Innovation and Resilience: Post-Disaster Architecture in Fourth-Century Delphi

Abstract

In the 370s BC, Delphi was struck by a natural disaster. The temple of Apollo itself was severely damaged and needed to be rebuilt almost entirely. A few years later, the Third Sacred War (356-346 BC) interrupted the reconstruction. These two events must have been traumatic, yet the reconstruction of the temple of Apollo started relatively quickly after the catastrophe of the 370s and resumed swiftly after the end of the war. In addition to the temple of Apollo, other monuments were erected in the aftermath of these events. This paper focuses on the temple of Apollo, the Treasury of the Thebans and the so-called Limestone Temple and offers an interpretation of their architectural features in light of the distressing events that preceded them, using the concepts of anchoring innovation and conspicuous consumption. Resilience, it is argued, is not only evident in the vast funding scheme for reconstructing the temple of Apollo, but also in the design and construction of the monuments erected during that period.