The treasury of the Siphnians is a magnificent work of Ionic architecture. It is a distyle in antis building with caryatids in the place of columns on the vestibule. The building bears a rich decoration with painted sculptures in relief, particularly on the frieze, which depicts scenes relative to the Trojan war.
The treasury of the Siphnians is the first marble building built on mainland Greece. It was built in ca. 530-525 B.C. It is built with three different kinds of marble: Siphnian for the walls, Naxian for the entablature and the mutules and Parian for the architrave and the sculpted decoration. According to Herodotus and Pausanias, the Siphnians had acquired great wealth because of their mines and decided to offer to Apollo the tithe of their profits by building this lavish treasury.
The building crowns a limestone bastion and consisted of the cella and the vestibule distyle in antis. It measured 6.04 x 8.41 meters. It is probably the best conserved specimen of an Ionian treasury with rich sculpted and colored decoration. In the place of columns, two caryatids stood, one of which is still extant. The caryatids stood on tall bases and supported a kalathos (a kind of tall hat) and a capital, both richly decorated in relief.
The entablature was 1.57 meters high in total and was richly decorated with bands bearing astragals, palmettes, rosettes, lotus flowers and lion heads all around. However, the masterpiece of the treasury is the frieze: on the eastern side, a battle between Greeks and Trojans was depicted, on the northern side theGigantomachy, whereas from the western side only a few slabs in relief have been preserved, indicating that the judgement of Paris was possibly depicted; finally, only a few remains are saved from the southern side, leading to the conclusion that it probably depicted the capture of women, possibly that of the Leucippides by the Dioscouroi. The pediment over the façade of the treasury depicted Zeus who attempted to prevent Hercules from stealing the tripod, whereas the other pediment is not extant. The roof was made of marble and the gutter ended up in lion heads. The pediment was crowned by three acroteria, of which the central one depicted a Sphinx and the other two Victories (Nike). The entire sculpted decoration was painted in intensive blue, red, golden and green colours.
In various parts of the wall, there are inscriptions mentioning the cities of Asia Minor, which date between the 2nd century B.C and the 2nd century A.D. The monument stood until the final abandonment of Delphi, which is the reason why it was preserved in such a good condition.
Text: Cleopatra Ferla, Dr. Aphrodite Kamara, Historian
Translation : Dr. Aphrodite Kamara, Historian