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Course: Ancient Mediterranean + Europe > Unit 6
Lesson 3: Daedalic and Archaic- Tiny Timelines: Archaic Greece in a global context
- Kouroi and Korai, an introduction
- Lady of Auxerre
- Bronze helmet donated by Olympic gold medalist Son Gijeong
- New York Kouros
- New York Kouros
- Marble Statue of a kouros
- Anavysos Kouros
- Anavysos Kouros
- Anavysos Kouros
- The Kouroi of Kleobis and Biton
- Peplos Kore from the Acropolis
- Peplos Kore
- Ancient Greek temples at Paestum, Italy
- Sanctuary of Apollo at Delphi
- Siphnian Treasury, Delphi
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Siphnian Treasury, Delphi
Pediment and Frieze of the Siphnian Treasury at the Sanctuary of Apollo at Delphi, c. 530 B.C.E. Speakers: Dr. Beth Harris and Dr. Steven Zucker. Created by Beth Harris and Steven Zucker.
Want to join the conversation?
- Given that all the different regions of Greece would have been sending abundant wealth to this area, I would have to imagine that the Persians or others would have wanted to rob Delphi. Who was protecting it? Since it was "paid for" by the wealth of many Greek regions (Pan-Hellenic), did they all pitch in to protect it or pay guards to protect it? Obviously it was raided eventually, over the eons, but I mean specifically in the hey-day of Delphi and the functioning of the treasuries.(11 votes)
- The regions probably had a representative there to protect all of the treasures and keep it in place.(1 vote)
- Why are the Giants not at all giant but rather the same size or even ever so slightly smaller than the gods?(4 votes)
- The belief is that gods have the power to be anything, they can grow to any size.(5 votes)
- Looking at the video I noticed that quite every rapresentation of Zeus and also Poseidon were lost. Maybe it is a coincidence, but could it be possible that these figures, because of their importance, was adorned with gold or silver and therefore they have been uprooted and looted?
Sorry for my bad english, I'm italian...(6 votes) - Is/was there anything of note on the west pediment or the south frieze?(2 votes)
- How long did the Greeks inhabit the Sanctuary at Delphi? What happened to all of the lavish items in the treasuries when they left?(2 votes)
- At1:09in the video it looks as if the temple is Photo-shopped into the picture as you go up the sacred path. It definitely is.(1 vote)
- From the author:Yes, that is why we added the word, "reconstruction" in the video.(3 votes)
- what happened to the treasury of siphnian over time and where is it now?(1 vote)
- It appears that pieces of the treasury still exist, the treasure probably got spent or looted.(1 vote)
- Why are the gods fighting the giants and why did they put the fighting on the treasury?(1 vote)
- Is it Herakles or Hercules?(1 vote)
- It is both! One is more "Greek" and the other more "Roman", but they're the same guy.(1 vote)
- Were these sculptures painted? If so, do we have any idea of what they originally looked like? What materials were used to paint it?(1 vote)
- Yes, the sculptures were painted before, but it is all flaked away now. We only can see the stains of the paint in some areas. For the paint the ancient Greeks probably mashed up some fruits and used that as paint.(1 vote)
Video transcript
(piano music) - [Voiceover] One of the
most prominent buildings in the sanctuary at Delphi,
the Panhellenic Sanctuary, was the, in treasury. This is a small building
meant to house treasure that was dedicated to the god, Apollo, who's sanctuary this was. - [Voiceover] Now, the Siphnians
came from a small island in the south Aegean, and
they could afford to do this because they had both
silver and gold mines, and at least according to
one ancient chronicler, they devoted a 10th of the money they made from these mines to Delphi. Now, the reason they did
this is because religion in ancient Greece was transactional. That is, if you gave
sacrifice to the gods, they would favor you in return. - [Voiceover] Sacrifice in gifts, exactly. And the Siphnian treasury was supposedly the most beautiful, most elaborate, most highly decorated of
the different treasuries from the different Greek city states at the Panhellenic sanctuary at Delphi. - [Voiceover] When you
walk up the sacred way, the pathway that leads
up into the sanctuary, and you come to the Siphnian treasury, you first see its back, or east side. And the sculpture from the pediment, earned from that side of the frieze, and there was a kind of
band or ribbon of carving that went around all four
sides has been preserved. - [Voiceover] Well, a
continuous frieze around the treasury makes sense
because this is a building in the ionic style. - [Voiceover] So, let's take a look at what that sculpture depicts. In the pediment, you have something that's very appropriate for this location. It is the hero, Herakles,
who's trying to steal the tripod from the god, Apollo. - [Voiceover] Now, the
tripod was associated with the oracle at Delphi. The oracle sat on the tripod
and made pronouncements channeling Apollo. - [Voiceover] You can see
why that would upset Apollo, and why Zeus has had to step in, Zeus would be the figure
that has lost his head in the middle, who seems
