Lydney - Temple to Nodens

Temporarily grounded this weekend due to the bathroom redecoration project. I keep telling myself it WILL be worth it!

Fortunately due to the 3 month break I do have some trips that I haven't yet blogged on so this week it is the Lydney Park Estate and the Roman temple there. The park has very restricted opening so for much of the year the temple is not accessible to the general public and it won't be open again until Easter 2015.

The Estate is worth visiting for the spring gardens alone. I love the way the bulbs have been naturalised into the grass here at the entrance to the car park.

As usual of course the only way is up. The temple is sited at the top of the hill probably to give a clear view of the Severn Bore when it goes up the river twice a day. It is also within the confines of an iron age hill fort which may also have had something to do with the choice of site.

Did stop a few times to admire the view across the estate. It was a fairly steep climb in places!

Well worth it though. It is a classically styled Roman temple dedicated to the Celtic God Nodens. He is linked with healing, the sea, dogs and hunting. The mosaics survive but are covered by earth and turf and we had to content ourselves with the pictures in the small museum inside the house itself.

He may also have been in the curse business as a lead curse tablet was found  "For the god Nodens. Silvianus has lost a ring and has donated one-half [its worth] to Nodens. Among those named Senicianus permit no good-health until it is returned to the temple of Nodens)"

As well as the Temple, there is a surviving Bath house which would have been part of the temple complex.

Descending back towards the gardens themselves we came across a couple of statues guarding the entrance to the gardens. Whilst the temple probably dates from 364CE and was in use to maybe around 500CE, the date of these are uncertain.  They were originally thought to be Roman but are possibly 16th or 17th century.  Likewise the identities are also unknown  - this is possibly Pan  according to the English Heritage Protection listing

The same source lists this as the Empress Faustina.  They are now sited quite a way from the temple complex but were formerly more closely associated. Her hairstyle reminds me very strongly of a statue at the Temple of Sulis in Bath

Turkish Delight - one of the 7 wonders of the world. The Artemision

As you may have gathered from the previous instalment, Ephesus was far from my favourite site this trip.

However leaving Ephesus we stopped at the Artemision. This temple, dedicated to Artemis, was one of the 7 wonders of the ancient world. It was also much less busy, Most of the cruises don't seem to bother with it. They have no idea what they are missing!

 The site is right on the outskirts of Selcuk and easily accessible. I wasn't complaining about the lack of crowds though!

The site is mostly rubble now but there are tantalising hints of what it must once have been like. This model in the Selcuk museum gives an idea of the sheer scale of the place. 

The original temple here dates back to the Bronze age and was destroyed by flood.

The temple had a tempestuous life, destroyed by arson. rebuilt, destroyed again....

Like many of the sites in Turkey, the columns seem to have been randomly reconstructed with odds and ends of masonry. I suppose this travesty does give an idea of the height of the original column but still.....

Much of the site slumbers buried under the scrub grassland, deserted apart from a few tortoises exploring the boulder strewn ground. 

The heart of the temple is now quite swampy so it looks a lot greener.

This gives an indication of the location of the columns.

Most of the contents or the temple are now in the British Museum but the local one in Selcuk has the two main temple statues. This one is known as the beautiful one and it is not misnamed.

The quality of the carving is breathtaking and the whole piece just radiates beauty and serenity. Even better, it is not fenced off so you can get close enough to appreciate the quality of the workmanship that went into this statue.

 

A close up of the detail down the side panels of the skirt - bees yes but the Tudor Rose? Some symbols recur in the most unlikely places....

The Ephesus Artemis is distinctly different from the Greek goddess and her cult shares more similarities with that of Cybele, the mother goddess of the region.