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 Prienè, 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 Athenè (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 Athenè, and of the patron deity of the other state, which may appear in the attitude of a suppliant or adorant. (Compare Schöne, 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. Schöne, 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].
599. Stelè with two rosettes. Above, an acroterion, formed of acanthus leaves and palmette combined (fig. 24).