IGI3 1464 Dedication of the Athenian Stoa at Delphi

Dedication of the Athenian Stoa at Delphi

IG I³ 1464 Date: End of the sixth or first half of the fifth cent. BC

The Athenians dedicated^[1] the stoa and the weapons (hopla) and the stern ornaments (t’akroteria),^[2] having taken them from the enemies.

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References:

IG I³ 1464 (Translated text) (IG Online) (PHI)

Syll.³ 29 (PHI)

ML 25

Choix de Delphes 20

Translation by: Giacomo Aresi

Images: Archimage - (1, 2, 3)
Wikimedia Commons - (1)

Monument type: Stylobate

Inscription type: Dedication (public)

Findspot: Delphi (Athenian Stoa) (In situ)

Transliterations on Places on

[1] This is the dedicatory inscription of the Athenian Stoa – the first portico erected in the sanctuary of Delphi, between the end of the sixth and the first half of the fifth century BC – and of military spoils displayed within it (cf. J.-F. Bommelaer and D. Laroche, Guide de Delphes,² 2015, 175-77, no. 313; A. Jacquemin and D. Laroche in O. Palagia and E. P. Sioumpara, From Hippias to Kallias, 2019, 182-91; on Attic inscriptions at Delphi, see IG II³ 4, 17 with notes). The Stoa runs along the Polygonal Wall which supports the terrace of the Temple of Apollo and forms the northern edge of the open space called the Halos, through which the Sacred Way runs. The inscription runs in a single line along the front face of the stylobate, the uppermost step of the platform at the entrance of the Stoa, upon which the columns stood.

The inscription specifies that it pertains to an offering of the Stoa and military spoils but makes no specific reference to the occasion of the dedication nor to the identity of the enemies from whom the spoils had been taken. According to Paus. 10.11.6, the Athenians built the Stoa out of the booty taken from the Peloponnesians and their allies during the Peloponnesian War (cf. U. Bultrighini and M. Torelli, Pausania. Guida della Grecia, X., 2017, 319-20). He was probably led to this conclusion by stern ornaments and bronze shields that he saw in the Stoa with an inscription that is no longer extant, which listed the Spartans and their allies as their source. Based on this inscription, Pausanias connects these spoils to the naval victories of the Athenian general Phormion in the Gulf of Corinth in 429 BC (cf. Thuc. 2.82-93; see U. Fantasia, Klio 96, 2014, 437-54).

However, the architecture of the Stoa (e.g., the style of the column bases and capitals; see Amandry, F.Delphes II, 1953, pp. 92-101) and the palaeography of the dedicatory inscription, which combines archaic letter forms (e.g. cross-barred theta and nu with the left vertical longer than the right) with forms that came into use later (e.g. epsilon with horizontal arms and alpha with a horizontal bar), point to a much earlier date, no later than the first half of the fifth century. The Stoa has consequently been linked with many different Athenian victories of the late Archaic or early Classical Period, such as the battle fought in 506 against Boeotians and Chalkidians by the Euripos (cf. U. von Wilamowitz, Aristoteles und Athen, vol. 2, 1893, 287-88, IG I³ 501 with notes; but according to Hdt. 5.77 no naval conflict took place on this occasion from which stern ornaments could have been captured), the Battle of Marathon (cf. E. Greco, ASAA 89, 2011, 70-74, suggesting that the stern ornaments dedicated in the Stoa were those of the seven Persian ships captured by the Athenians according to Hdt. 6.113-115; on Athenian commemoration of the Persian Wars, cf. IG I³ 1463 and IG I³ 503/4), the Battle of Salamis (cf. H. Pomtow, RE Suppl. IV, 1924, coll. 1299-301 and Syll.³ 29), the Battle of the Eurymedon (cf. G. Proietti, Prima di Erodoto, 2021, 350-54), or some Athenian military success in the First Peloponnesian War of the mid-fifth century BC (cf. B. Haussolier, BCH 5, 1881, 12-19 and J. Walsh, AJA 90, 1986, 319-36). The last possibility is probably too late but cannot be completely ruled out on palaeographic grounds (cf. H. R. Immerwahr, Attic Script, 1990, 145-46, followed by IG; contra D. Mercanti, Ostraka 15, 2006, 332-34).

