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Tiresias: The Ancient Mediterranean Religions Source Database



7520
Lucian, The Sky-Man, 24


nanAs he went, he put questions to me about earthly affairs, beginning with, What was wheat a quarter in Greece? had we suffered much from cold last winter? and did the vegetables want more rain? Then he wished to know whether any of Phidias’s kin were alive, why there had been no Diasia at Athens all these years, whether his Olympieum was ever going to be completed, and had the robbers of his temple at Dodona been caught? I answered all these questions, and he proceeded:—‘Tell me, Menippus, what are men’s feelings towards me?’ ‘What should they be, Lord, but those of absolute reverence, as to the King of all Gods?’ ‘Now, now, chaffing as usual,’ he said; ‘I know their fickleness very well, for all your dissimulation. There was a time when I was their prophet, their healer, and their all,And Zeus filled every street and gathering place.In those days Dodona and Pisa were glorious and far famed, and I could not get a view for the clouds of sacrificial steam. But now Apollo has set up his oracle at Delphi, Asclepius his temple of health at Pergamum, Bendis and Anubis and Artemis their shrines in Thrace, Egypt, Ephesus; and to these all run; theirs the festal gatherings and the hecatombs. As for me, I am superannuated; they think themselves very generous if they offer me a victim at Olympia at four year intervals. My altars are cold as Plato’s Laws or Chrysippus’s Syllogisms.’


Intertexts (texts cited often on the same page as the searched text):

7 results
1. Julius Caesar, De Bello Civli, 3.103, 3.105 (1st cent. BCE - 1st cent. BCE)

2. New Testament, Acts, 19.23-19.41 (1st cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE)

19.23. About that time there arose no small stir concerning the Way. 19.24. For a certain man named Demetrius, a silversmith, who made silver shrines of Artemis, brought no little business to the craftsmen 19.25. whom he gathered together, with the workmen of like occupation, and said, "Sirs, you know that by this business we have our wealth. 19.26. You see and hear, that not at Ephesus alone, but almost throughout all Asia, this Paul has persuaded and turned away many people, saying that they are no gods, that are made with hands. 19.27. Not only is there danger that this our trade come into disrepute, but also that the temple of the great goddess Artemis will be counted as nothing, and her majesty destroyed, whom all Asia and the world worships. 19.28. When they heard this they were filled with anger, and cried out, saying, "Great is Artemis of the Ephesians! 19.29. The whole city was filled with confusion, and they rushed with one accord into the theater, having seized Gaius and Aristarchus, men of Macedonia, Paul's companions in travel. 19.30. When Paul wanted to enter in to the people, the disciples didn't allow him. 19.31. Certain also of the Asiarchs, being his friends, sent to him and begged him not to venture into the theater. 19.32. Some therefore cried one thing, and some another, for the assembly was in confusion. Most of them didn't know why they had come together. 19.33. They brought Alexander out of the multitude, the Jews putting him forward. Alexander beckoned with his hand, and would have made a defense to the people. 19.34. But when they perceived that he was a Jew, all with one voice for a time of about two hours cried out, "Great is Artemis of the Ephesians! 19.35. When the town clerk had quieted the multitude, he said, "You men of Ephesus, what man is there who doesn't know that the city of the Ephesians is temple-keeper of the great goddess Artemis, and of the image which fell down from Zeus? 19.36. Seeing then that these things can't be denied, you ought to be quiet, and to do nothing rash. 19.37. For you have brought these men here, who are neither robbers of temples nor blasphemers of your goddess. 19.38. If therefore Demetrius and the craftsmen who are with him have a matter against anyone, the courts are open, and there are proconsuls. Let them press charges against one another. 19.39. But if you seek anything about other matters, it will be settled in the regular assembly. 19.40. For indeed we are in danger of being accused concerning this day's riot, there being no cause. Concerning it, we wouldn't be able to give an account of this commotion. 19.41. When he had thus spoken, he dismissed the assembly.
3. Plutarch, Demetrius, 30.1 (1st cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE)

