Financial accounts of the treasurers of Athena and of the other gods

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Provision of image

Inventory number

ΕΜ 7859

Artist

Attic workshop

Category

Inscription

Period

Classical Period

Date

376/5 BC

Dimensions

Height: 0.55 m
Length: 0.355 m
Width: 0.12 m
Relief depth: 0.015 m

Material

Marble from Penteli

Location

South vestibule. Parthenon Gallery

Description
Bibliography

Found west of the Erechtheion in 1858. The upper part of the relief scene and the first eight text lines are preserved. The inscription cut into stone stoichedon and written in the Attic alphabet records the account of the treasurers who served Athena and the other gods in 377/6 BC when the Eponymous Archon was Kalleas.

The relief represents Erechtheus, a hero and mythical king of Athens. He is identified by the sceptre he holds and the band around his hair. Erechtheus sits on a rock which may be indicating the rocky scenery of the Acropolis where his sanctuary stood. A woman before him, perhaps one of his daughters, walks away to the opposite direction.

Between 434/3 and 340/339 BC there were two bodies of treasurers on the Acropolis: the treasurers serving the goddess Athena and the treasurers of the other gods. They merged into one group from 406/5 to 386/5 BC, were divided into two separate bodies again in later times and reunited again in 346 BC.

The treasurers of Athena were ten men, one from each Athenian tribe, appointed by lot. They belonged to the class of the pentakosiomedimnoi, the highest of the four socio-economic classes in which Athenian citizens were divided. They were in charge of managing and recording the money and precious dedications kept at the Acropolis and also pay out the amounts loaned to the state. Their term of office was annual, extended from one Panathenaic festival to the other. Until 430/29 BC the accounts were made public every year following the end of the treasurers’ term of service and after 429 BC every four years.

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