Screenscribbler

Wednesday 11 June 2014

Return to Ephesus

My return to Ephesus paid off. I am happy to say the story I started in Turkey, after a trip to Ephesus around 5 years ago was finally completed after a return to Ephesus. So watch this space, available to an e-reader near you anytime now. Writing the book then revisiting was strange to me because I remembered details of the place in the same way I would have, if I had actually lived there. The statue of Artemis is not easy to find, unless you are told. I found her without any difficulty. Her temple one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World is not on the main Ephesus site, and I had to request my guide to take me there, which she gladly obliged. Only two people got off the coach to photograph it, and I have to say the single reassembled column does appear to be fairly uninspiring. But if you know the history, it is very meaningful to be there. The Greek poet Antipater who is accredited with compiling the list of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World said 'I have set eyes on the wall of lofty Babylon on which is a road for chariots, and the statue of Zeus by the Alpheus, and the hanging gardens, and the Colossus of the Sun, and the huge labour of the high pyramids, and the vast tomb of Mausolus; but when I saw the house of Artemis that mounted to the clouds, those other marvels lost their brilliancy, and I said, 'Lo, apart from Olympus, the Sun never looked on aught so grand.' Antipater, Greek Anthology IX.58.
Here is what I photographed. I think the eagle flying overhead as I took my photograph was significant and symbolic of the Greco-Roman era that I was trying to imagine at the time.
Here is an artists impression of what Antipater must have seen.

Watch this space and I will be announcing the release day of 'Ephesus' soon x