Dancers of Delphes

The Dancers of Delphes , also known under the name of Column with the acanthuses , are three figures in high relief surmounting a column of acanthuses found close to the sanctuary of Apollo pythien to Delphes. They are preserved at the archaeological National museum of Delphes.

Description

The fragments are put at the day between May and July 1894 on the terraces at the East and the North-East of the temple of Apollo. The diggers reconstitute quickly what proves to be a column a total height of approximately 13 meters, made up of five drums and a capital of acanthuses surmounted of a prolongation of the stem, to which three 1,95 meters lean high female figures, equipped with a Chitoniskos (short tunic) and carrying a kalathos. The barefeet, suspended in the air and the raised arm, they resemble dancers, from where the name which was given to them.

Sealings of the top of the capital and the concave form of the upper part of the barrel, the level of the head of the Dancers, made it possible to understand that the unit was used as support with the tank of a colossal tripod, probably bronzes some, of which the feet rested on the capital, thus framing each statue.

Dating

First dating: before 373

The fragments having been discovered in the same embankment as the remainders of the pediments of the antiquated temple, it is believed initially that the monument belongs to the same period - i.e. before the Earthquake of 373 av. J. - C. -, high dating which appears not very compatible with the style of the statues, which raises more period 335 - 325 av. J. - C.

Low dating: towards 340-330

In 1963, the more precise publication of the various places of discovered fragments shows than the latter do not have in fact not a bond with the remainders of the antiquated temple. One then establishes the link between the column and other elements found at the same place:

a base registered in Calcareous;
a foundation in poros (kind of Tuff);
two blocks registered out of limestone, one white and other gray.

The pedestal carries the inscription ΠΑΝ , mark of the contractor Pankratès d' Argos, whose activity is attested by the accounts of the naopes (police chiefs) of Delphes of the period 346 - 345. Moreover, the base is leant with the Monument of Daochos, an ex-voto dated precisely between 336 - 335 and 333 - 332, and the téménos of Néoptolème, contemporary. The two blocks are interpreted like the first and third steps of a base with triple degree, of which the second walk would be missing, resting on the foundation. The white block carries a remainder of dedication mentioning like dédicant the Athenian people; the shape of the letters and the other elements make it possible to date the whole in Hellénistique Ancien.

The Vatin assumption: in 375

In 1983, the epigraphist Claude Vatin reads on the gray block an inscription mentioning the name of the Athenian archonte éponyme, Hippodamas, and of the delphic archonte Léocharès, which would place in fact the dedication in 375, year of the naval victory against Sparte of the strategist Timothée with Alyzeia. The Athenian would thus have devoted the Dancers after his victory; damaged thereafter - perhaps by the earthquake of 373 av. J. - C. -, they would again have been set up 50 years later, after the column and the support were repaired. Lastly, Vatin reads on the gray block the signature of the sculptor Praxitèle, which would go up the whole of the generally allowed chronology for its career.

“Under the archontat of Léocharès to Athens, and that of Hippodamas to Athens, the Athenians and their allies, on the spoils taken in Lacédémoniens, devoted to Apollon Pythien the tripod and the young people filles.
Work of Praxitèle. ”

The historian of art Antonio Corso confirmed these observations, but no other specialist was able to find an inscription at the place indicated. Then, the faces north and is base and base of the Column is only coarsely finished, meaning that their backing respectively with the ex-voto of Daochos and the téménos of Néoptolème was envisaged from the beginning. Lastly, on the stylistic level, returned sheets of acanthuses would place the Column between the Philippéion d' Olympie and the Monument of Lysicrate at Athens, i.e. before 334 av. J. - C..

Interpretation

Dédicant being the Athenian people, one proposed to see in the dancers the three girls of Cécrops - indigenous with half-snake, first legendary king of the Attique - and of Aglauros. In the Ion of Euripide, the chorus describes them dancing on the Northern side of the Acropole, not far from Pythion, starting point of the sacred way connecting Athens to Delphes. Aglaurides would thus be represented here as a personification of the arable land, the acanthus symbolizing their role in the growth of the plants.

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" Dancers of Delphes" inspired with Claude Debussy one of his Preludes.

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