The latter, however, mentions the foundation myth of Tarentum, according to which an oracle from Delphi had predicted that the Lacaedemonians, on their way to Italy, would found a city when there would be rain in clear weather.
Phalanthus, leader of the expedition, was hopeless, as no matter how many efforts he made he could not prevail among the locals and get a piece of land to found his colony.
Phalanthus, then, realized the meaning of the oracle and attacked Taras right away, in the middle of the night, thus managing to capture the city.
The ex voto was made by the famous sculptors Onatas from Aegina and Ageladas from Argos and dates to the beginning of the 5th century B.C.
Behind the monument stands a base with a circular plinth, where the citizens of Croton in Southern Italy had erected a tripod, dating possibly also to the same period.