Treasuries and the
gifts they house
Thêsauroi or Treasure
Houses
Any place or building where the
currency,items of high value, or gifts to the
gods are kept.
 Dedications, set up by individual or
community, were to celebrate victories,
pay a vow or a fine, express gratitude for
success or safety, and advertise a donor.
 When on display, a small gift from an
individual becomes a nationalized gift
and serves to produce a better
relationship with the gods.
Characteristics of
Treasuries
 Extraterritorial dedications: Built far away from the cities which
commissioned them (Athenians and Siphnians as acting
patrons).
 Retain a special link with the cities that built them: they house
votive offerings of the citizenry.
 Built by states, not by clans or individuals (unless a tyrant): All
citizens become collective dedicates.
 Building materials could possess the native stone from the
location of the treasury or could be imported from the
commissioning city at a great cost.
Treasuries And Delphi
 The Athenian Treasury, currently restored,
was originally built around 500 B.C. to
display stolen goods from the Battle of
Marathon.
 City-states around Delphi erected
treasuries in order to house gifts given to
Apollo in appreciation for his oracles and
for other assistance given.
 The Siphnian Treasury, established around
525 B.C., used caryatids as supports
offering greater decoration.
Siphnian Treasury caryatid
Dedications
 Statues were the earliest type of gift but quickly
crowded the more popular treasuries.
 Votive offerings made of painted wood or
terracotta were given by the poor.
 Reliefs became used on the buildings,
themselves, as they proved to vary in size and
quality and were less expensive.
Charioteer of Delphi
Dedicated by
Polyzalos in the
Sanctuary of Apollo
Bronze, c.a. 470 B.C.
Archeological
Museum, Delphi