Seven Wonders Part V the Mausoleum of Mausolus at Halicarnassus

The city of Halicarnassus (present day Bodrum, Turkey) was the capitol of Caria, a small kingdom along the Mediterranean coast of Asia Minor. From 377 B.C. to 350 B.C. it was ruled by Mausolus and his queen Artemisia (who was also his sister).

When Mausolus died in 353 B.C., his body was entombed in what became known as the Maussolleion or Mausoleum at Halicarnassus. It is from the name Mausolus itself that the term mausoleum was created and associated with all tombs.

The tomb, planned by the ruler for himself was designed by the Greek architects Satyros and Pythius of Priene. After the death of Mausolus, Artemisia had work on the tomb continue. She, too, died before it was completed and was interred there as well.

The Mausoleum was made up of three parts: a square base on the bottom, 36 columns (9 on each side) in the middle, and topped by a stepped pyramid that had 24 steps. All of this was covered in ornate carvings and embellished with life-size and larger-than-life statues. At the very top was a 25-foot-high marble sculpture consisted of standing statues of both Mausolus and Artemisia riding in a chariot pulled by four horses.

Much of the Mausoleum was made out of marble and the entire structure reached 140 feet high. It was built on a hill that overlooked the city and sat on a stone platform in the center of a courtyard. Although large, the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus was known more for its ornate sculptures and carvings, most of which were painted in vibrant colors.

Five famous sculptors worked on the ornamentation of the tomb. Each sculptor had a section that they were responsible for – Bryaxis (north side), Scopas (east side), Timotheus (south side), and Leochares (west side). The chariot on top was created by Pythias. A staircase, flanked by stone lions, led to the top of the platform and statues of gods and goddesses adorned the outer wall.

Even when the city fell to Alexander the Great in 334 B.C. the Mausoleum remained undisturbed. In fact, it endured for almost 1,800 years before being destroyed by a series of earthquakes. By 1404 A.D. only the base of the Mausoleum survived.

After that much of the marble was recycled by the Crusaders, who occupied the city by then. It was used to build other buildings and reinforce the walls of the fortress they were using. In 1522 the crypt itself was raided and over time the Mausoleum was forgotten and houses were built on the site.

In the 1950s, Charles Newton, a British archaeologist, was the first to recognize that some of the decorations at Bodrum Castle (the former Crusader fortress) could have come from the Mausoleum. After extensive research and excavating, he found the site of the Mausoleum. This led to the recovery of many sections of the reliefs that had once decorated the walls and several statues, which can now be found in the British Museum in London.

The ruins are still visible today, as a protected site, in the center of the city of Bodrum. There is not much to be seen, however, as little is left but an earth pit with a few stones and column drums. A sad fate for what was once a wonder of the world.

Write It Down!

If I don't write down a thought - or an image or a line of poetry - the instant it comes to mind, it vanishes, which explains why I have pens and notebooks in my pants and coat pockets, the car, the bicycle basket, on one or two desks in every room including bathrooms and the kitchen.
— Floyd Skloot

Early Saturday afternoon I had a great idea for the title of today’s blog post, but by the time I got around to working on it I couldn’t remember what it was. It was like three words long and I couldn’t remember a single one.

It just reinforces the idea that you should keep a notebook and pen beside you at all times to write stuff down in. No matter how good you think your memory is, it’s never good enough.

The really sad part is, I was sitting in the living room when I had this brilliant idea, and I had easy access to both pens and papers, and I didn’t use any of them. It was such a short, simple idea that I figured I could easily remember it when I opened my laptop to work on my post, only I got distracted and by the time I sat down at my lap top I only vaguely remembered I even had an idea.

Honestly, with me it’s not enough to have notebooks and pens all over the house, I have to actually use them. How many brilliant ideas have been lost because I didn’t take the time to write them down?

It happens most often with blog posts. I have a bad habit of “writing” them in my head – I think about them, work out the details, and then when it comes time to sit down and physically write them my brain is an empty void of despair.

I think the worst are dreams. Dreams are such a great source of ideas, but you have to get into the habit of writing them down as soon as you wake up or they’re gone forever. Sometimes it’s like getting an idea in the shower. You just have to keep repeating it in your head until you can get to some writing materials.

