| When
Neleus, son of King Kodros of Athens, decided to found a city, the
gods told |
| him
that he must choose a site where the earth of a young maiden mingled
with water. |
| Neleus
wandered through Anatolia until he came to a place where a young girl
named |
| Kaeira
was collecting clay from a river bed with which to make pots. Remembering
what |
| the
gods had said, Neleus founded his city here. This was to be the celebrated |
| Miletus.Another
version of the founding myth of the city relates that Akakallis, daughter |
| of
the King of Crete, bore a child, Miletus, to the god Apollo. Afraid
of her father King |
| Minos,
however, she abandoned it in the forest. Wolves cared for the baby,
which was |
| subsequently
found by shepherds and brought up by them. Years later Miletus sailed
to |
| Anatolia,
where he founded a city in his name. Later he married Kyane, daughter
of the |
| god
Maiandros of the Meander river, and they had two children named Kaunos
and |
| Biblys.
Whatever the claims of these respective stories, Miletus became a
renowned |
| centre
of scholarship and art. It was here that the positive sciences were
born, and |
| where
the celebrated natural philosopher Thales first predicted a solar
eclipse in |
| 585
BC. Other famous philosophers such as Anaximenes and Anaximandros,
and |
| Hippodamos,
an innovator in the field of city planning and after whom the grid
plan was |
| named,
were from Miletus. |
| |
| Daphnis
who built the Temple of Apollo, and Isidorus, architect of Haghia
Sophia in |
| Istanbul,
were both from the city. So were Aristeides, author of the obscene
Miletus |
| Tales,
the first geographer Hecataios, and Leucippos who posited the existence
of |
| atoms.
Aspasia, mistress of the Athenian statesman Pericles, was born here.
Miletus |
| was
a thriving centre of trade which founded more than ninety trading
colonies, |
| including
Samsun and Giresun on the Black Sea coast.The Milesians were known
for |
| their
rationality, and could even better the gods in argument, as one legend
illustrates: |
| One
day Zeus was debating with a poor man in the city agora. Both were
determined |
| not
to give in to the other. Finally Zeus shouted angrily, ‘Look here,
do not go too far or |
| I
will destroy you with a thunderbolt!’ His opponent said, ‘See, great
Zeus. You have |
| proved
that you are wrong.’ Another story relates to the citizens’ love of
animals One |
| day
a man named Koaranus purchased a dolphin that had been caught by a
fisherman |
| and
returned it to the sea. Some time passed and Koaranus was on a voyage
when his |
| ship
sank, but he was saved from drowning by dolphins which carried him
to the shore. |
| Years
later when Koaranus died, as his funeral procession passed by the
harbour, a |
| shoal
of dolphins was seen to slowly follow it along.The ancient city of
Miletus was once |
| one
of western Anatolia’s most important ports, but is now stranded 10
kilometres inland. |
| |
| It
is situated south of İzmir, in the province of Aydın, 20 kilometres
north of Didyma. |
| The
theatre here is one of the best preserved in Anatolia, and once sat
twenty thousand |
| people.
The Faustina Baths are one of the largest ancient baths in Turkey.
Other ancient |
| remains
are a Hellenistic storage building, Temple of Serapis, stoa, harbour
monument, |
| Temple
of Athena, nymphaion, Temple of Dionysus, Capito Baths, heroons, and
two |
| agoras. There
are also monuments dating from mediaeval Turkish times: İlyas Bey |
| Mosque
and complex, Beylik Hamam, a kervansaray, Kırk Merdivenli Mosque,
a dervish |
| lodge,
and Pireli Han.Miletus was first settled as early as the 5th millenium
BC, and its |
| heyday
was the 5th and 6th centuries BC. In 494 BC the city was razed following
a |
| Persian
victory at the naval battle off the island of Lade (now a hill 4 kilometres
from the |
| city),
but rebuilt according to a plan designed by Hippodamus. There are
also |
| monuments
dating from mediaeval Turkish times: İlyas Bey Mosque and complex, |
| Beylik
Hamam, a kervansaray, Kırk Merdivenli Mosque, a dervish lodge, and
Pireli |
| Han.Miletus
was first settled as early as the 5th millenium BC, and its heyday
was the |
| 5th
and 6th centuries BC. In 494 BC the city was razed following a Persian
victory at |
| the
naval battle off the island of Lade (now a hill 4 kilometres from
the city), but rebuilt |
| according
to a plan designed by Hippodamus. The city retained some of its importance |
| through
Roman and Byzantine times, but as the four harbours silted up it gradually |
| declined.
The city was still inhabited under the Turkish Menteşeoğlu principality
and |
| early
Ottoman times, when it continued to trade with Venice and Genoa, but
finally it |
| wasreduced
to no more than a village, named Balat, which was abandoned entirely
in |
| 1955.A
team of German archaeologists is currently engaged in excavating Miletus, |
| whose
museum houses finds from Priene and Didyma as well as Miletus. Despite |
| its
now landlocked position, you can still sit on the tiers of seats in
the theatre and |
| watch
the sun dip into the distant sea across the alluvial plain of the
Meander. |
