21st July 356 BC~ Herostratus sets fire to the Temple of Artemis in Ephesus, one of the Seven Wonders of the World. The Temple of Artemis or Artemision also known less precisely as the Temple of Diana, was a Greek temple dedicated to the goddess Artemis and is one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. It was located in Ephesus and was completely rebuilt three times before its eventual destruction in 401.Only foundations and sculptural fragments of the latest of the temples at the site remain. Herostratus was an Ancient Greek arsonist whose name has become a metonym for someone who commits a criminal act in order to become famous. On July 21, 356 BC, seeking notoriety, he burned down the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus in Ancient Greece. Far from attempting to evade responsibility for his act of arson, Herostratus proudly claimed credit in an attempt to immortalise his name. To dissuade those of a similar mind, the Ephesian authorities not only executed him, but attempted to condemn him to a legacy of obscurity by forbidding mention of his name under penalty of death. However, this did not stop Herostratus from achieving his goal because the ancient historian Theopompus recorded the event and its perpetrator in his Hellenics. Herostratus name lived on in classical literature and has passed into modern languages as a term for someone who commits a criminal act in order to bask in the resultant notoriety.
Posted on: Mon, 21 Jul 2014 18:44:45 +0000
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