I can still recall one dream I had where I was explaining to my father this idea I had for a story. It was such a good idea that when I woke up I didn’t bother writing it down. To this day I can remember my father telling me what a great idea it was for a book, but I can’t remember the idea itself.

I read an article once that said while it’s good to think about ideas and talk about them, the process of writing them down is what really lets you develop them. Once an idea is written down you can step back and look at it objectively, see ways you could develop it that weren’t obvious when it was just stuck in your head. Or you might see that it wasn’t such a great idea after all.

But you’ll never know . . . until you write it down.

* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *

Wordage Report

New Words:

Driving Into Forever (rewrite) – 1,815
Blog Posts – 1,062+496+711+1,253=3,522
Total = 5,337

DIF words were down, but I did all my blog posts so those words were up. Unfortunately, the overall total of words was down.

Editing:

TraxTime tells me I spent 7 hours and 47 minutes editing Blood Ties last week – about an hour less than the week before.

What I’m Reading:

I’ve gone from one extreme to the other with my reading. I wasn’t as close to the end of Cordina’s Crown Jewel, by Nora Roberts as I thought, and other than finishing it, I read no other tree books.

As for e-books, I finished Janaya, book two of Alien Shenanigans by Shelley Munro and have started book three, Captured & Seduced. I’m enjoying these so much I’m even sneaking in a little e-book time when I’m not on the bike.

Goals

Once again I met all my goals last week. You’d almost think I need some more challenging goals. Almost. ;-)

I had a couple of really good days editing Blood Ties, but then I got all caught up in getting those last couple of bins of kitchen stuff emptied. But the kitchen is pretty much done now, so I won't be able to use that as an excuse anymore.

It’s a good thing I like Driving Into Forever so much, otherwise I’d give up. Which would be a real shame considering I have the sequel already written. And no, I couldn’t have the sequel as a stand alone because it uses secondary characters from the first one.

This Week’s Goals

1. Keep up the good work editing
2. Work harder on Driving Into Forever
3. Keep limiting my reading time.
4. Switch up some of my gaming time to crafting instead.

Sounds like a plan to me!

Lucky Dog

My NaNo for 2012 was Lucky Dog, the second book in the Moonstone Chronicles. It seemed like a good idea at the time, and although I did reach the 50,000 word goal with it, it was a couple of years before the book was finished.

This actually started out as a series of three, connected stories about Jessica and Bandit, and I thought it might be kind of fun to take today’s excerpt from one of those stories. It’s pretty self explanatory.

The big black dog slunk forward a few steps, then crouched down, belly to the ground. He wriggled forward a few more steps and stopped. Suddenly, he burst from the underbrush, barking wildly.

"God damn it, Bandit!" Jessica struggled to get the mare she was riding under control as a flock of birds took wing almost under their noses. She turned in the saddle to glare at the dog, who hung his head, panting.

Jessica was not fooled by his abject attitude. "Look, you moron. If you pull another stunt like that I'm going to take you to the nearest dog pound and leave you there."

The dog was not much worried. He'd only been travelling with the sorceress a short time, but it was long enough for him to understand that, despite her short temper, she wouldn't abandon him casually.

Little more than two weeks ago he'd been human. For reasons that no longer seemed to matter, one dark night he set out to steal an amulet and Jessica, knowing only that some creature was disturbing her sleep, accidentally turned him into a dog.

Now they travelled together as they waited for the month it would take to pass until Jessica's magic allowed her to change him back into a man. The spell would have to be powerful. To that end they travelled to one of the many Wells that marked the land, reservoirs of vast magical power.

Jessica halted the mare on the bank of yet another river. "This must be the River Ells. I don't suppose you know a place to cross it?" She looked at the dog.

He trotted a few steps along the bank, stopped to look back over his shoulder, barked, and continued on. With a sigh Jessica turned the mare and followed.

For once she was in luck. Not only did Bandit lead her to an easy ford, but a short distance further lay an inn on the edge of a small town. It was a shabby inn, but Jessica wasn't in a mood to be picky. A ragged urchin met her in the courtyard.

"Rub her down good, and give her an extra measure of grain. I'll be in later to see the job's done right. You hear me?"

