- The Treasury of the Athenians, Delphi,Greece - N Sheldon
The sanctuary of Apollo at Delphi covered an area of 183 X 128 metres which was laid out over a series of terraced slopes.
People travelled through the sanctuary via the sacred way, a causeway which ran all the way up to the temple of Apollo. Along the way, they passed the other sacred monuments of the temenos such as the shrine of Gaia, and the sibylline rock.
These were not the only monuments that lined the road. For the sanctuary of Apollo was not solely dedicated to the sacred buildings of ancient Greek religion. Many of its monuments were not religious but constructed to make political statements by the Greek city states.
Pan-Hellenic Unity and the Persian Wars
Many of these monuments were built in the wake of the Persian wars, to celebrate the Pan-Hellenic unity which had helped the Greeks to victory. The remains used common mythology and motifs to emphasis the collective identity of the victorious Greeks.
An example of one of these monuments is the serpent Column. Only the stone base survives at Delphi but Pausanias describes the column as consisting of three intertwining bronze serpents coiling up a gold tripod. Each coil was inscribed with the names of the city states that defeated the Persians at the battle of Plataea in 479BC. The column was removed by the emperor Constantine to the new city of Constantinople. Today, the remains can be seen in the museum of Istanbul.
Not all of the monuments celebrating the defeat of the Persians celebrated Greek unity. The stoa of the Athenians, built in 480BC, was constructed to celebrate the Athenian’s naval victory over the Persians. It was decorated with the prows from the boats taken from the defeated Persian king Xerxes.
The Treasuries of Athens and Siphion
The treasuries of Delphi act as subtle examples of gentle one up man ship amongst the Greek city states. Shaped like small temples, the treasuries were essentially storehouses for each city’s equipment at Delphi. They were built not only by mainland cities but also Greek islands and Greek colonies from southern Italy and Asia Minor. The style and decor of the buildings were also used to make statements about how important each Greek state saw itself.
Only the foundations of most treasuries survive. But remains from two of the buildings- the Athenian and Siphion treasuries show how architecture and decoration was used to reflect the wealth and power of each polis.
- The Siphion Treasury. This treasury belonged to the small Cycladic island of Siphnos. It was built between 530-525BC at a time when the island enjoyed great wealth from its gold mines. Little survives in situ but fragments recovered by archaeologists show how Siphnos’s wealth was very clearly advertised by its treasury.
The building was ionic and constructed from Naxian and Siphnian marble, especially imported to Delphi. Its sculptural decorations were carved from Parian marble. The two porch columns were shaped like Caryatids and the pediments were covered with a sculpted frieze. The eastern pediment is very well preserved and depicts Hercules’s theft of the pythia’s tripod- a myth directly relating to Delphi and familiar to all the Greek states.
- The Athenian treasury. The Athenian treasury was built after the battle of marathon. Like many of the other treasuries, it did not survive intact but archaeologists have been able to reconstruct it in situ by matching inscriptions on the blocks of the walls.
Marathon was solely Athenian victory and the Athenian treasury at Delphi reminds all the other Greek city states of this. its sculptural reliefs, which are on display in the museum, celebrate the Athenian victory through reference to another famous mythological victory of civilisation over the barbarians-the labours of Hercules and Theseus.
After its completion, the building continued to be used to display reminders of other Athenian victories. The walls are also carved with intricate laurel wreaths and hymns to Apollo, representing Athenian victories at the Pythian Games.
Polis Monuments and the Peloponnesian War
Many other monuments on the site showed a more aggressive display of power and interstate rivalry. These monuments celebrate the victories of individual Greek cities over their rival Greek states.
Many are single monuments, such as the wooden horse of Argos which celebrated the Argive victory against Sparta in 414BC. But other monuments make a more powerful statement, deliberately overshadowing those of their defeated rivals to drive home their victory.
The most powerful example of this is at the entrance to Delphi. It was here that the Athenians built yet another commemorative monument to the victory of marathon. In 403BC it was joined by a monument celebrating a very different victory. The Spartans built the monument of the Spartan Admirals right next to the Athenian monument, overshadowing the original arrangement. The purpose was to emphasis the Spartan navel victory over their Athenian rivals at Aegospotami during the Peloponnesian war.
In 369BC, a third monument joined the group. The offering of the Arcadians was built to celebrate a victory over Sparta. It consisted of nine bronze statues: Apollo, Nike and seven Arcadian heroes, deliberately arranged around the base of the Spartan monument.
The message could not be clearer. Apollo, the patron of Delphi and Nike, the goddess of victory had helped the Arcadians defeat the Spartans. The encroachment upon the Spartan monument, as much as the reference to divine help hammered home the gloating message of the monument.
Sources
Gates, C, 2003, Ancient Cities: The Archaeology of Urban Life in the Ancient Near East and Egypt, Greece and Rome Routledge: London and New York
Konstantinou, I K, 1995, Delphi: The Oracle and its Role in the Political and Social Life of the Greeks. Athens: Hannibal.
Ingpen, R and Wilkinson, P, 1990, Encyclopaedia of Mysterious Places-The life and Legends of Ancient Sites Around the World. Guild Publishing: London
Natasha Sheldon - A writer since 2000, Natasha Sheldon holds a BA Hons in ancient history and archaeology and MA in ancient history and historiography.
