High Directory

In 1912, F M Bennett, using the Classical writings which had been preserved in large measure at Constantinople (= Istanbul, The City), as her source, was able to write in her erudite and important work, ‘Religious Cults Associated with the Amazons’:

The early version of the Ephesian Artemis statue was ‘primitive and oriental; carved from a block of wood; shaped like a herm in its lower part, and showing (H)er feet. The statue depicts a draped, many breasted woman with a (Kybeline) turret crown.

The Artemisium was ‘served by eunuch priests.  The cult is, in origin far older that the Ionian settlement.  The place of worship provided inviolable sanctuary, (a very un-Greek feature). 

This article has attempted to show where scientific analysis of these idols has reached since Bennett’s time, and by what means.   It suggests directions in which invesstigations may proceed from our current position.

The chief methods are to erect and evaluate hypotheses, and to cross-reference evidence between usually unrelated disciplines.

1    Identify specific metaphysical considerations.
2    Identify the specific parameters of Myth, Geometry and Symbol to contain and to be contained by the Sacred Image.
3    Establish a ‘Temple’ of experts to propagate this, to enact supportive rituals, and to provide education, security and finance.
4    From a plan specific to the realities of the astronomical space-time-continuum, establish the location and orientation of the sacred place with its ‘Idol’ (that is to say something which is, in essence, a geometrical abstraction of That Which Is).
5    At the proper time, sanctify and lay out the precinct.
6    Commission the statue from specialist workshop according to the established Canon, stating the esoteric cultic aims and purposes, the function, and the form.
7    Design the work which will manifest Abstract Truths.
8    Transfer design via a lay-out grid to the chosen material: (granite, limestone etc).
9    At all stages, sculptors and workers would fast, meditate and act with ritual correctness, as had their Superiors.
10  Apprentices would ‘rough out’ the work, which would be finished by the Master.
11  Perform an ‘Opening Of The Mouth Ceremony to ‘activate’ power.
12  Transfer and place ‘Idol’ in its correctly chosen location. Proper ritual and devotions being provided by religious and secular Authorities.

‘Such (Egyptian) sculptures were magical entities, fraught with fateful significance’ (Iverson).

Early Ionian sculptural works were crudely copied Egyptian noble themes. The early Korestatues were very proper to a matrifocal faith.  They were much more Egyptian than the freer Theran murals.

As the problems connected with fitting The Great Ephesian Artemis ‘Idol’ into a space-time continuum widened, so did the opportunities.   Slowly and reluctantly I moved into the dangerous realms of the macro hypothesis