Posts Tagged temple of aphrodite

The site of Aphrodisias has been sacred since as early as 5,800 BC, when Neolithic farmers came here to worship the Mother Goddess of fertility and crops.

In Greek times, the site was dedicated to Aphrodite, the goddess of love and fertility. The site was named Aphrodisias during the 2nd century BC and the great Temple of Aphrodite was built in the 1st century AD.

The cult of Aphrodite at Aphrodisias was distinctive, reflecting the goddess’ ancient origins and commonalities with other Anatolian deities (such as Artemis of Ephesus) while also bringing in familiar Greco-Roman motifs that made her universal.

For centuries Aphrodisias consisted of just the shrine, but when the Romans defeated the Pontic ruler Mithridates in 74 BC, Aphrodisias was rewarded for its loyalty and began to prosper.

Sulla and Julius Caesar were devotees of Venus and favored her city, and the emperor Augustus granted it the high privileges of autonomy and tax-free status, declaring Aphrodisias “the one city from all of Asia that I have selected to be my own.”

Thereafter it became a cultural and artistic hub known for its exquisite marble sculptures made from quarries of beautiful white and blue-gray marble that lay about a mile east of the city. Sculptures produced in Aphrodisias were exported as far as North Africa and Rome.

Aphrodisias remained a pagan stronghold long after the introduction of Christianity to the area, but it was eventually renamed Stavropolis (”city of the cross”) and then Caria after the local region. (The modern Turkish name, Geyre, derives from Caria.)

During the Byzantine era, Aphrodisias/Stavropolis became the seat of the metropolitan bishop of Caria and the Temple of Aphrodite was turned into a Christian basilica. It was a major undertaking, unique among all temple-to-church conversions. Walls and colonnades were dismantled and reused to enlarge and modify the building. The columns of the front and back of the temple were used to extend the side colonnades, creating two long rows of 19 columns each. The cella of the temple was also dismantled, with its stone reused in the construction of new walls on all sides.

The church was renovated in the middle Byzantine era and stood for centuries until was destroyed, possibly in the Seljuk raids of the late 12th century. The city faded into obscurity and today is part of the Turkish village of Geyre.

Remains of the Temple of Aphrodite, a stadium and portions of a bathhouse were always visible at the site without the need for excavations, but, beginning in 1961, archaeological digs also revealed a theater, an odeon, a basilica, a market, houses and baths, a monumental gateway, and a sanctuary for worship of the Roman emperor.