4. Pausanias, Description of Greece, 7.2.6 (2nd cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE)

7.2.6. When the Ionians had overcome the ancient Milesians they killed every male, except those who escaped at the capture of the city, but the wives of the Milesians and their daughters they married. The grave of Neileus is on the left of the road, not far from the gate, as you go to Didymi . The sanctuary of Apollo at Didymi, and his oracle, are earlier than the immigration of the Ionians, while the cult of Ephesian Artemis is far more ancient still than their coming.
5. Diogenes Laertius, Lives of The Philosophers, 2.51 (3rd cent. CE - 3rd cent. CE)

2.51. After the expedition and the misfortunes which overtook it in Pontus and the treacheries of Seuthes, the king of the Odrysians, he returned to Asia, having enlisted the troops of Cyrus as mercenaries in the service of Agesilaus, the Spartan king, to whom he was devoted beyond measure. About this time he was banished by the Athenians for siding with Sparta. When he was in Ephesus and had a sum of money, he entrusted one half of it to Megabyzus, the priest of Artemis, to keep until his return, or if he should never return, to apply to the erection of a statue in honour of the goddess. But the other half he sent in votive offerings to Delphi. Next he came to Greece with Agesilaus, who had been recalled to carry on the war against Thebes. And the Lacedaemonians conferred on him a privileged position.
6. Epigraphy, Seg, 34.1107

7. Strabo, Geography, 14.1.26, 14.1.29

14.1.26. After the outlet of the Cayster River comes a lake that runs inland from the sea, called Selinusia; and next comes another lake that is confluent with it, both affording great revenues. of these revenues, though sacred, the kings deprived the goddess, but the Romans gave them back; and again the tax-gatherers forcibly converted the tolls to their own use; but when Artemidorus was sent on an embassy, as he says, he got the lakes back for the goddess, and he also won the decision over Heracleotis, which was in revolt, his case being decided at Rome; and in return for this the city erected in the sanctuary a golden image of him. In the innermost recess of the lake there is a sanctuary of a king, which is said to have been built by Agamemnon. 14.1.29. After Colophon one comes to the mountain Coracius and to an isle sacred to Artemis, whither deer, it has been believed, swim across and give birth to their young. Then comes Lebedus, which is one hundred and twenty stadia distant from Colophon. This is the meeting-place and settlement of all the Dionysiac artists in Ionia as far as the Hellespont; and this is the place where both games and a general festal assembly are held every year in honor of Dionysus. They formerly lived in Teos, the city of the Ionians that comes next after Colophon, but when the sedition broke out they fled for refuge to Ephesus. And when Attalus settled them in Myonnesus between Teos and Lebedus the Teians sent an embassy to beg of the Romans not to permit Myonnesus to be fortified against them; and they migrated to Lebedus, whose inhabitants gladly received them because of the dearth of population by which they were then afflicted. Teos, also, is one hundred and twenty stadia distant from Lebedus; and in the intervening distance there is an island Aspis, by some called Arconnesus. And Myonnesus is settled on a height that forms a peninsula.


Subjects of this text:

subject book bibliographic info
abydos,temple of osiris in Griffiths (1975) 218
anubis,and judgement Griffiths (1975) 218
anubis,embalmer of osiris Griffiths (1975) 218
artemis ephesia Dignas (2002) 143
artemision,at ephesus Dignas (2002) 143
asia Keddie (2019) 156
commodus Griffiths (1975) 218
delos,and isis pelagia,priests at Griffiths (1975) 218
elites Keddie (2019) 156
ephesos Keddie (2019) 156
estates,sacred Keddie (2019) 156
fabius persicus,paullus Dignas (2002) 143
fishing Keddie (2019) 156
governors Dignas (2002) 143
jackal,and anubis Griffiths (1975) 218
judgement,of the dead,and isis,anubis in Griffiths (1975) 218
mediators,roman Dignas (2002) 143
nephthys,as uraeus,with isis,mother of anubis Griffiths (1975) 218
osiris,embalmed by anubis Griffiths (1975) 218
revenues from sacred land Dignas (2002) 143
sacred,finances Dignas (2002) 143
taxes Dignas (2002) 143
temple of artemis (ephesos) Keddie (2019) 156
thoth,and anubis' Griffiths (1975) 218
tolls Keddie (2019) 156
wine Keddie (2019) 156