The young boy nodded and led the mare away. Jessica shook her head and sighed. Carrying the saddle-bags she entered the Inn, the dog at her heels.

The tap-room was empty. Jessica called out but there was no answer. It looked as though there had been a brawl here recently. Tables and chairs were overturned, a sword had been stuck into the ceiling, a pile of wood near the fireplace gave the impression of once being furniture and, if she was not mistaken, that dark pool beside it was blood.

"Looks like a real fun place," Jessica commented. "Hello? Anyone here?"

"Keep yer shirt on, I'm comin'." The surly voice seemed to come from a back room.

Jessica leaned against the counter, the dog sat close to her feet. After a few minutes a woman came out. Jessica couldn't help staring at her. She had to be well over six feet tall, and at least 250 pounds. She had long greasy hair held back by a leather cord and she was holding a meat cleaver.

"What'd ya want?"

"A room, if there's one habitable," Jessica replied, eyeing the meat cleaver.

"There be a common room, if yer travellin' alone."

"A private one," Jessica said firmly. "And a tub filled with hot water, and whatever you've got to eat that's hot." She waved a gold piece under the woman's nose.

The sight of money transformed the woman. "O course. Our very best Right away," she turned. "Ginny! Git out here!"

A thinner, younger version of the first woman came hurrying out, obviously a daughter.

"You get Thomas 'n move the brass tub to the first room. Clean it and fill it with water Mind it's hot now. Move girl!"

"Yes'm," Ginny replied. Without looking at Jessica she scurried away.

"This way M'Lady."

The room was small and smelled of dust and old sweat. Still, the bed looked soft and inviting. Jessica hoped it wasn't too badly infested with bugs. The woman bustled through the room, brushing imaginary wrinkles from the coverlet, giving the top of the wash stand a quick dusting off and opening the small window to let in a fresh, albeit cool, breeze.

"Will ye be wantin' the critter taken to the stable?"

"What?" Jessica had forgotten the dog. "No, you can leave him here, for now."

"I'll see to yer meal then. And if there's anything ye be needin', ye've only to ask for Hanah," she indicated herself with a jerk of her thumb.

"What do you think?" Jessica asked, after Hanah left.

The dog looked at the door and growled.

"I don't trust her either. But there's a good bolt on the door and one on the window. And it doesn't take much power to make them impenetrable."

"Just don't forget to make an allowance for you and your friend," said a disembodied voice.

Bandit yelped, then snarled. Jessica pulled a milk-white amulet free of her blouse.

"What's up, Howard?"

"I haven't heard from you all day. I got worried," replied the voice belonging to Howard. The rest of him resided on another plane of existence. It was his power surge that accidentally sent Jessica to this plane. The amulet was their link, allowing Howard to offer his assistance to Jessica until a way could be found to bring her home.

"You worry too much," Jessica told him. "We crossed a river and found an inn. I'm just this side of my first real bath since I left Castle Ghren. End of story."

"No need to get testy," said Howard in a tone of mild reproof.

A knock on the door ended the conversation abruptly. Thomas, who also looked like Hanah, brought the brass tub in, closely followed by Ginny, who was carrying two steaming buckets from a shoulder yolk. They stared oddly at Jessica, she wondered how long they'd been listening at the door.

It took four trips to fill the tub. Jessica's chestnut hair was pinned up on her head, her boots off and she was just starting on the buttons to her blouse when she remembered the dog.

Too big to fit under the bed he was sitting as unobtrusively as possible in a corner by the door.

"Out, right now," she told him. "And don't get into any trouble or you're on your own." The dog sulked his way out of the room. Jessica waited until the door was closed behind him then grinned. He was, after all, only human.

Seven Wonders Part IV – the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus

I have seen the walls and Hanging Gardens of ancient Babylon, the statue of Olympian Zeus, the Colossus of Rhodes, the mighty work of the high Pyramids and the tomb of Mausolus. But when I saw the temple at Ephesus rising to the clouds, all these other wonders were put in the shade.
— Philon of Byzantium

Artemis was the Greek goddess of the hunt, the wilderness, wild animals, the Moon, and chastity. She was the twin sister of Apollo. Though she was worshipped widely throughout Greece, it seemed she had some trouble keeping a place of worship.

