RELIGION AND SOCIAL LIFE 99the goddess. A major function of the temple in fact was to contain the god’s
possessions, often votive objects such as tripods, cauldrons, pins and broaches,
figurines and vases. Excavations at famous sites have revealed votive remains that
can be dated from the tenth and ninth centuries right through to the Hellenistic era.
Much Greek statuary was in fact votive; much Classical Greek architecture was
similarly in service of the gods, temples rather than palaces, stately homes or castles,
so that there is a sense in which most Greek art can be called religious.
The most famous sanctuary in the Greek world was at Delphi, the home of
Apollo’s oracle, on the lower southern slopes of Mount Parnassus. There are
significant myths associated with Delphi. It was regarded as the centre of the world,
since Zeus had sent two eagles, one from the westernmost part of the cosmos and
the other from the east, and their beaks had met at the omphalosor navel stone over
which Apollo had instituted his first temple after he had successfully battled with a
huge serpent (the Python) for control of the site. Hence his priestess was called the
Pythia and the games subsequently held at Delphi were the Pythian games. The
remains of the temple now visible date from the fourth century. On the Sacred
Way leading up to the temple, excavations have uncovered evidence of dozens of
monuments set up by various states and individuals commemorating victories in war
or in the games usually in the form of statues, now fragmented. The most splendid
survival is the bronze statue of a charioteer discovered in 1896, one of the very few
original bronzes to survive antiquity (fig. 24). An inscription nearby reads ‘Polyzelos
dedicated me’.
Polyzelos has been identified as a tyrant of Gela in Sicily who was in power in
the 470s and must have financed a winning team in the Pythian games and dedicated
this bronze, which would have originally stood in a bronze chariot drawn by four
bronze horses, to the god accordingly. Additionally, archaeologists have uncovered
evidence of several treasuries on either side of the Sacred Way endowed by different
cities which must have held votive offerings to Apollo, including the now restored
Athenian treasury built in the Doric order to commemorate the victory of the
Athenians at Marathon (fig. 25). Like the temples, these treasuries were decorated
with sculptures, remains of which survive, notably the sixth-century frieze from the
Siphnian treasury showing the gods in council, gods battling with Titans and battle
scenes from the Trojan war. An inscription on the Athenian Stoa indicates that it was
built to commemorate their naval victory over the Persians at Salamis in 478. The
most striking of the architectural remains at Delphi is the partial reconstruction in the
sanctuary of Athena Pronoia (about a mile away from the Sanctuary of Apollo) of the
circular Tholos with its three Doric pillars and entablature dating from the early fourth
century (fig. 26).
The function of this rotunda is unknown. Beyond the sacred precinct are a
stadium, a hippodrome and a gymnasium. Within the sacred precinctis a theatre, and