ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the role of gift exchange in the classical world, the values to which it gave rise and how it shaped the mind-set that resulted in the creation of the public and private collections of the classical world. It presents the main principles of gift exchange, and how they have been broadened in the study of the archaic Greek tradition. The chapter also discusses the vocabulary and institutions of gift in Homer and mythology. Treasuries monumentalise the transition from gifts-to-men to gifts-to-gods and bear both the social/political set of values of gift exchange, as well as the mythic parameters of value, that is qualities that people cannot comprehend and thus attribute to mythic/religious spheres. The chapter focuses on sanctuaries and the institutions and vocabulary of value there, the notions that the collections embodied and their legacy. It describes the hierarchy of values and its implications for subsequent collecting practices.
