Did the Ancient Greeks build Victory Monuments?

by LuxDeWakari

I know the Romans had a habit of building columns and arches, but did the Greeks tend to build a monument after a won battle?

VaesLondon

Yes! The Greeks, mainly the warring states of Athens and Sparta, loved to build monuments as well as other triumphal buildings and statues (the Athenian Acropolis is a great testament to this). A good example of an Ancient Greek monument is the Serpent Column - this was not technically a victory column as we might see it in Roman terms as much as it was a tripod; the focus was on the bronze 'cauldron' at the top. It had a long column designed to mimic intertwined snakes, and three snake heads at the top to hold a brass cauldron (a symbol of victory, similar to the choregic monuments which I will discuss shortly). It was dedicated by the Spartans after the Battle of Plataea in 479 BC, and was at some point taken to Constantinople (now Istanbul) from Delphi where it still stands in the ancient Hippodrome. Unfortunately it has been beheaded, but one head can be seen nearby in the Istanbul Archaeology Museums. You can still see the names of the poleis involved in the war scratched onto the column if you look at the right time of day as the sun sets!

Other types of monuments similar to this were the Choregic monuments in Athens, dedicated to a choregos, a wealthy citizen who funded the training of the chorus for a play as a civic duty. This victory monument was dedicated as a prize to the choregos - not the actors or playwright - if the set of plays won at a festival. A nice example is in Athens at the foot of the Acropolis, the Lysicrates monument - it's now flanked by heftily overpriced cafés but still has its own patch of land and gate around it. The bronze cauldron at the top would have been melted down long ago during one of Athens' many periods of war.

I'm sure there are plenty more great examples of Greek monuments, and those are the ones which immediately spring to mind! Feel free to ask any follow-up questions!