Home Classical, Ancient Near Eastern & Egyptian Studies Treasuries, Identity, and Politics
Chapter
Licensed
Unlicensed Requires Authentication

Treasuries, Identity, and Politics

  • Judith M. Barringer

    Judith M. Barringer, Ph.D. (1990), Yale University, is Professor of Greek Art and Archaeology at the University of Edinburgh. Her research focuses on the intersection between art, myth, and religion from the Archaic through Hellenistic periods, particularly iconology, social history, and contextual readings of monuments in public and private contexts, as well as logistical matters in sanctuaries. She has published several monographs — most recently, Olympia: A Cultural History (Princeton 2021), as well as numerous articles and essays. Her textbook, The Art and Archaeology of Ancient Greece (Cambridge, 2014) has received two book prizes.
Become an author with De Gruyter Brill
Explore this Subject How to publish with us
Memory, Ritual, and Identity in Ancient Greece and Rome
This chapter is in the book Memory, Ritual, and Identity in Ancient Greece and Rome

Abstract

Studies of treasuries in Greek sanctuaries have concentrated on their architectural form and sculptural decoration, and inventory lists enumerate their contents. The latter, together with Pausanias’ description of treasuries, have led modern scholars to regard them chiefly as storehouses for votive dedications and, in some cases, manifestations of peer-polity competition. However, treasuries — in which sanctuaries they appear, their patrons, placement, and architecture — also express ethnic and political identity. This paper focuses on the treasuries at Olympia, which were erected by Dorian Greeks, particularly western Greek patrons. Comparison between these treasuries and those at Delphi, built mostly by Ionians, enlarges our understanding of the dynamics of treasuries within their respective sanctuaries. Furthermore, the Olympia treasuries, together with additional evidence of the western Greek presence at the site, offer insight into the ethnic identity of “western Greeks” in contrast to that of other Greeks.

Abstract

Studies of treasuries in Greek sanctuaries have concentrated on their architectural form and sculptural decoration, and inventory lists enumerate their contents. The latter, together with Pausanias’ description of treasuries, have led modern scholars to regard them chiefly as storehouses for votive dedications and, in some cases, manifestations of peer-polity competition. However, treasuries — in which sanctuaries they appear, their patrons, placement, and architecture — also express ethnic and political identity. This paper focuses on the treasuries at Olympia, which were erected by Dorian Greeks, particularly western Greek patrons. Comparison between these treasuries and those at Delphi, built mostly by Ionians, enlarges our understanding of the dynamics of treasuries within their respective sanctuaries. Furthermore, the Olympia treasuries, together with additional evidence of the western Greek presence at the site, offer insight into the ethnic identity of “western Greeks” in contrast to that of other Greeks.

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter I
  2. Acknowledgments
  3. Contents VII
  4. Abbreviations
  5. List of Figures XIII
  6. Introduction 1
  7. Part I Ritual, Poetics, and the Past: Greece
  8. Into the Woods: Reading the Iliad with Boeotian Cult 17
  9. Epinician Rituals in Pindar’s Fourth and Fifth Olympians: Shaping and Preserving Identities in Song 35
  10. Repeat, Remember: Ritual and Literature (Horace; Sappho, Alcaeus; Homer, Sophocles, Epicurus, Callimachus, Vergil) 47
  11. Ritual, Meter, and Cultural Memories of Megatheism: A New Case for Sarapis as the God of Hyssaldomos’ Verse-Inscription from Mylasa 71
  12. Part II Ritual, Poetics, and the Past: Rome
  13. Georgics 4: Vergil on the Rites of Poetry and Philosophy at the Dawn of a New Era 97
  14. Horace’s Ritual Song in Augustan Rome: The Sacred Poet as an alter princeps 119
  15. Divining Identity in Seneca’s Oedipus 139
  16. Part III Performing Identity
  17. Call the Witnesses: Athenian Citizenship Practice at the Crossroads of Memory, Ritual, and Identity 153
  18. Embodied Memory in the Panathenaia 169
  19. Ritual Against Memory: Managing the Ancestors in Ancient Rome 195
  20. Part IV Trauma and Memory
  21. Aeneas’ tropaeum: Collective Trauma and Commemoration in Vergil’s Aeneid 213
  22. Broken Hospitality and Traumatic Memory in the Funerals of Vergil’s Pallas and Valerius Flaccus’ Cyzicus 237
  23. Memory, Ritual, and Identity in Prudentius, Peristephanon and Paulinus of Nola, Natalicia 271
  24. Part V Women, Ritual and Memory
  25. Remembering Female Names: Crisis, Ritual, and Collective Identity Formation in Ancient Greek Epic Poetry 289
  26. Ritual Lament, Memory, and Identity in Euripides’ Trojan Trilogy 307
  27. Memory, Ritual, and the Politics of Closure in Tacitus, Ann. 3.76 323
  28. Part VI Places
  29. Treasuries, Identity, and Politics 337
  30. Ancient Greek Construction Rituals, Tradition, and the Articulation of Communal Identities 355
  31. Ritual, Memory, and Identity: The Case of Theoriae 385
  32. Pomponius Mela’s Hercules: Preserving Phoenician Ritual Memory and Identity 405
  33. List of Contributors 423
  34. Index Rerum
  35. Index Locorum
https://doi.org/10.1515/9783111197456-018