The first shrine to the goddess Artemis was probably built around 800 B.C. on a marshy strip near the river at Ephesus. The shrine was destroyed and rebuilt several times over the next few hundred years. By 600 B.C., the city of Ephesus had become a major port of trade and an architect named Chersiphron was engaged to build a new, large, temple.

This temple didn't last long. In 550 B.C. King Croesus of Lydia conquered Ephesus. During the fighting, the temple was destroyed. Croesus proved himself a gracious winner though, by contributing generously to the building of a new temple.

The new temple was the pride of Ephesus until 356 B.C. when it was burned to the ground by Herostratus, who did this so that his name would go down in history. Shortly after this infamous deed, a new temple was commissioned.

The architect was Scopas of Paros, one of the most famous sculptors of his day. Ephesus was one of the greatest cities in Asia Minor at this point and no expense was spared in the construction. The temple was built in the same marshy place as before. To prepare the ground, Piny recorded that "layers of trodden charcoal were placed beneath, with fleeces covered with wool upon the top of them."

The building is thought to be the first completely constructed with marble and one of its most unusual features were 36 columns whose lower portions were carved with figures in high-relief.

The temple also housed many works of art including four bronze statues of Amazon women. Piny recorded the length of this new temple at 425 feet and the width at 225 feet. Some 127 columns, 60 feet in height, supported the roof. In comparison the Parthenon, the remains of which stand on the acropolis in Athens today, was only 230 feet long, 100 feet wide and had 58 columns. According to Piny, construction took 120 years, though some experts suspect it may have only taken half that time.

This Temple of Artemis was destroyed in A.D. 262 during a raid by the Goths. By this time both the religion of Artemis and the city of Ephesus were in decline. The bay where trading ships docked disappeared as silt from the river filled it. Many of the inhabitants of the city moved away to the surrounding hills; those that remained used the ruins of the temple as a source of building materials.

In 1863 the British Museum sent John Turtle Wood, an architect, to search for the temple. He searched for six years. Each year the British Museum threatened to cut off his funding unless he found something significant, and each year he convinced them to fund him for just one more season.

Finally in 1869, at the bottom of a muddy twenty-foot deep test pit, his crew struck the base of the great temple. Wood then excavated the whole foundation removing 132,000 cubic yards of the swamp to leave a hole some 300 feet wide and 500 feet long. The remains of some of the sculptured portions were found and shipped to the British Museum.

In 1904 another British Museum expedition, under the leadership of D.G. Hograth, continued the excavation. Hograth found evidence of five temples on the site, each constructed on top of the other.

Today the site of the temple is a marshy field. A single column is erect to remind visitors that once there stood in that place one of the wonders of the ancient world.

Insert Witty Post Title Here

I’m pretty late with this post today. I know you know this already, but I felt obligated to point this out.

I’m not sure if my excuse reason is a good one or not, I’ll let you be the judge of that, but if you need to blame someone you can blame Giant Tiger.

Like a lot of people during the pandemic lock downs, I’ve been doing a lot of shopping online. I don’t know about you, but I find online shopping can be a bit of a crap shoot.

It’s not a problem at places like Staples (for office supplies), Old Navy (for clothes), or Walmart (for a whole lot of things), but it’s a little chancy to stray from the straight and narrow, venturing into the unknown.

For example: a few years ago I saw an advertisement on Facebook for a website selling quilts with dragonflies on them. I love dragons and dragonflies. I went to the site, debated for ages, finally settled on the $50 quilt I liked best, and ordered it. I never got it.

Then there are the clothes. This is where you are really taking a chance, not so much with receiving your order, but the sizing. Some clothes fit fine, but in my experience most fit too small. I’ve only had one tee-shirt fit way too big, but I was able to fix it. And you really need to stay on top of what they’re made out of.

And pictures can be deceiving. I found one website that had some really cool tee-shirts – both long and short sleeved. The ones I ordered fit, which was nice, but two of them were made out of a nylon/polyester which I really didn’t care for. One of them I made into a pillow for my office, and the other is still sitting folded up on my dresser.

Anyway, back to my excuse reason for this post being late.