to be trying to negotiate between the two. - [Voiceover] You can see Herakles, he's got the tripod on his back, and he's heading away as though he's gonna be successful in this theft. But the tripod is being
held at the other end by both Apollo and Zeus. - [Voiceover] And we
see Artemis, the goddess who seems to be restraining Apollo, who had quite a temper. - [Voiceover] These figures
look like archaic style figures to me, here we are at the end of the sixth century,
that's when the Siphnians built this treasury. They have a little bit of that stiffness that we associate with archaic figures. We see them from the profile
view, or frontal view, and not a lot of twisting,
and turning in space which we'll see more of,
actually, in the frieze below. - [Voiceover] But we do
get a sense of energy from, for instance, Herakles'
more widely spaced legs as if he is trying to really pull away. So, let's look at the
east side of the frieze. That is the area just below the pediment. It's divided into two parts. On the right side, we see
a scene from the Iliad, the great Trojan war. We see two great soldiers,
one on the Trojan side, one on the Greek side. - [Voiceover] So,
Achilles is on the right, he's the Greek, and Memnon is on the left, he's the Trojan. - [Voiceover] Achilles is holding a shield which has a Gorgon head on it, fighting with Memnon,
and they're fighting over the dead body of Antilochus. But while these men feel that their fate is being decided by their battle, in fact, what the sculptor is showing us is that their fate is being decided far away on Mount Olympus by the gods. - [Voiceover] So, on the
left side, we see the gods and goddesses who are
siding with the Trojans, and on the right, the gods and goddesses on Mount Olympus are
siding with the Greeks. - [Voiceover] The figure
that's seated in the center is probably Zeus, who's actually making the final determination,
and we get the sense that the gods and goddesses on either side are arguing for him to listen. - [Voiceover] There have been
different identifications of the figures here, so
we have to be careful, but it does seem as
though on the far left, we have Ares, god of
war, and we may have Eos. - [Voiceover] And she's
the mother of Memnon. - [Voiceover] Then we may
have Artemis or Aphrodite, and then the figure of Apollo. - [Voiceover] Now, Apollo is turning back and really listening to
what the women are saying. And we see these
beautiful, elegant figures, that he has a real nobility,
and a kind of stasis to these figures as opposed to the figures that are actually in battle. - [Voiceover] The women
seem to be pleading with Apollo, and the
women raise their hands, they open their palms, and
they seem to look directly at Apollo, who turns
around to listen to them. Now, remember all of this
would have been painted, and therefore, much more visible. - [Voiceover] The three gods
and goddesses that remain, that would have been arguing
on the side of the Greeks are Athena on the left, in
the center, Zeus' wife, Hera, and then possible Thetis,
who would be pleading for her son, Achilles. - [Voiceover] While
there's a sense of emotion, there's still primarily a
sense of stability here, of figures and profile. But when we move to the
battle that they're deciding, we see for shortening, we see
a real illusion into space. Look at these horses who
are turned toward us, moving almost into our space. - [Voiceover] We see that
sense of space even more explicitly rendered as we walk up the hill towards the front of the treasury, and we look at the north
side of the frieze. - [Voiceover] Here, we see a common scene in Greek sculpture, this
is a battle of the gods and the giants. - [Voiceover] So, according
to Greek mythology, everything starts with
the most primary deities, and that would be the goddess, Earth, Gaea, and Uranus, and the god of the sky. And they give birth to the titans, they give birth to the giants. The giants, in turn,
give birth to the gods. And so, the gods are, in a sense, the third generation, and
they rule from Mount Olympus. But according to myth,
the giants want to be able to rule from Mount Olympus,
they want what the gods have. - [Voiceover] So, this is the
great battle that takes place between them. - [Voiceover] The giants are
really stand-ins for humans. Having a great hubris,
and really wanting to take from the mighty gods of Mount Olympus. - [Voiceover] Hubris,
meaning a kind of pride, a sense that you can accomplish more than you can really accomplish
as a human being. - [Voiceover] In fact,
so much of the sculpture at the Siphnian treasury
is in reestablishing the power of the gods,
and the fool hardiness of trying to upset that natural order. So, let's take a look at the action. On the very far left
side of the north frieze, we have the god, Hephaestus. Now, this is the god that is associated with craftsmanship. - [Voiceover] He's a blacksmith. - [Voiceover] That's right, so, he's associated with the fortune. We see him, actually,
pushing down the bellows, manufacturing of lightning bolt, which Zeus can use against the giants. - [Voiceover] Or a weapon
of some sort in any case. And we see the giants
