Leiturgy

Leiturgie or Leiturgia (from Greek ἡ λειτουργία) originally referred to any kind of services of wealthy citizens for the community in ancient Greece , in the narrower sense the financing of "public" tasks and projects by wealthy citizens or metoks in Athens . These could be all kinds of projects, such as financing a building or hosting a party. Anyone who had a fortune of more than three talents could be committed to a Leiturgy in classical Athens, but not for two consecutive years. The senior officials of the city (the Archons), wealthy underage orphans, clergy and ephebes were exempt from the Leiturgy.

A well-known form of Leiturgy is the so-called choreography , in which a wealthy citizen took care of the equipment and maintenance of a choir (e.g. on the occasion of the Panathenaic Mountains ). A special military form of Leiturgy is the trierarchy , with which citizens (especially in Athens) undertook - or were obliged to - pay for the construction and equipment of a warship (a trireme ). As a rule, the financiers were then also formally commanders of the ship in question.

This form of financing larger public expenditures was necessary as there were no regularly levied taxes to finance government expenditures. Since the assumption of such a financial obligation by individual citizens was associated with the greatest prestige , at least in the early days of Attic democracy it should not have been a problem to find willing donors among the wealthy citizens.

It is also a labor service obligation measure used by Islamic rulers in large construction projects.

Liturgy is another transcription of the same Greek word as liturgy .

literature

• Hans Volkmann: Article Leiturgie , in: Der Kleine Pauly , Bd. 3, Sp. 550.