Building Materials and Costs

• as expected the costs of building a temple are massive (the comparison of costs to a labourer's pay are made on the assumption that he would be working every day of the year, which is very unlikely, especially if you take into account festival days, let alone days of unemployment), three examples are:

1. The  Asclepion at Epidaurus: slightly over 23 talents (IG IV2, I, 102) = c.190 yearly incomes of a labourer
2. The Temple of Apollo at Delphi: 300 talents = c.2,465 yearly incomes of a labourer
3. The Parthenon: 460-500 talents = c. 3,780- 4,109 yearly incomes of a labourer