The Lesche of the Knidians

Introduction: Form and Function at Delphi

Aerial View of Delphi

Polygnotos and Pausanias - The Lesche of the Knidians was a club house located in the steeply sloping hillside above the Temple of Apollo at the sanctuary at Delphi. Dedicated by the Knidians in the first half of the fifth century B.C., the Lesche housed two of the most famous paintings from antiquity. On the walls of the Lesche, Polygnotos of Thasos, the most admired painter of the early classical period, painted Troy Taken (Iliupersis) and Odysseus' Descent to Hades (Nekyia). The Lesche and its monumental wall-paintings became an artistic pilgrimage for many during antiquity and in the 2nd c. A.D., Pausanias filled seven chapters of his book on Phocis with the minute details of the paintings.

The Building - Excavated by French archaeologists in 1895, the foundations of the Lesche reveal a rectangular building of limestone, measuring fifty-five feet by twenty-five. Inside the building, eight wooden posts supported the double-pitched terra cotta roof. The walls of the building were at least twenty feet high and the paintings could have been as large as fifteen feet high. Nothing survives of the actual Lesche wall paintings, but it is possible to visualize something of their composition and character by comparisons with paintings on vases, relief sculpture and literary evidence.

Social History: Knidos and Kimon - It is possible to link the Knidians and their dedication at Delphi to the Athenian general Kimon and the victory over the Persians at the Battle of the Eurymedon River. This battle was the great conclusion to the Persian wars, which in turn were considered a continuation of the Trojan War. Kimon's relationship to the Knidians, his family background and his relationship to the artist Polygnotos are all issues that involve the choice of theme, position and construction of the Lesche.

Importance and Function - The size, prominent position and expense that went into the Lesche make it improbable that the paintings were meant as purely cosmetic, ornamental or without symbolic meaning. Thus, the choice of theme and iconography for both Troy Taken and Odysseus' Descent was a calculated decision by the artist and patron. Not only was the Lesche, a dedication to Apollo, the ultimate act of piety, but it was also a propagandistic monument to Kimon's great victory over the Persians. The paintings in the Lesche at Delphi are representative of a new trend in the public arts of the early classical period which transformed the traditional medium of myth-historical painting into a new political force, linking legendary material with current history.