When they heard this, they
were furious and began shouting: “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!”…But when
they realized he was a Jew, they all shouted in unison for about two hours:
“Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!” Acts 19:28, 34
Artemis
was a goddess in Greek mythology, worshiped in the areas of hunting, wild
animals, the moon. She was the daughter
of Zeus and Leto, the twin sister of Apollo.
Artemis, they believed, protected young girls, midwives and pregnant
women. She became a goddess of
fertility.
In
Ephesus, they called her Diana, the Roman goddess equivalent. Her temple, at that time, was one of the
Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, a magnificent structure with ruins still
visible today. The Artemis idol business
was very prolific in Ephesus as seen in the splendor of the temple made for
her.