advancing from the right. - [Voiceover] Luckily, Hestia and Demeter are there to meet them. Without a doubt, the most famous part of this frieze is the chariot of Dionysos, which is pulled by two lions. - [Voiceover] Those lions are attacking one of the giants, biting
and clawing the torso. - [Voiceover] And the
other lion is rearing up, and it looks like it's about to bear down, in fact, that further
lion, which is almost completely gone, but you
can just make out its mane, is also wrapping its forepaw
around that giant's neck. That giant has had it. - [Voiceover] Now, that
giant who's being devoured wraps his arm around the
lion as if to pull it away from him. - [Voiceover] The artist
has done something really quite exceptional
for the archaic period. He's turned the head at a
kind of three quarter pose. It's helmeted, but that mouth piece is a means of expressing
the pain that this figure is feeling, even though
if you look very closely, the mouth is still
closed in the traditional noble expression. - [Voiceover] Look at how
Dionysos strides forward, and he looks so powerful. - [Voiceover] And just in front
of him is the local goddess, Themis, and she actually
rides on the chariot. - [Voiceover] What we have here is a sense of the chaos of battle. As our eye moves to the
right to follow this story, we see two archers, those
are Apollo and Artemis, but just to the right of
them, we see a fleeing giant who looks absolutely terrified. He looks back behind him, but runs forward with this sword. Looks at his drapery
flowing back behind him, you get a sense of real movement. - [Voiceover] He's so
terrified, he's abandoning his colleague to those lions. - [Voiceover] And below
him is a fallen giant. - [Voiceover] So, the giant
is so interesting because he's in back of Apollo and Artemis, but there's an expression
of distance between them because of the distinction
in the depth of relief. In other words, Apollo and Artemis are carved fairly deeply
while he is at a slightly smaller scale, and carved
in a more shallow way, so that we know he's part of
the scene in back of them. - [Voiceover] So, we have a
real sense of deep space here in the battle field. - [Voiceover] Look at
the way the artist links that fleeing giant through his shield, which is concave, with a concave shield of the three giants that are confronting Apollo and Artemis. - [Voiceover] And we have a
sense of the imminent danger that he's in because one of his colleagues is fallen below. - [Voiceover] The Olympian
gods are always overmatched, and yet, they triumph. - [Voiceover] The other
thing that happens is that the Olympian gods are represented very individualistically, very heroically, fighting together, but
also a sense of them fighting individually with
their own strength and power, whereas, the giants are
fighting as an anonymous group. - [Voiceover] The next
section of the north frieze is missing, but we know
what would have been there. It would have been the chariot of Zeus in the middle with horses
which we can still see, and he would probably have been throwing a thunder bolt. - [Voiceover] And those
horses are rearing up, and you can almost hear them galloping, and they're followed by two
more giants with their shields, throwing spears. - [Voiceover] And so, Zeus, a single god, is taking on at least two giants. - [Voiceover] And below, we see Aphrodite, who's aiming a spear so
intensely at a falling giant on the ground, we can just barely make out his body, his knee has
bent under his weight, his arm is holding him up. It's as if he's in the process of dying, and next comes Athena. Always the hero. - [Voiceover] We can identify her quickly because of the aegis that she wears, which is fringed by snakes. We can see the inside of her shield, and we can actually,
there, see a little bit of the very bright paint
that would have covered this entire frieze. - [Voiceover] And she's
clearly advancing on the enemy. - [Voiceover] In front of
Athena, we have another giant that's fallen, this time backwards. And then there's another dead giant just behind him. In back of him is yet another
giant, still standing, ready to throw a spear. - [Voiceover] But we know
he won't be successful against Athena, that's apparent. - [Voiceover] And at the
head of all of the gods, we have Ares, the god of war. - [Voiceover] He strides forward, his shield in his left
hand, actively in pursuit of the giants. - [Voiceover] And it's quite a collection of giants that he's after. We can see the one just beside him is actually ready to hurl an enormous rock while another has his
spear ready to throw. And finally, we can recognize Hermes under a conical helmet, and he's taking on what looks like a small army of giants. - [Voiceover] Looks like
he's about to pull a dagger from his sheath. - [Voiceover] In back of him,
there are just a few traces of what would probably be Poseidon, but that part is mostly lost. So, what we see here is this
really interesting moment of transition from the more static and symbolic representations
that we so much associate with the archaic period, and this increasing
interest in the complexity of human interaction. - [Voiceover] And
storytelling, absolutely. - [Voiceover] As we move
towards the classical. (piano music)