Our lock-down has finally been lifted, which means we can cautiously shop in-store again. I had to go out yesterday for kitty litter, and it was such a nice day I decided to indulge in a little shopping therapy, namely Giant Tiger because I like their clothes and it’s been a long time since I’ve been there.

Now here’s the thing. I told myself if I spent less than $50 I could treat myself to this velvet patchwork coat I saw advertised on Facebook. Well, I saw one pair of pants I really liked, but they didn’t have my size. So for the first time I can remember, I came away from Giant Tiger with nothing. Velvet coat, here I come!

I waited until after supper, then went online and first ordered my pants from Giant Tiger because I really, really liked them, and then I went to order my coat. There was only one teeny, tiny little problem. I did not bookmark the site where the coat was and I couldn’t remember the name of it. And wouldn’t you know it, I filled out that stupid survey FB had up earlier in the week where I told it I hated all the advertisements in my newsfeed, so when I went on FB there were no ads!

Off to the side in the right hand column there were two ads, and that was it. So I’m being a little vocal in my displeasure and I try and do a Google search for my coat and all I can find is a picture of it someone pinned, but not a source for the picture. I tried searching on FB, and when I went back to my newsfeed my ads were back. So then I spent the next three hours scrolling down my feed looking for that ad.

I did eventually find the right site, ordered my coat, and all is right with the world. Except for the fact that by the time I was done it was time for bed.

And the ads are back in my newsfeed.

* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *

Wordage Report

New Words:

Driving Into Forever (rewrite) – 3,459
Blog Posts – 750+0+565+1,479=2,794
Total = 6,253

I found it interesting that despite the fact I skipped Monday’s post, I was actually one word higher on the blog posts last week. Probably had something to do with the length of my Fiction Friday excerpt.

Editing:

The TraxTime program tells me I spent 8 hours and 43 minutes editing Blood Ties last week – about three hours more than the week before.

What I’m Reading:

I’ve managed to keep to a moderate pace reading last week, Irish Rebel, and Cordina’s Crown Jewel, by Nora Roberts. Can it be I’m finding my balance?

As for e-books, I’m just about finished Snared by Saber, book one of Alien Shenanigans by Shelley Munro and should be starting Janaya this week. Snared by Saber confused me a little at first because Saber was the main character in My Scarlet Woman, what’s he doing in space? But it’s explained fairly early on and makes perfect sense.

Goals

Looks like I met all my goals last week, unless you count missing Monday’s post a failure. Honestly, I just didn’t have anything to say.

I did more editing on Blood Ties than I thought I did, and I feel like I made actual progress. Of course the first half was better written (meaning less editing) than the second half, and I’m not to the halfway point yet.

Who’s bright idea was it to rewrite Driving Into Forever instead of just starting over from scratch. Oh, right. That would be me. This is one of those cases where it’s dangerous to fall in love with your own writing. I still think the well done parts out number the not well done parts, but sometimes it’s still a bit of a struggle. I can only hope it gets easier.

This Week’s Goals

1. Keep up the good work editing
2. Keep working on Driving Into Forever
3. Keep limiting my reading time.

Think I can manage three weeks in a row? Guess we’ll see.

Fire and Ice

My 2011 NaNo novel was a futuristic and somewhat erotic adventure romance involving an erotic romance writer, an undercover law enforcement agent, and the head of a drug and sex-trade cartel. Maybe the amount of sex in it is the reason it topped out at 55,333 words – the most of any of my NaNo books to date. ;-)

This excerpt needs a little setting up. Our hero, Benedict, is working undercover to bring down Viktor, drug lord and criminal kingpin who’s also into the sex trades. Viktor becomes obsessed with an erotica writer, Alexis St. James, to the point where he sends Benedict in a temporal ship to bring her to him, by any means necessary.

Turns out there was a slight glitch in the temporal programming and Benedict is about to find out Alexis St. James is not exactly what Viktor is expecting. She’s not what Benedict was expecting either, having unknowingly had an encounter with her in a bar during a 60th birthday party the night before this scene.

Lexi was enjoying a late morning drink on her deck. She loved the summer months and hated to waste any day as beautiful as this one. Of course after last night the drink was a pitcher of iced tea – home made, thank you very much; none of that packaged stuff for her. She even had a couple of extra glasses in case someone stopped by, which happened more often than not.

