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# Cult statue of Artemis of Ephesus and the fate of the temple, one of the Seven Wonders
- URL: https://theparnassian.com/en/tak-vygliadit-kultovaia-statuia-odnogo-iz-semi-chudes-sveta-khrama-artemidy-efesskoi/
- Published: 2022-07-03T10:32:43.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-02T19:02:21.000Z
- Author: Alexandr Radayev
- Tags: Archaeology, Faith, The East, Art

This is what the cult statue from the temple of Artemis at Ephesus, one of the Seven Wonders of the World, looks like. It is the very temple that was burnt down by Herostratus in 356 BC, reputedly on the day of the birth of Alexander the Great. Alexander of Macedon in his time restored the temple, and it stood until the 4th century AD, when it was destroyed in connection with the establishment of Christianity as the religion of Rome. The original, of course, has not survived: its frame was of wood, and the fires and floods that befell the sanctuary in different years wiped the masterpiece of the Ancient World from the face of the earth. The statue was known to the entire ancient world, was described by a multitude of authors and depicted by various artists, so it was reconstructed from the surviving descriptions, and in our day there exist many variants of Artemis of Ephesus. The sculpture, sometimes called the many-breasted Artemis, may in fact be adorned with ancient fetishes in the form of bees' eggs, identified with chastity, or with leather pouches alluding to bulls' scrotums; at any rate, the absence of nipples may point to this.

![](https://theparnassian.com/content/images/2026/09/photo_6960@03-07-2022_13-32-43.jpg)