Sacrificial tripod

A sacrificial tripod, whose name comes from the Greek meaning "three-footed", is a three-legged piece of religious furniture used in offerings and other ritual procedures. This ritual role derives from its use as a simple support for a cooking vessel placed over a fire. As a seat or stand, the tripod is the most stable furniture construction for uneven ground, hence its use is universal and ancient.

Tripods had two types and several functions. Firstly, some oracles sat on large tripods to pronounce. Far more common were the tripods and bowls in which smaller sacrifices were burnt. These are particularly associated with Apollo and the Delphic oracle in ancient Greece. These were also given to temples as votive offerings, awarded as prizes in contests associated with religious festivals, and just given as gifts between individuals.

Griffins from Olympia, 7th century BC

Delphic tripod (red-figured bell-krater, Paestum, c. 330 BC)

Ritual vessel supported on a tripod (Roman relief 1st-century AD)

Winged Victory bearing a tripod (Wall painting, Pompeii, 64 AD)

Medea and the Peliades around a tripod (1828 relief after a 5th-century BC Greek original)

A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, 1870. Cf. p. 1162, article on Tripos

Smith, William

The Orphic Poems, Oxford, 1983.

West, Martin Litchfield

Wilson, Peter, , 2000. (cf. Chapter V - Monumentalising Victory, pp. 198- for discussion and plates of tripods as awards) [2]

The Athenian Institution of the Khoregia: the Chorus, the City, the Stage

Benton, Sylvia, , The Annual of the British School at Athens, Vol. 35, (1934/1935), pp. 74–130.

Sacrificial tripod

Smith, William

West, Martin Litchfield

The Athenian Institution of the Khoregia: the Chorus, the City, the Stage

"The Evolution of the Tripod-Lebes"

Lysikrates monument and Street of Tripods in Athens

Photographs of the Lysikrates monument and Street of Tripods in Athens