On the night of Alexander’s birth, tradition alleged, the temple of Artemis was burnt down. The local Persian Magi interpreted this as an omen of further disasters to come. They ‘ran about beating their faces and crying aloud that woe and great calamity for Asia had that day been born’, a firebrand that was destined to destroy the entire East. T Peter Green, Alexander of Macedon, Penguin. *Aristander of Telmessus (in Caria) was Alexander's favorite seer.

Herostratus was a young man who set fire to the Temple of Artemis in Ephesus (currently in the territory of Turkey) in his quest for fame on July 21, 356 BC.

The Temple of Artemis in Ephesus was built of marble, and was considered the most beautiful of some thirty shrines built by the Greeks to honor Artemis, cognate to the Roman Diana. The temple was completed about 550 BC, and was one of the Seven Wonders of the World. The Temple of Artemis was twice as large as the famous Parthenon in Athens, measuring 377 feet (115 meters) long and 180 feet (55 meters) wide.

Far from attempting to evade responsibility for this act of arson, Herostratus proudly claimed credit in order to secure his place in history. In order to dissuade similar-minded fame-seekers, the authorities, as well as executing Herostratus, decided to condemn him to a legacy of obscurity by forbidding mention of his name under the penalty of death. This harsh stipulation apparently did not preclude Herostratus from achieving his goal. The name of Herostratus has lived on in classic literature, and evolved into modern languages. In German, for example, "Herostrat" is an individual in constant pursuit of fame. The English term Herostratic fame, likewise, relates to Herostratus.

Jean-Paul Sartre wrote a short story, "Erostratus", as part of his 1939 collection Le mur (The Wall), which is a 20th-century version of the tale. In the story, a man plans to commit a crime of seemingly random violence as a means of achieving fame; however, things do not go exactly according to his plan.

Modern Herostratus

Mark David Chapman ( murdered former Beatle John Lennon in 1980)

Brian Chase (Wikipedia hoaxer)

Herostratus dilema

Is better to be an average person and "just go with the flow" to be passive, or is it better to be Herostratus, because to become Herostratus one has to use the huge power of will(more than the average person) to kill someone (as in Sartre story) or to burn the temple. In short: is it better to be good and do nothing, or to be evil and do something?