The Economics of Greek Temple Building

Abstract

This is a subject of great relevance to the proper understanding of the Greek cities' economy. So far, however, it has scarcely been given the attention it deserves in modern discussions. There is, too, a curious ambiguity in the Greeks' attitude to this activity. On the one hand, temple architecture was a public art, and temple building a cultural activity of great importance to Greek society. The patrons of temple building—aristocrats, tyrants, oriental potentates, citizens, or devotees of a Panhellenic cult—all were concerned not only for the end product of temple building, but also in the process itself, for the opportunity it gave of showing to the rest of the community, or to the world, that they had taken part in so complex, unusual, and costly an undertaking. There was merit in the building of temples, as much as in being able to boast their existence, once built.