She smiled, thinking back to her birthday party. It was a party to remember all right. Her smiled widened as she recalled the stranger, and his kiss. Talk about memorable! For a while there he’d made her forget just how old she was. If she’d been twenty years younger she’d have been all over him like white on rice. Hell, even if she’d been ten years younger.

As if her thoughts had conjured him, she heard a voice from in front of the house. That couldn’t really be him . . . could it? She took a quick sip of her drink as her mouth went dry. Ignoring her heart rate, which sped up in anticipation, she put her feet up on the deck railing in an effort to look casual.

She called out in reply to his hail and realized two things at once – she wasn’t wearing any underwear, and she wanted him more than anything she’d ever wanted in her life.


Benedict wasn’t sure if that muffled noise was a voice, but encouraged, he repeated, “Hello?”

“Around the back,” came the faint reply.

Sighing with relief, Benedict started around the house. The back opened to a spectacular view of the lake. There was a wide deck running the width of the back of the house, and a figure was sitting with their feet up on the rails.

“Miss Saint James?” he asked. “I—”

The woman looked up and his voice failed him. “You!” It was the woman from the bar last night. Desire slammed into him like a fist. “You’re Alexis St. James?”

“That I am,” she said readily. “And you are?”

“Alexis St. James the writer?”

“No, that would be me.” He was kind of cute, the way he stood there gaping at her. She decided to cut him a little slack. “My friends call me Lexi.”

“You wrote the Dungeon Mistress, and Come On Command?”

Lexi sighed. How very disappointing. He seemed so nice last night and now it turned out he was one of those misguided, pervert fans who’d just had his fantasy of her collapse around him. Damn, this is what she got for having such lustful thoughts about such a young man. He must have really been into those stupid books to be looking so ill.

“Why don’t you have a seat,” she invited. “You don’t look so good.”

Numbly, Benedict took the seat she waved him to. This was not good. This was not good at all. Viktor would be expecting a nubile young woman, not this mature, composed lady. Now what was he supposed to do?

“Would you care for some iced tea?” He just sat there, staring at her, looking very pale in the natural light. She poured him a glass and held it out to him. He took it without a word and just sat there, holding it.

“I’m sorry if you’re disappointed . . . ” she began.

That shook him out of his stupor. “What? No! No, I’m not disappointed, just surprised, that’s all.”

“The truth is, I wrote those books a long time ago, when I was young, and stupid, and needed the money badly. It’s just the last few years there’s been a jump in the erotica market and my publisher decided to re-release my early work.”

She had no idea why she was explaining herself to him, nor why she had invited him to sit down. Normally she made short shrift of fans like him and sent them on their way with an autographed copy of one of her books. She must still be hung over from last night.

To be perfectly honest, she was against the idea of re-releasing her erotic books, but money was money and her agent had pushed for it. She put her foot down when it came to changing the name on the cover though. Alexis was the writer of erotica; Lexi St. James wrote more respectable romance. She wouldn’t even let them update the picture on the back cover. The poor boy sitting beside her must be terribly disappointed.

“So these books were actually written years ago and just re-published recently? That explains a lot,” he muttered to himself.

“And in case you’re wondering,” she said with a hint of asperity, “I am, or was, nothing like the women in those books, even in my younger days.”

“What? I mean, you’re not?”

“My sex life was never close to as interesting as my heroines. A lot of the stuff in those books is all made up. Some of it may not even be possible.”

“This is not good at all,” he muttered under his breath.

“Sorry to disappoint you son.”

“I’m not disappointed,” he told her honestly. “The truth is, I’m rather relieved. I’m just worried about how my employer is going to take it. The picture on the back of your books . . .”

“That was me, all right. About thirty-five years ago.”

Damn. Viktor was not going to like this at all. But what choice did he have with that damnable cerebral chip in his head.

“I’ve come a long way to meet you,” Benedict said, gathering his scattered wits.

“Is that a fact?”

“Yes ma’am. My employer—”

“I don’t care how far you’ve come,” she said, eyes narrowed. “If you ‘ma’am’ me again I’ll be dumping this pitcher of iced tea over your head.”

“Sorry, Miss St. James. My employer—”

She sighed. “You’d better call me Lexi.”