The most widespread theory is that the inscription commemorates the operations of the Hellenic fleet along the coast of Asia Minor between 479 and 478 BC (cf. Amandry, 1953, 92 and BCH 102, 1978, 582-86; Bommelaer and Laroche; Choix de Delphes), in particular the battle of Mykale and the capture of Sestos, which marked Athens’ emancipation from Spartan hegemony and assumption of a leading role among the Greeks. On this view, the "weapons" (hopla) mentioned in the inscription should not be understood as literal weapons but are rather the cables of the pontoon bridges used by the Persians to cross the Hellespont. According to Hdt. 9.121, these cables, which he consistently calls hopla, fell into the hands of the Athenians when they took Sestos, and were later brought to Greece to be dedicated in unspecified sanctuaries, perhaps including Delphi. Pausanias does not mention them, but this might be because they had rotted away by the time he visited Delphi, some six centuries after the Persian Wars. Nonetheless, it might be preferable to understand the term hopla as a literal reference to a dedication of hoplite weapons and stern ornaments, either celebrating a victory on land and at sea or representing the dedicator’s military power in both contexts (cf. Walsh 1986). Offerings combining spoils taken in different types of combat are mentioned in literary sources (cf. G. Kuhn, JDAI 100, 1985, 275-77), and in most dedicatory inscriptions hopla refers to weapons (e.g. SEG 11.956 at Olympia and SEG 28.496 at Delphi).

The dedication states that the spoils were taken from generic “enemies” (polemioi), rather than specifically naming them. Since other Athenian dedications in Delphi related to victories over the Persians expressly state this (cf. Choix de Delphes 15 for the Marathon Base and Paus. 10.10.1-2 for another offering commemorating the Battle of Marathon), this vagueness has been interpreted as a diplomatic silence indicating that the vanquished were not Persians but fellow Greeks (e.g. ML). However, it was apparently usual for those dedicating military spoils in Delphi to clearly indicate their source even when they were Greek (cf. F. Felten, AM 97, 1982, 88-97). Furthermore, there are dedications for victories over the Persians or other barbarians that refer to them generically as polemioi or do not mention them at all, notably the Serpent Column erected after the Battle of Plataia (ML 27; cf. Choix de Delphes 17).

The generic wording of the inscription may indicate that the Stoa and the spoils it displayed were not meant to commemorate any particular victory but were rather seen as a monument to all Athenian achievements in war (cf. O. Hansen, Class. et Med. 40, 1989, 133-34). This would also explain why Pausanias saw booty in the Stoa that had been acquired after its construction. The monument might have been conceived as a showcase for Athenian military prowess from the beginning or the ambiguity in the dedicatory inscription might have lent itself to re-purposing it in this way later (cf. C. Keesling in M. Meyer and G. Adornato eds., Innovations and Inventions in Athens, 2020, 219-20). In the former case, the project might have been conceived and implemented in the early years of the Delian League, when Athens emerged as the new dominant power in the Aegean, perhaps following the suppression of the Naxian Revolt and the victory over the Persians at the Eurymedon in the 470s and 460s BC (cf. Mercanti, 2006, and Proietti, 2021, 354). Earlier occasions, ranging from the end of the sixth century to the aftermath of the invasion of Xerxes also remain possible. [2] The term akroteria usually refers to aplustres, wooden ornaments at the sterns of ships (cf. Kuhn, 1985, 269-74; Fantasia, 2014, 438-40). After a naval victory, the akroteria of enemy ships were often employed as part of trophies or dedicated in sanctuaries. Depictions on vases and reliefs of ships (e.g. Museo Tarquiniese, no. 678) and of deities holding aplustres (e.g. ARV2 384.211) show that they consisted of one or more inward-facing planks, sometimes creating a sort of fan or swan’s neck shape. The akroteria dedicated in the Athenian Stoa may have been placed on a base whose foundation is visible on the floor of the Stoa (cf. Amandry, 1953, 117), or fastened to wooden pillars at the rear (cf. Kuhn, 1985, 269-86).

Added: 5 Jun 2023
Updated: 18 Aug 2023
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