809. Tablet with votive relief representing a left leg from above the knee in relief, dedicated to Asclepios and Hygieia.
Inscribed: Ἀσκληπίῳ καὶ Ὑγ(ι)είᾳ εὐχαριστήριον.—Found in 1828, in a Shrine of Asclepios in Melos. Blacas Coll.
Parian marble; height, 1 foot 1½ inches; width, 7½ inches. Annali dell' Inst., 1829, p. 341; Exp. de Morée, III., pl. 29, fig. 2; C.I.G., 2429; Greek Inscriptions in Brit. Mus., CCCLXV. This relief was found together with the fine head of Asclepios (No. 550) and with a votive inscription (C.I.G., 2428).
810. Tablet with votive relief, representing a right ear. The right side of the tablet is lost.—Cyrenè.
Marble; height, 6¾ inches; width, 10 inches. Smith and Porcher, p. 108, No. 148.
811. Square votive tablet, dedicated by Anthusa, the daughter of Damainetos. On the tablet, within a raised wreath, the following objects are sculptured in relief:—In the centre is a bowl (phialè) inscribed with the dedication. Round this bowl are ranged a mirror, a torch, a spindle, a comb, a small phial, a small box with a lid containing three little circular boxes, which probably held paints; a pair of shoes; a small mortar, containing a pestle, shaped like a bent thumb; a knife, a strigil, a bottle, two bodkins, a small oval box with a lid, which probably held a sponge; a pair of shoes, and a conical object like a cap. The raised wreath which encircles these objects is composed of pomegranates, ears of corn, and ivy-berries, round which a sash is wound. Outside the wreath, on the upper right-hand corner of the tablet, a situla is sculptured in low relief, and a small footstool (?) on the lower corner on the same side. The corresponding angles on the left side of the tablet have been broken away, but the upper angle appears to have contained a situla. The relief is inscribed Ἀνθούση Δαμαινέτου ὑποστάτρια. Ὑποστάτρια probably denotes some minister of inferior rank in the temple of the goddess to whom the tablet was dedicated. The explanation of the word στάτρια given by Hesychius (ἐμπλεκτρία), makes it probable that the function of the ὑποστάτρια here mentioned was to dress the image of the goddess. This and the tablet No. 812 were found by the Earl of Aberdeen built into a ruined Byzantine church at Slavochori in Laconia, a place which is believed to be the site of the ancient Amyclae. The combination of pomegranates and ears of corn, the symbols of Persephonè and Demeter, with ivy-berries and fir-cones, the symbols of Dionysos, makes it probable that in the temple in which these tablets were dedicated, these deities had a joint worship.
Pausanias (iii., 20, 4) mentions a town near Amyclae called Bryseae, where was a temple of Dionysos which none but women were permitted to enter, and where women only performed the sacrifices. It is not improbable, as Lord Aberdeen conjectured, that these votive tablets were originally dedicated in this temple, and thence brought to Slavochori. It was a common custom among the Greeks to dedicate articles of female attire and toilet in the temples of goddesses. (See Greek Inscriptions in Brit. Mus., No. xxxiv.)—Brought from Greece by George, fourth Earl of Aberdeen; presented by George, fifth Earl of Aberdeen, 1861.
Marble; height, 3 feet; width, 2 feet 9½ inches. This sculpture, with the following, was first published, in a strangely perverted form, by Caylus (Recueil d'Antiq., II., pl. 51), from drawings by Fourmont. Lord Aberdeen published them, with an engraving in Walpole's Memoirs relating to Turkey, London, 1817, I., p. 446. See also C.I.G., 1467; Leake, Travels in the Morea, I., p. 188, and Peloponnesiaca, pp. 163-165; Greek Inscriptions in Brit. Mus., CXLI.; Wolters, No. 1852; Guide to Graeco-Roman Sculptures, Part II., No. 11; Mansell, No. 728.