Heróstrato

This name derives from the Ancient Greek “Hēróstratos (Ἡρόστρᾰτος),” composed of two elements: “Hḗrā ‎(Ἥρᾱ)” (Hera, the planet Venus) plus “stratós (στρατός)” (army, military force). In turn, the name means “the army of Hera.” Herostratus was a 4th-century BC Greek arsonist, who sought notoriety by destroying the second Temple of Artemis in Ephesus (on the outskirts of present-day Selçuk). Archeological evidence indicates the Temple of Artemis’s site at Ephesus had been of sacred use since the Bronze Age, and the original building was destroyed during a flood in the 7th-century BC.