A similar substitution of a representation for the object is found in the series of offerings which commemorate recovery from disease or bodily injury. The upper part of Cases 103-106 contains a set of marble reliefs (No. 118) found at the foot of the Pnyx at Athens, the rocky semicircular meeting-place of the Athenian people. They are dedicated by women—Eutychis, Isias, Olympias, and others—to Zeus the Highest, and have representations of various parts of the human body, such as eyes, breasts, arms, etc. These reliefs, which are of Roman date, are clearly thank-offerings for recovery from disease. There must have been a regular trade in these models, for Clement of Alexandria, writing about 200 A.D., talks of "those who manufacture ears and eyes of precious wood and dedicate them to the gods, setting them up in their temples."[20] No. 119, from a shrine of Asklepios in Melos, is a relief representing a left leg, dedicated, as the inscription shows, by way of thank-offering to the deities of healing, Asklepios and Hygieia. Next it is a small relief from Cyrene (No. 120), showing a right ear. There are several other objects here exhibited which were probably offered by grateful votaries in return for healing mercies. Such are the bronze ticket with a bronze leg suspended from it (No. 121), inscribed with the name of the donor Caledus, and two arms with a chain for suspension. In Cases 105 and 106 a whole series of terracotta votive hands, feet, eyes, breasts, etc., doubtless represents the thank-offerings of the poorer classes. With these is a curious terracotta model (No 122; fig. 36) of the lungs (A), heart (B), liver (C), kidneys (D), spleen (E), and other internal organs of the human body. Though primarily of a votive character, it is of considerable interest to the student of ancient anatomy. A votive relief of rather different character is placed on the upper shelf. It represents two plaited locks of hair dedicated (as the inscription records) by Philombrotos and Aphthonetos, sons of Deinomachos, to Poseidon, god of the sea (No. 123; fig. 37). It was a common custom in Greece to dedicate hair at important crises of life, particularly to deities connected with water. Achilles, on the death of Patroklos, shore off for him the hair he was growing long as an offering to the river Spercheios.[21]
Fig. 37.—Sculptured Locks of Hair Dedicated to Poseidon (No. 123). Ht. 13½ in.
Fig. 38.—Bronze Votive Hare (No. 124). L. 2¾ in.
Other objects illustrating the frequency and variety of Greek and Roman dedications may best be described in approximately chronological order. Two objects, which are more fully dealt with in other sections, may here be mentioned. In the sixth century B.C. the athlete Exoidas dedicated to the Dioscuri, patrons of athletic exercise, the bronze diskos (fig. 50; No. 157) with which he had conquered "the high-souled" Kephallenians in athletic contest. The helmet, dedicated by Hieron after his naval victory off Kyme, has been already described (p. [8]). Other votive helmets are shown in Cases 114-5. For the votive spearheads (?) see p. [9]. The huntsman, no less than the athlete and the warrior, felt that the gods took an intimate part in his successes. This is illustrated by the inscribed bronze model of a hare in Case 103, with its head thrown back in the death agony (No. 124; fig. 38). The Ionic letters, of about 480 B.C., read: "Hephaestion dedicated me to Apollo of Priene."[22] This offering reminds us of another exhibited in the left-hand wall-case in the Greek Ante-Room downstairs. A small limestone statuette, found on the site of the Greek settlement of Naukratis in Egypt, represents a young huntsman with two boars and two hares slung over his shoulders. It is inscribed "A dedication by Kallias"—probably to Aphrodite, since it was found within her precinct (Cat. of Sculpt., I., 118).
Fig. 39.—Tablet, with Dedication by Lophios (No. 125). 1:2.
Other interesting Greek dedications of an early date are the bronze tablet (Case 105: No. 125; fig. 39) found in Corfu, with an inscription showing it to be an offering by one Lophios[23]; the silver ingot (No. 126) dedicated to Zeus Lykaeos (Zeus "the wolf-god") by Trygon; and the elaborate axe-head (No. 127; fig. 40), found in Calabria, which bears an inscription recording that it was vowed to Hera of the Plain by Kyniskos, a "cook," as a tenth of his earnings (sixth century B.C.).[24]
