In Ancient Greece, as is often the case today, the votive offerings to the gods were considered sacred and thus it was forbidden to destroy, sell them, transform them or to transport them outside the sanctuary. When in the mid-5th century BC, a fire destroyed several precious ex-vottos in the Sanctuary of Apollo at Delphi, their remains were buried in two pits used as dumps along the Sacred Way, opposite to the Halos.
Discovered, by chance, by the French archaeologists in 1939 the findings (almost 2000 fragments), after many years of a meticulous and hard work, they were restored and reassembled to the original compositions. They are presented and preserved at the Delphi Museum, since 1975.
The majority of the findings belonged to a gold-and-ivory group depicting the «Apollonian triad»: the god Apollo him self, his twin sister Artemis (Diane in Roman history) and their mother Leto.
The statues are chryselephantine (from Greek chrysos = gold and elephas = elephant) a very rare sculpting technique combining a wooden core to which were attached the exposed parts of the face and body, made of sculpted ivory, and the garments and hair, which were of hammered gold. Ancient (literary) sources, inform us that this technique was used during the 6th and 5th century BC for cult statues as: the statue of Athena for the Parthenon at the Athens Acropolis and the statue of Zeus at Olympia.
Such statues were striking not only for their exquisite beauty and workmanship but also for advertising the social high rank and wealth of those who could afford to have such pieces created. The artistry involved skills in ivory carving, carpentry, sculpture and jewel making as well as constant maintenance.
Apollo is represented seated on a throne, and bears the distinctive archaic smile. The face with its marked features is preserved. The eyes and eyebrows are inlayed and his hair is made of gilded silver, whereas the two broad curls flanking the head and falling on the shoulders are made of gold.
Each plaque is divided into eight squares and in each division, hammered with astonishing precision and dexterity, is a mythical beast or wild animal: griffins, lions, bulls, pegasoi et al.
Artemis, bears a golden tiara and rosettes in the place of earrings, points out to the Ionian art. Two large rectangular golden leaves probably ornamented the garment of the goddess.
They were decorated with depictions of real and mythological animals: a gazelle, a lion, a bull, a deer, a Pegasus, a griffin, a sphinx. The eyes and eyebrows were inlayed. To the same statue probably belonged the left hand with golden bracelet.
Parts of other statues and five smaller ivory heads and additional decorative elements are preserved, made of gold or ivory. Among them tiles with depictions of the Gorgon, Pegasus and griffin, as well as rosettes, anthemia and floral items.
Chryselephantine sculpture (from Ancient Greek χρυσός (khrusós) 'gold' and ελεφάντινος (elephántinos) 'ivory') is a sculpture made with gold and ivory. Chryselephantine cult statues enjoyed high status in Ancient Greece.
archaic smile: a technique used by sculptors in Archaic Greece, possibly to suggest that their subject was alive and infused with a sense of well-being. One of the most famous examples of the archaic smile is the Kroisos Kouros, and the Peplos Kore is another.
