Ephesus

A major port city and cultural crossroads. Ephesus was home to the great Temple of Artemis and to Heraclitus, the philosopher of flux and fire.

Ephesus was one of the great ports of the ancient world, crowded with merchants, priests, and pilgrims arriving to see the Temple of Artemis — one of the Seven Wonders. The city smelled of incense, dye, and the sea. Heraclitus was born here around 535 BCE into an aristocratic family with hereditary rights to a religious office he reportedly gave away in contempt. He was difficult, reclusive, and wrote in riddles that confused his contemporaries and still challenge readers now. He argued that fire is the fundamental substance, that opposites are identical, and that the world follows a hidden logic he called the Logos. He distrusted the crowd, distrusted the senses, and distrusted most other philosophers. When he fell ill he rubbed himself with dung, following some theory of his own, and died.