 ft.  (22 m. high) housed the actual Temple of Apollo 47 ft. x 27 ft. (14.2 m. x 8.2 m.).

It was built over the small foundation in the background, and contained a statue of Apollo and the sacred spring. Here the priestess received revelations that were interpreted by a priest and then were communicated back to those who had come to consult the oracle.

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Above: Looking in the opposite direction, one sees the steps used by the priests to bring the pilgrim's' requests down into the central courtyard of the temple (cella). Two doorways on either side also lead into this courtyard.

Following is a diagram that portrays the likely structure of the sanctuary.

http://sites.davidson.edu/csa/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/apollo-temple-didyma-sailing-map.png

By the 7th century BCE, the Ionian Greeks had adopted the site, dedicated it to the worship of Apollo. Thereafter, the fame of its oracle spread across the eastern Mediterranean and into Egypt.

As mentioned earlier, the most famous site for Greek oracles was at Delphi, north of Corinth (see it on the map, below).

(Use the horizontal scroll bar to also see the location of Didyma over in modern-day Turkey.)

https://figures.boundless.com/13647/full/-20of-20greek-20santuaries.jpe

Map: Principal Religious Sanctuaries of the Greek Aegean. This is the heartland of Ancient Greece - territory on both sides of the Aegean Sea.. Before reading on, please do note of both locations for Didymes (Didyma), and Delphi. (Here's a link to Delphi in Wikipedia.)

 NOTE: The most famous Roman site to visit on Turkey's Aegean coast, Ephesus, lies just north of Didyma. It may be possible to find a bus tour that takes you from Ephesus to Didyma.

The following video focuses on the huge assortment of stones lying around the temple site, plus a row of columns, and one (of the three) standing columns:

The temple was located approximately 17 kilometers south of the city of Miletus, inland from the small port of Panormos. In the Archaic period, when the first temple of Apollo was constructed, a Sacred Way, lined with sculptures, sarcophagi and statues of lions and sphinxes, led from Panormos to the sanctuary. Pilgrims arriving by sea would disembark at the port of Panormos [or Miletus] and walk the Sacred Way to the oracle of Apollo.

http://sacredsites.com/middle_east/turkey/oracle_of_apollo_didyma.html

Background:

• "494 BCE - The Persians destroyed a second and larger temple at the same site while it was still under construction.
• 5th - 4th centuries BCE - Little is known about activities at Didyma and it seems to have suffered a decline.
• 334 BCE - After his capture of the city of Miletus, Alexander the Great placed the administration of the oracle in the hands of the city.
• 331 BCE - The sanctuary of the oracle was revived when the sacred spring was rediscovered on the occasion of a visit from Alexander (during which time the oracle proclaimed him “the son of Zeus”).

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• "In the following decades  - Seleucus embellished the sanctuary and commissioned the new Hellenistic Temple of Apollo (about 300 BC a cult statue of Apollo that had been stolen by the Persians was returned to Didyma).
•  For the next 200 years - The sanctuary grew in fame, attracting thousands of pilgrims from throughout the Hellenistic world, and work on the temple continued.
• This temple, measuring 51 by 110 meters, was the third largest structure of the Greek world, exceeded only by those at Ephesus and Samos (Greek island).
• Although the Hellenistic (i.e. Greek) Didymaion was of greater dimensions than the archaic temple, it was merely an adaptation of the original plan. The massive temple had a total of 124 columns (many of which were never erected) and was embellished with the most wonderful sculptures of Greek artistry. One particularly enormous column weighs 70 tons.

Cliff Emerson

• "In 278 BCE - the sanctuary suffered under the raids of Gauls, but construction work on the temple was resumed.
• In 70 BCE - pirates sacked the sanctuary, and work on the temple was terminated. The sanctuary, however, continued to function. 
• In 100 CE. Trajan commissioned a new paved road to the sanctuary from Miletus.
• By the 3rd century CE Christianity had become well established in the Miletus area and the sanctuary at Didyma fell gradually into disuse.
• In 262 CE the Apollonian Oracle temple (which had never been completed, despite five centuries of service), was converted into a fortress against invading Goths (Germanic tribes from the North and East) and Saracens (seafaring Arabic Muslims link).
• In 385 CE, the famous oracle was officially closed by an edict of Theodosius, and a Byzantine church was erected within the temple compound. The buildings were ravaged by fire.
• In the 15th c. CE a great earthquake reduced the temple to rubble, toppling all but three of its towering columns.

The video (above) highlights a young visitor beside a huge column, some carved stone detail, and one of the two tunnel entrances to the sacred temple area.

"The French first began excavations at the Temple of Apollo in 1834, followed by the Berlin Museum from 1904 to 1913, and then by the German Archaeological Institute from 1962 until the present.