“Lexi,” he repeated. She hadn’t lost any of her attraction in the harsh light of day. Suddenly, he didn’t mind the trip ahead nearly as much as he had. He smiled suddenly. “It suits you.”

“Thank you. And you are?”

He flushed slightly. “I’m sorry, my name is Benedict. I’m here on behalf of my employer who wishes to meet you and—”

“No.”

“I beg your pardon?”

“Sweetie, you can beg anything you want, but the answer is still no.” Her booted feet came down off the rail with a thump and she picked up the tray that the pitcher of iced tea and the glasses had been sitting on.

Damn, she was every bit as attracted to him today as she had been last night. That kiss had stayed with her through the rest of the party. She’d gone to bed thinking about him, mostly about him naked, in bed with her. For her own peace of mind she needed to get rid of him as quickly as possible, before she did something incredibly stupid.

Annoyed, he followed as she carried the tray back into her house. “How can you say no? I haven’t even asked you anything yet.”

“You don’t need to. I don’t do interviews and I don’t go off with strange men I don’t know, no matter how gorgeous they are, and I especially don’t go off with strange men to meet even stranger fans.”

“But I—” he stopped mid-sentence and grinned suddenly. “You think I’m gorgeous?”

Lexi rolled her eyes. Clearly this one needed a poke in the ego. “It was a slip of the tongue.” Damn but she’d love to give him a slip of her tongue – all over his body. Getting a hold of herself, she set the tray down on the kitchen counter and turned around. He was right there behind her, invading her space. Lexi swallowed hard.

Seven Wonders Part III - the Statue of Zeus at Olympia

When the Temple of Zeus was completed at Olympia in 456 B.C., it was considered too simple to be worthy of the king of the gods. A statue of Zeus was commissioned from a sculptor named Phidias, already famous for his forty-foot high statue of the goddess Athena. It took him 12 years but the project was completed by 435 B.C.

The figure's skin was composed of ivory and the beard, hair and robe of gold. Construction was by a technique known as chryselephantine, where gold-plated bronze and ivory sections were attached to a wooden frame. Because the weather in Olympia was so damp, the statue required care so that the humidity would not crack the ivory. It is said that for centuries the descendents of Phidias held the responsibility for this maintenance. To keep it in good shape the statue was constantly treated with olive oil kept in a special reservoir, which also served as a reflecting pool, in the floor of the temple. Light reflecting off the pool from the doorway may also have had the effect of illuminating the statue.

Besides the statue, there was little inside the temple. The Greeks preferred the interior of their shrines to be simple. The seated statue was 12 meters (43 feet) tall, and occupied half of the width of the aisle of the temple built to house it. "It seems that if Zeus were to stand up," geographer Strabo noted early in the 1st century BC, "he would unroof the temple."

The god sits on a throne, and he is made of gold and ivory. On his head lies a garland which is a copy of olive shoots. In his right hand he carries a Victory [Nike], which, like the statue, is of ivory and gold; she wears a ribbon and—on her head—a garland. In the left hand of the god is a sceptre, ornamented with every kind of metal, and the bird sitting on the sceptre is the eagle. The sandals also of the god are of gold, as is likewise his robe. On the robe are embroidered figures of animals and the flowers of the lily. The throne is adorned with gold and with jewels, to say nothing of ebony and ivory. Upon it are painted figures and wrought images.
Pausanias, Description of Greece, Book 5, Ch. 11

No copy in marble or bronze has survived, though there are recognizable but approximate versions on coins of nearby Elis and on Roman coins to give researchers clues about its appearance.

The Roman Emperor Caligula decreed that all such statues of gods were to be brought to Rome so that the heads could be removed and his own put in their place. The scaffolding attached to the statue collapsed, accompanied by, according to legend, a loud laughing noise. Shortly after this Caligula was assassinated (41 A.D.).

In 391 A.D. Roman Emperor Theodosius I banned the worship of the pagan gods and ordered the temples closed. The Olympia temple fell into disrepair and was eventually brought down by earthquakes.

The fate of the statue of Zeus is largely unknown. Some believe it was carried off to Constantinople where it was destroyed in a fire in 475 A.D. Others believe it was destroyed by earthquakes and fire along with the temple that housed it.