DIDYMA - TEMPLE OF APOLLO
The gigantic Temple of Apollo at Didyma (Didim in Turkish)
was among the most famous oracles in the ancient world, equal in importance
to the oracular temple at Delphi in Greece.
The Temple of Apollo at Didyma, also known as the Didymaion, has a long
history. The Didymaion was constructed before Greek colonization (10th
century BCE), and some date it to the 2nd millennium BCE. The earliest
fragments of the temple found thus far date to the end of the 8th century
BC. The original temple was destroyed by Darius I of Persia in 494 BC,
who looted many of the statues and its vast treasury built up by the generous
gifts of Croesus, King of Lydia.
After Alexander the Great conquered Miletus in 334 BCE, the oracle of Apollo
at Didyma was resanctified and quickly regained its importance. Miletus
administered the cult of Apollo, annually electing a prophet. In 313 BC,
the Milesians began to build a new Hellenistic temple on the site of the
earlier shrine, which they intended to be the largest in the Greek world.
It is this temple that visitors see today.
Construction continued during the 3rd and 2nd centuries BCE, and portions
were still under construction in the Roman period. It was never entirely
completed. Even incomplete, the temple is enormous and impressive; it is
the third largest in the ancient world after those of Ephesus and Samos.
In ancient times, pilgrims walked 12 miles (20 km) along the Sacred Way
from Miletus to the sanctuary at Didyma participate in the annual spring
festival, the Didymeia. The festival became Pan-Hellenic in the beginning
of the 2nd century BCE.
The Oracle of Apollo at Didyma rivaled that of Delphi; pilgrims flocked
to Didyma not only to worship Apollo and attend the festival, but also
to find answers about their future. A strict ritual surrounded the giving
of oracles. Oracles could only be given on a limited number of days; the
absolute minimum was every four days, but the interval was often much longer,
perhaps many months. The session began with a three-day fast by the priestess,
during which time she resided in the adyton (sacred precinct).
Didyma's fate was probably sealed in 303 CE, when an oracle advised the
Emperor Diocletian to initiate his persecution of the Christian church.
Constantine the Great, who was raised in the court of Diocletian and later
converted to Christianity, closed the oracle and executed the priests.
In the 5th century CE, Emperor Theodosius built a Christian basilica in
the adyton (sacred precinct) of the temple at Didyma, which testifies to
the site's religious importance. The church and much of the temple stood
until the 15th century, when a great earthquake reduced the temple to rubble.
Excavations made between 1905 and 1930 revealed all of the incomplete Hellenistic
temple and some carved pieces of the earlier temple and statues.
Originally, 122 enormous Ionic columns surrounded the temple; today only
three remain intact. Dating from the 2nd century BCE, the columns are 60
feet tall (the height of a six-story building) and have a diameter of 6
feet at the base. Even the stumps of columns that fell are impressive in
size and display beautiful carvings at their base. The temple as a whole
was 90 feet high and approached by 14 steps. The cella (roofed chamber)
has two Ionic columns supporting the roof and opens on the north and south
sides to small chambers containing staircases, which may have led to a
terrace on the cella roof.
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