"What exactly stimulated the oracular and visionary insights experienced by the temple priests is not currently known but geologists assume it had something to do with the temple’s location at a place of geologic activity and its construction directly upon an active spring. Recent geological studies at the oracle of Delphi have confirmed that vision-inducing vapors did indeed rise from fissures beneath its Apollonian temple yet similar studies have thus far not been conducted at the shrine of Didyma."

"The way in which the Apollonian oracles communicated their pronouncements is also not clear from either legendary or historical sources. It seems probable that, similar to Delphi in Greece, there were those who received the oracular messages and those who then interpreted those messages to the supplicants and pilgrims visiting the temple. It is clear that male priests were concerned with the communication of the prophetic messages, but whether males or only females were the prophets (like at Delphi) is not currently known."

Source of the above text: http://sacredsites.com/middle_east/turkey/oracle_of_apollo_didyma.html

Here are pictures of the Sacred Way leading north to Miletus.

http://media-cdn.tripadvisor.com/media/photo-s/03/a2/6d/b1/miletus.jpg

According to historian Mark Wilson in Biblical Turkey: A Guide to the Jewish and Christian Sites of Asia Minor (Amazon: book), the 13 - 23 ft (4 - 7 m.) wide road dates as early as 700 BCE, and was resurfaced 4 times - the latest time in 100-101 CE.

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Below: German archaeologists put up a sign near the sanctuary with a map which I captured with my camera. I've highlighted the Sacred Way (Heilige Strasse) in yellow. Note that it intersects and is covered by a paved road on the north side the Apollo Heiligtum (sanctuary), which is hemmed-in by a number of residential buildings. 

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Also note that the Artemis Temple (on the left side of the Sacred Way) lies largely un-excavated and inaccessible.

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This head of Medusa (3 ft. / 0.9 m.) was found on-site. In Greek mythology Medusa ("guardian, protectress") was a monster, a Gorgon, with the face of a hideous woman with living venomous snakes instead of hair. Gazing directly into her eyes would turn onlookers to stone. Medusa was beheaded by the hero Perseus, who thereafter used her head as a weapon before he gave it to the goddess Athena to place on her shield. In classical antiquity the image of the head of Medusa was an apotropaic symbol - used to ward off evil. [This reminds me of the "evil eye" images that you see for sale as souvenirs across Greece and along the Aegean Sea in Turkey!]

Cliff Emerson

This video begins with a view of the south side of the complex, then focuses on the extremely tight, rectilinear stonework of the wall, and closes with stones scattered around the site. Below, look at the tight fit - using no morter!

Written Greek inscription on a stone - Maybe someday I'll be able to read some of it.

http://cdn4.vtourist.com/4/6232866-The_supports_for_the_column_pieces_still_in_place_Didyma.jpg?version=2

A fallen column on the back side of the sanctuary is a "must see" when you visit Didyma

Also, if you have time, scroll all the way back to the first picture of this post in order to see it from an aerial perspective.

Finally, on one side of the temple are the scattered remnants of several capitals with griffins on them. I found these rather curious, so I did a short study on the topic in an attempt to figure-out what they were doing at Didyma.

The griffin (Greek: γρύφων, Latin: gryphus) is a legendary creature made from

• a lion's body, tail, and back legs, and 
• an eagle's head, wings and talons on the front feet.

Because the lion was traditionally considered the king of the beasts, and the eagle the king of birds, the griffin was thought to be an especially powerful and majestic creature - the king of all creatures.  In antiquity it was a symbol of divine power and guardian of divine or priceless treasures.

The earliest depictions of griffins are the 15th c. BCE frescoes in the Throne Room of the Bronze Age Palace of Knossos, Crete (link). They continued as a favored decorative theme in Archaic and Classical Greek art, and may have come through this means to Didyma.

There is also evidence of griffins in Ancient Persian and Egyptian art as far back as 3,300 BCE, though found in different anatomical configurations.  In Central Asia the griffin appears about a thousand years after Bronze Age Crete (5th–4th c. BCE), probably originating from the Achaemenid Persian Empire as a protector from evil, witchcraft and secret slander.

One theory proposes that the griffin was an ancient misconception derived from the fossilized remains of the Protoceratops dinosaur (picture) found in gold mines in the Altai mountains of Scythia, in Kazakhstan, or in Mongolia. (German Wikipedia article)

In medieval heraldry (sample), the griffin is an amalgamation of lion and eagle was a symbol of military courage, strength and leadership.

It's still unclear to me how these figures were used at Didyma, and when they were created. After looking at the accompanying leaf design (previous photo) and comparing it to other designs on-site, it bears the mastery of Greek arcticians.

Outside Links:
Holy Land Photos - Temple of Apollo
Sacred Sites - Places of Peace and Power