Classical Greece 4: Panhellenic Sanctuaries

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Classical Greece 4 Panhellenic Sanctuaries

• CNE/ART 354
• 3/28/06

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Panhellenic Sanctuaries

• Standard Features
• Temple to deity (often a later feature)
• Theater
• Stadium
• Treasures
• Function places for poleis to advertise and
  display themselves, to construct their identities
  for other poleis.

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Delphi
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Delphi

• On the south side of Mt. Parnassos
• Nearly 1900 feet above sea level
• Polis the size of a village
• Held the most famous Greek oracle
• First traces of cult here date around 1500 BCE,
  when the goddess Gaia was worshipped here.
• By 8th c., god Apollo had taken over.
• Oracle of Apollo most powerful from 8th-4th c.,
  the main spiritual center of Greece.

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Delphi, Continued

• Boundaries of the sanctuary enclosed a roughly
  rectangular area 430 x 600 ft.
• Had only one major temple, in the center of the
  sanctuary (rebuilt a number of times).
• Famous sacred way led to the oracular sanctuary,
  which housed the temple of Apollo. Pythia delived
  gods oracles there.
• Pythia first a maiden from Delphi, then a
  married woman at least 50 years old.

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Oracles

• Delivered on the 7th day of each month.
• Special consultations could be had daily, if the
  omens were good.
• Festival at Delphi originated primarily as an
  artistic competition and celebration (as befits
  the god of song and poetry). Athletic events were
  added later, such as those held at Olympia.
• Pythian Games were held every 4 years, in the 3rd
  year of each Olympiad.

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Treasuries

• Had more than Olympia.
• Poleis built them to show off wealth and booty.
• Cluster around the first turn of the Sacred Way
  include Thebans, Athenians, Sicyonians,
  Siphnians, Corinthians, Syracusans, Cnidians
  (Asia Minor), Rhodians.

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Treasuries of the Athenians Siphnians

• The buildings were votive offerings themselves,
  and held the spoils of war. Athenian one
  dedicated after Battle of Marathon.
• Competitive emulation was a striking feature of
  the ancient Greek world.

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Votives from War

• Helmet of Miltiades
• Helmet of Persian warrior

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Function of Sanctuaries

• Symbols of state achievement and identity to be
  noted and copied.
• Contexts for controlled expression of inter-state
  rivalries.
• Earliest treasures at Delphi and Olympia built
  by western colonies and states located in the
  Isthmus area.
• Wanted to reinforce their socio-political
  identity by reference to the cult of their
  mother-city, while emphazing their practical
  independence.

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The Sacred Way

• Packed with art
• At least 100 statues lined the 1st 35 meters
• Votive offerings of marble, bronze, ivory, gold,
  silver
• Commemorated the victories of the Greeks over
  barbarians, and Greeks over Greeks.
• Stoa of the Athenians held flax cables taken
  from the bridge that Xerxes threw over the
  Hellespont on his way to fight the Greeks in
  480/479.

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Stoa of the Athenians
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Temple of Apollo

• Polygonal support wall (very expensive, luxury
  item). Built after destruction of temple in 548,
  to support terrace for new temple.
• Covered with over 700 inscriptions recording
  slave emancipations (contracts of the slaves sold
  to the gods, who freed them).
• In order to gain freedom, slaves often had to
  provide 1-2 slaves to take their place, either by
  giving birth to them, or purchasing them.

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6 Temples of Apollo (3 mythical, 3 historical)

• 1st laurel branches
• 2nd wax and feathers (made by bees) the Pythia
  is called melissa, the bee.
• 3rd bronze
• 4th mudbrick/ wood (burnt down in 548)
• 5th Archaic temple (6 x 15 plan), marble
  pediments, built by Athenian family, the
  Alkmaionidai (exiled at the time) funds were
  contributed from all over the Greek world, and
  even from Egypt. 190 ft. x 72 ft. Ruined by
  earthquake in 373, rebuilt.
• 6th final temple, completed in 330. Stone
  columns, temple entered by ramp, metopes without
  sculpture.

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Delphi Charioteer

• Bronze original statue, gift from a Sicilian
  Greek, Polyzalos, tyrant of Gela
• In thanks for and in honor of his victory in the
  chariot race in 478 or 474.
• Nearly 6 feet tall, originally part of a group of
  horses, chariot, charioteer, groom.
• Cast in 8 pieces head in 2, body in 2, 4 limbs.
  Eyes inlaid with stone and glass, copper added to
  lips, silver on headband.

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Theater

• Built in the 4th century, later restored and
  refurbished in the 2nd c. BCE by Eumenes of
  Pergamon.
• Inscriptions on the theater walls are more slave
  emancipations.
• Theater seated 5,000.

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Stadium

• Best preserved stadium in Greece.
• Stone seating dates from Roman times.
• Herodes Atticus refitted the stadium in the 2nd
  c. CE with seats of local rock.
• Held about 7,000 people.
• Track 178 m long
• In the 5th c., there was an earlier stadium here,
  where footraces were held.
• Horse races were held down in the valley. Havent
  found the Hippodrome yet.