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter I
  2. Acknowledgments
  3. Contents VII
  4. Abbreviations
  5. List of Figures XIII
  6. Introduction 1
  7. Part I Ritual, Poetics, and the Past: Greece
  8. Into the Woods: Reading the Iliad with Boeotian Cult 17
  9. Epinician Rituals in Pindar’s Fourth and Fifth Olympians: Shaping and Preserving Identities in Song 35
  10. Repeat, Remember: Ritual and Literature (Horace; Sappho, Alcaeus; Homer, Sophocles, Epicurus, Callimachus, Vergil) 47
  11. Ritual, Meter, and Cultural Memories of Megatheism: A New Case for Sarapis as the God of Hyssaldomos’ Verse-Inscription from Mylasa 71
  12. Part II Ritual, Poetics, and the Past: Rome
  13. Georgics 4: Vergil on the Rites of Poetry and Philosophy at the Dawn of a New Era 97
  14. Horace’s Ritual Song in Augustan Rome: The Sacred Poet as an alter princeps 119
  15. Divining Identity in Seneca’s Oedipus 139
  16. Part III Performing Identity
  17. Call the Witnesses: Athenian Citizenship Practice at the Crossroads of Memory, Ritual, and Identity 153
  18. Embodied Memory in the Panathenaia 169
  19. Ritual Against Memory: Managing the Ancestors in Ancient Rome 195
  20. Part IV Trauma and Memory
  21. Aeneas’ tropaeum: Collective Trauma and Commemoration in Vergil’s Aeneid 213
  22. Broken Hospitality and Traumatic Memory in the Funerals of Vergil’s Pallas and Valerius Flaccus’ Cyzicus 237
  23. Memory, Ritual, and Identity in Prudentius, Peristephanon and Paulinus of Nola, Natalicia 271
  24. Part V Women, Ritual and Memory
  25. Remembering Female Names: Crisis, Ritual, and Collective Identity Formation in Ancient Greek Epic Poetry 289
  26. Ritual Lament, Memory, and Identity in Euripides’ Trojan Trilogy 307
  27. Memory, Ritual, and the Politics of Closure in Tacitus, Ann. 3.76 323
  28. Part VI Places
  29. Treasuries, Identity, and Politics 337
  30. Ancient Greek Construction Rituals, Tradition, and the Articulation of Communal Identities 355
  31. Ritual, Memory, and Identity: The Case of Theoriae 385
  32. Pomponius Mela’s Hercules: Preserving Phoenician Ritual Memory and Identity 405
  33. List of Contributors 423
  34. Index Rerum
  35. Index Locorum
Sign up now to receive a 20% welcome discount
Institutional Access
How does access work?
Have an idea on how to improve our website?
Please write us.
© 2025 De Gruyter Brill
Downloaded on 19.12.2025 from https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783111197456-018/html
Scroll to top button