small bronze tripod symbol of achievement and hospitality

Tripods - from the Greek 'tripous', meaning 'three footed' - were symbolic tokens of hospitality and status, and of achievement in athletics and drama.

In Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, the bronze tripod was a functional vessel, used for boiling water - for bathing or for cooking. Its three legs gave it stability on burning logs or hot coals on uneven surfaces.

Larger 'unfired' (ie unused) tripods on a larger scale were exchanged as guest gifts, tokens of xenia, the sacred and inviolable reciprocal 'hospitality bond' between host and guest, protected by Zeus.

Odysseus' first priority, after he'd woken up in a daze on the beach in Ithaca, was to squirrel away in a nearby cave the 13 tripods and other valuable gifts, which he'd been given by the Phaeacians, whose ship had brought him home. Where 'guest gifts' are concerned, their value was incrementally increased if there was proper provenance - the more previous, illustrious owners, the better. 12 tripods were given to Odysseus by the ruling princes of Phaeacia, the 13th by King Alcinous himself. The fact that Phaeacia was something of a utopian, liminal paradise, on the boundary between the ordinary human world and the realm of the gods, gave these particular tripods extra cachet.

In the Iliad, they were also given as prizes for victory in games, notably as first prize for the chariot race during the Funeral Games organised by Achilles in honour of his friend Patroklos. This tripod had a direct link to Apollo, so it had a tip-top pedigree provenance!

A bronze tripod was also awarded as a prize to the winning production of ancient Greek drama, during the annual Athenian festival held in honour of Dionysos, whose complex cult resulted in the birth of drama and the theatre. The wealthy citizen who had sponsored the winning production of, let's say, Aeschylus' Oresteia in 458BC, was presented with the tripod, which he would then dedicate to Dionysos, by placing it in a shrine, for all to see! (Pausanias describes this Street of the Tripods (ΟΔΟΣ ΤΡΙΠΟΔΩΝ) on the north slopes of the Akropolis. It is now bustling with restaurants, the tripods on their marble plinths long gone!)

The tripod is also associated with Apollo, god of oracles and prophecy. In Apollo's sanctuary in Delphi, his priestess, the Pythia, would sit in the cauldron of a tripod and inhale laurel fumes before delivering her prophetic utterances. At one point, Apollo's half-brother Herakles tried to wrestle the tripod from Apollo, as depicted on several vases and on temple sculptures such as the Siphnian Treasury at Delphi.

Figures of horses, griffins and ibex were frequently used to decorate the handles, and were known as the 'protome' of the tripod. Take a look at It's All Greek's griffin protome in three sizes in griffins and bulls.

Hephaistos would be amazed by the craftsmanship and quality of this wonderful collection!

These superb bronze pieces are cast in Greece using the traditional lost wax method. As nothing is mass-produced, there will inevitably be slight variations in texture, patina, and colour. No two pieces are ever the same. If mounted, the base is of black marble.

Please note that there may be a variation of some millimetres in the dimensions of the base from time to time, and that accessories such as spears, tridents or javelins may vary in length or height! If you need precise dimensions and weight, email me!

If you need a piece to fit a very specific space, or if you want me to take a photo of a couple of pieces so you can pick the one you want, I will do so with pleasure.

Every piece is deliciously tactile.

It's All Greek is so grateful and so proud to have been working closely with the Semitekolo family foundry since 1999. It has been a privilege and a joy to handle, live with, to photograph and describe these gorgeous pieces, before passing them on to passionate and grateful customers all over the world.

If you already own one of these pieces, cherish it!