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Sanctuary of Athena Pronaos

• 1st cult remains at Delphi were found in this
  area, Mycenaean female clay figurines.
• 6 monuments oriented to the S because of the
  shape of the terrace.
• Stone (tufa) Doric Temple of Athena (6 x 12
  columns), built c. 500 on the site of a 7th c.
  temple erected over the Mycenaean sanctuary. In
  ruins by Pausanias time.
• The French (1890-1905) excavated, restoring 15
  columns destroyed by earthquake (huge boulder
  landed right in the middle of the restored
  temple).

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Sanctuary of Athena Pronaos

• Doric Treasury (c. 480)
• Aeolic Treasury, both marble and decorated with
  sculpture.
• Tholos (400-380) has 20 Doric columns on the
  outside, 9 Corinthian columns on the inside (one
  of the first buildings we have that uses this
  order on the inside).
• This area is now called the Marmaria (marble
  quarry) - gives you an idea of what happened to
  most of the marble buildings here.

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Gymnasium

• Built in 4th century
• 2 practice tracks
• Bath complex

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Delphi Oracle

• After the death of Alexander the Great, the
  oracle lost power.
• In 86 BCE, the Roman dictator Sulla seized many
  of the sanctuarys votive offerings and the
  sacred flame was put out.
• The santuary revived several times after this,
  until in CE 394 Theodosius abolished both the
  cult and the games.

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Mausolos

• Around 408, we can see the spread of a veneer of
  Greek culture inland on Asia Minor.
• In Delphi, statues are dedicated of Mausolos and
  his wife Artemisia, satrap in Caria for the
  Persian empire.
• He died in 353 made arrangements for a huge
  funerary monument.

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Halikarnassos
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Artemisia (?) Female Figure from Mausoleion
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Mausoleion

• In Halikarnassos.
• Commissioned Greek architects and sculptors.
• Described as one of the 7 wonders of the world
  (Vitruvius 2.8-11).
• 150 ft. high, 41.5 yards at the base.
• Square base, pyramid shaped roof, quadriga at top.

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Friezes

• 2 continuous friezes
• Subjects
• Lapiths vs. Centaurs
• Greeks vs. Amazons
• (like the Parthenon!)
• This barbarian ruler has adopted Greek culture
  showing how prestigious it had become.

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Amazonomachy Herakles
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Mausoleion Another Reconstruction
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Another Reconstruction
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Horse from Quadriga
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Nereid Monument

• Lykian, 390-380.
• Tomb has Ionic columns, a continuous frieze, no
  architrave.
• Below the columns are two continous friezes and
  pedimental sculpture (c. 400) which features wet
  look Nereids.
• One frieze shows Greek warriors storming a city
  (mythological or historical event?).

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Frieze Segment, 4.2 ft long
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Nereid Monument Tomb Occupant?
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Nereid Statue (140 cm tall)
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Olympia
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Olympia Plan
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Sanctuary
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Geometric Votives
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Geometric Votives
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Olympia

• Most ancient and prestigious site of panhellenic
  games
• Main feature great ash altar of Zeus
• Sacred area the Altis
• Earliest temple of Hera, in 600 BCE.
• Large temple of Zeus begun in 470, completed in
  447.

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Altar of Zeus

• Not much remains of this.
• Pausanias tells us that there was an animal
  sacrifice on the altar daily.

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Temple of Hera Plan
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Temple of Hera Today
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Temple of Zeus, Olympia Plan (top), Parthenon
(bottom)
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Temple of Zeus
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Temple of Zeus

• Architect Libon of Elis (470-450) Doric order.
• Limestone (mostly), stuccoed with white plaster.
• Contained chryselephantine statue of Zeus made by
  Pheidias after 438. Wooden matrix with gold/ivory
  decoration.
• Basin of oil in front kept ivory in good (moist)
  condition.
• Depicted Zeus sitting down, stood about 40 feet
  high. Removed to Constantinople before a great
  earthquake destroyed the temple but was
  destroyed by fire in the later 5th c. CE.

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Chryselephantine Zeus Athena
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Zeus in Color

• Quintilian describes the statue.
• Many representations of it on coinage.

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Pheidias Workshop

• In a building nearby the temple, which duplicates
  the interior of the temple, excavators found a
  cup inscribed I am Pheidias.
• His workshop.

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Pheidias Workshop
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Interior of Workshop
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Temple Decorations

• None of the external metopes were decorated no
  frieze.
• Eyes were drawn to the pedimental sculpture (c.
  460).

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East Pediment

• Subject preparations for the chariot race
  between Oinomaos and Pelops (long worshipped at
  Olympia) Zeus to be judge.
• Figures depict movement.
• Garments used to reveal the body.
• Chariots missing (bronze originally?).
• The figure of the seated seer is one of the first
  Greek sculptures to indicate emotion in facial
  expression, rather than just gesture.

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West Pediment

• Subject battle between the Lapiths and the
  Centaurs at Peirithoos wedding.
• The battle rages as we watch.
• Popular metaphor for the victory of civilization
  (Greeks, West) over barbarism (the others,
  East).
• Sculptures show a lot of motion and emotion in
  pose and facial expression.
• Lapiths maintain calm expressions to show their
  superiority.

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