Battle of Marathon
Pausanias mentions the building in his account of the sanctuary, claiming that it was dedicated from the spoils of the Battle of Marathon, fought in 490 BCE against the Persians. The Battle of Marathon can be seen in some of the images of the metopes which compare their victory to mythology. By using the founder of Athens, Theseus, to show the victories of Athens, the treasury established Athens as one of the most powerful, polis, city-states of Greece. According to archeological records, the Athenian treasury metopes display the earliest known presence of Theseus in a large-scale sculpture. Prior to this treasury, Theseus had been depicted on vase paintings, but never before on architecture. Although Herakles was also depicted in the metopes, the added heroic character showed the Athenian's increasing devotion to Theseus. The pairing of the two heroes was a metaphor alluding to the Battle of Marathon.