Choragic Monument of Lysicrates, Athens

The Choragic Monument of Lysicrates is the circular ancient Greek memorial before you, raised on a square stone base. Lysicrates paid for it after his chorus won a musical competition at the City Dionysia in 335/334 BCE. Its exterior is celebrated as the first Greek use of the Corinthian order, a detail you can connect with the carved capitals around the structure.

The frieze carries a story from the Homeric Hymn to Dionysus, showing the god and the Tyrrhenian pirates. Beneath the architrave, another band presents choragic tripods, recalling the prize that this monument once displayed. The monument stands in a garden on Tripodon Street, the ancient Street of the Tripods. Its design later travelled widely: architects reproduced it in monuments and building details across Europe, Australia, and the United States.