VOTIVE RELIEFS.
A votive offering is, in its essence, a present made to a god or to a superior being, in order to secure some favour in the future, or to avert anger for a past offence, or to express gratitude for a favour received. The last purpose includes offerings made in fulfilment of a vow, the vow being a kind of contract between the individual and the god. Sometimes also objects were offered, nominally as gifts to the god, but in reality in order that they might be secure.
Votive offerings cover the whole field of life including persons, lands, buildings, and, in particular, objects appropriate (A) to the god or his worship, or (B) to the dedicator and the cause of his dedication.
A. Objects appropriate to the god include temples (compare the inscription of Alexander from Priene, in the Hall of Inscriptions); parts of a temple (compare the columns dedicated by Croesus, No. 29); images of the god represented in an appropriate attitude (compare the reliefs, Nos. 770-794); objects connected with the worship of the god and temple furniture (compare the stool in the Hall of Inscriptions, dedicated by Philis to Demeter, and the vases from Naucratis in the First Vase Room); or lastly, attributes of the god, such as the owl of Athene (No. 560), and the pigs found in the shrine of Demeter at Knidos, now in the Mausoleum Room.
B. Objects appropriate to the dedicator or the cause of his dedication include portraits of the dedicator, such as the statue of Chares (No.
14), or of the priestess Nicoclea, found in the temenos of Demeter of Knidos, or the statuette of the hunter of Naucratis (No. 118); spoils won in battle, as the helmet dedicated by Hiero, in the Etruscan Room; figures of victorious horses (No. 814); symbolic offerings such as the dedication of the hair or the down of the beard to Poseidon (cf. No.
798), or to a river god (Paus. viii., 41, 3); offerings connected with remarkable cures (compare Nos. 799-810, and, perhaps, the relief of Xanthippos, No. 628).
Where the object itself is perishable or otherwise unsuitable as an offering, the sculptured representation takes its place, by a natural process. Thus we have a representation of the hair, in place of the actual hair (No. 798), and the reliefs with limbs, mentioned above (Nos. 799-810). It has been already suggested that in the Sepulchral Banquet reliefs, which might be classed as votive reliefs, the banquet is represented in sculpture as a substitute for the actual offerings of food.
A special class of votive reliefs consists of those which are found at the head of decrees, treaties, and similar political documents. An Athenian treaty, for example, is headed by a representation of Athene, and of the patron deity of the other state, which may appear in the attitude of a suppliant or adorant. (Compare Schone, _Griech. Reliefs_, Nos. 48-53.) Similarly at the head of a decree of citizenship or proxenia, the newly admitted citizen appears as worshipping the goddess (cf. Schone, No. 93, and p. 20, and below, Nos. 771-773).
STELAE SURMOUNTED BY DECORATIVE DESIGNS.
For an account of these stelae, see above, p. 296.
[Sidenote: =599.=]
Stele with two rosettes. Above, an acroterion, formed of acanthus leaves and palmette combined (fig. 24).
[Illustration: Fig. 24.--Sepulchral stele of Smikylion, No. 599.]
Inscribed [Greek: Smikylion Eualkidou ek Kerameon]--Smikylion, son of Eualkides, of the deme of the Cerameicos.--_Athens._ _Presented by A.
Robinson, Esq., R.N._
Pentelic marble; height, 2 feet 9-1/2 inches; width, 1 foot 5-1/2 inches. _Synopsis_ No. 441. _Greek Inscriptions in Brit. Mus._, LXXXVI.; _C.I.A._, II., 2139.
[Sidenote: =600.=]
Plain stele of Hippocrates and Baukis; surmounted by an acroterion in low relief, of palmette form.
Inscribed [Greek: Hippokrates, Baukis]. Below the surface of the stele is flat, and probably was painted.--_Athens._ _Elgin Coll._
Pentelic marble; height, 4 feet 1 inch; width, 1 foot 3 inches.
_Mus. Marbles_, IX., pl. 29, fig. 4. _Synopsis_, No. 351 (175); Ellis, _Elgin Marbles_, II., p. 152; _C.I.G._, 958; _C.I.A._, II., 3810. _Greek Inscriptions in Brit. Mus._, CXX.
[Sidenote: =601.=]
Fragment of a plain stele, surmounted by an acroterion, in the form of a palmette in low relief, springing from acanthus leaves.
Inscribed [Greek: Assklepiodoros Thrasonos Olynthios, Epikydes Asklepiodorou Olynthios]--Asclepiodoros, son of Thrason, of Olynthos; Epikydes, son of Asclepiodoros, of Olynthos.--_Probably from Athens._ _Elgin Coll._
Pentelic marble; height, 1 foot 5 inches; width, 1 foot 3/4 inch.
_Mus. Marbles_, IX., pl. 29, fig. 2; _Synopsis_, No. 258 (169); Ellis, _Elgin Marbles_, II., p. 152; _C.I.G._, 879; _C.I.A._, II., 3243; _Greek Inscriptions in Brit. Mus._, CVI.
[Sidenote: =602.=]
Acroterion in form of palmette from a stele.--_Athens._ _Inwood Coll._
Pentelic marble; height, 1 foot 9 inches; width, 1 foot 10 inches.
_Synopsis_, No. 418.
[Sidenote: =603.=]
Acroterion, from a stele, of palmette form, springing from acanthus leaves.--_Inwood Coll._
Pentelic marble; height, 10 inches. _Synopsis_, No. 414; Inwood, _Erechtheion_, pl. 31, p. 147.
[Sidenote: =604.=]
Fragment of an acroterion of a stele in form of a palmette springing from acanthus leaves.--_Athens?_ _Elgin Coll._
Pentelic marble; height, 1 foot 8-1/2 inches; width, 11 inches.
_Synopsis_, No. 191 (95). _Mus. Marbles_, IX., pl. 29, fig. 3.
[Sidenote: =605.=]
Stele, surmounted by acroterion. One central palmette, and two half palmettes at the sides spring from acanthus leaves.
Inscribed [Greek: Eumachos Euthymachou [A]lope[k]ethe[n]]--Eumachos, son of Euthymachos, of the deme of Alopeke.
_Athens._--_Obtained by Chandler in his Expedition for the Society of Dilettanti in 1765, and presented by the Society._
Pentelic marble; height, 1 foot 8 inches; width, 1 foot 5-1/4 inches. _Synopsis_, No. 283 (292*); _C.I.G._, 579; _C.I.A._, II., 1812. _Greek Inscriptions in Brit. Mus._, LXXIX.; _Stereoscopic_, No. 121; Wolters, No. 1104.
[Sidenote: 606.]
Top of stele, with central palmette and two half palmettes, springing from acanthus leaves. _Found in the side of a mound, near Maritza, Rhodes._
Marble; height, 2 feet 3 inches; width, 2 feet 3-1/4 inches.
[Sidenote: =607.=]
Upper part of stele, surmounted by a central palmette and two half palmettes, springing from acanthus leaves. Similar to last, but in lower relief.
_Probably from Athens._ _Formerly in the collection of Lord Elgin._
Pentelic marble; height, 1 foot 7 inches; width, 1 foot 1-3/4 inches. _Journ. of Hellen. Studies_, VI., p. 42, No. 2.
[Sidenote: =608.=]