DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.45047#0163
I3O
ΑΤΤΙΚΑ. — STATUES AND DEDICATIONS.
(Attische Studien, i. Pnyx und Stadtmauer, Gottin-
gen, 1862). Rangabe (Ant. Hell., ii. p. 579, foil.)
and Mr. Dyer (in an appendix to his recent work
on Athens) defend the older view. I refer to the
dispute here only so far as it affects the interpreta-
tion of these votive tablets. If the spot where they
were discovered be indeed the Pnyx, then it may be
remarked that votive tablets generally, like those
before us, belong to late Roman times, and that the
Pnyx had then ceased to be the usual place of
public assembly (cp. Athenaeos, v. p. 213; Ah-
rens, de Statu Athenarum, etc., p. 28.) It might
well have happened, says Ross (in the essay above
cited, p. 16), at a time when the Pnyx had become
a place of solitude and silence, that some pious per-
son, warned it may be in a dream, erected in a niche
of its massive rocks a statue or statues of Highest
Zeus, and that the spot thus consecrated afterwards
acquired a high degree of religious reverence partly
from the importance of the individual himself, and
partly perhaps from wonderful cures effected upon
the votaries of the deity. Of such consecrations of
niches and grottoes in rocks there are many ex-
amples (cp. C. I. 456; Wordsworth, Ath. and Att.,
ch. xii), as are there also of dedications arising out
of a dream, as when Perikles set up a bronze statue
on the Akropolis to Athena Hygieia by reason of a
vision (Plut. Perikles, ch. xiii). On the other hand,
if, with most recent archaeologists, we regard the
so-called Pnyx as a rock altar of Highest Zeus,
then the discovery of our inscriptions there is
natural enough, and I have only to remark that the
solemn worship of Zeus at this place, indications of
which are thought to be traceable in Aeschylus (e. g.
in Eumen. 997, χαΐρετ αστικοί A«bs, ϊκταρ ημζνοι Ztos,
and in the scenery of the Suppliants: see Curtius,
Att. Stud., i. p. 39), must have survived to a late
period in the superstitious devotion of the lower
orders—for such, as will be seen, were the women
who dedicated these tablets. Zeus was largely wor-
shipped at Athens, especially in the earlier times.
Upon the Akropolis in front of the Erechtheion
was an altar to Ζζύί ύπατοί (Pausan., i. 26. 6), to
whom, as we learn from Demosthenes (In Meid.,
p. 531)—and this is important for our votive in-
scriptions—it was not an unknown thing for persons
περί vyieiai θύΐΐν και εϋχεσθαι. The superlative ύφ-ι-
στοί was probably substituted in place of ύπατοί by
the piety of later times, when Highest Zeus was
worshipped in all parts of Greece (Weicker, Gotterl.,
ii. p. 181). The connexion of Zeus Hypsistos with
healing is explained by the passage cited above
from Demosthenes, as well as by the fact that Zeus
was worshipped under the titles έξακεστήριοί and
παιάν (Hesych., s. vv.).
Votive dedications to Διΐ ύψίστω (sometimes
ΰψΊστω, or merely ϋψΑτω, or Διΐ) have been found in
many parts of the Graeco-Roman world, belonging
almost always to late times (e. g. C. I. 1869, 3669,
5929, 6832; Rangabe, Ant. Hell., No. 2362; Spratt
and Forbes, Travels in Lycia, ii. p. 290; and others
mentioned by Weicker, Gotterl., ii. p. 181,/z: cp.
Keil, zur Syllog. inscr. Boeotic., p. 655).
The dedication to some healing god of a repre-
sentation of that portion of the body which had
been cured, was an expression of piety common
with the Greeks, as it is still in some Roman
Catholic countries (Schomann, Gr. Alt.·, ii. p. 206;
cp. 1 Sam. vi. 4). More will be said on this point
when we come to the list of temple treasures in
the Amphiarai'on at Oropos (C. I. 1570). I now
proceed to the rest of these votive tablets.
LXI.
A plain tablet of white marble : height, 4| in.; breadth, 6 in. From the Elgin Collection. Dodwell, Tour, i. p. 402; Clarke, Travels,
pt. ii. § ii. p. 466; Osann, Syll., p. 224; C. I. 498; Museum Marbles, pt. ix. pl. 41, fig. 9,
ΣΥΝΤΡΟΦΟΣ
γΨίΣΤΩλίΙ
ΧΑΡΙΣΤΗΡΙΟΝ
Σύντροφοί νφ·ίστω Διι \αριστήριον.
See note on the preceding tablet.
ΑΤΤΙΚΑ. — STATUES AND DEDICATIONS.
(Attische Studien, i. Pnyx und Stadtmauer, Gottin-
gen, 1862). Rangabe (Ant. Hell., ii. p. 579, foil.)
and Mr. Dyer (in an appendix to his recent work
on Athens) defend the older view. I refer to the
dispute here only so far as it affects the interpreta-
tion of these votive tablets. If the spot where they
were discovered be indeed the Pnyx, then it may be
remarked that votive tablets generally, like those
before us, belong to late Roman times, and that the
Pnyx had then ceased to be the usual place of
public assembly (cp. Athenaeos, v. p. 213; Ah-
rens, de Statu Athenarum, etc., p. 28.) It might
well have happened, says Ross (in the essay above
cited, p. 16), at a time when the Pnyx had become
a place of solitude and silence, that some pious per-
son, warned it may be in a dream, erected in a niche
of its massive rocks a statue or statues of Highest
Zeus, and that the spot thus consecrated afterwards
acquired a high degree of religious reverence partly
from the importance of the individual himself, and
partly perhaps from wonderful cures effected upon
the votaries of the deity. Of such consecrations of
niches and grottoes in rocks there are many ex-
amples (cp. C. I. 456; Wordsworth, Ath. and Att.,
ch. xii), as are there also of dedications arising out
of a dream, as when Perikles set up a bronze statue
on the Akropolis to Athena Hygieia by reason of a
vision (Plut. Perikles, ch. xiii). On the other hand,
if, with most recent archaeologists, we regard the
so-called Pnyx as a rock altar of Highest Zeus,
then the discovery of our inscriptions there is
natural enough, and I have only to remark that the
solemn worship of Zeus at this place, indications of
which are thought to be traceable in Aeschylus (e. g.
in Eumen. 997, χαΐρετ αστικοί A«bs, ϊκταρ ημζνοι Ztos,
and in the scenery of the Suppliants: see Curtius,
Att. Stud., i. p. 39), must have survived to a late
period in the superstitious devotion of the lower
orders—for such, as will be seen, were the women
who dedicated these tablets. Zeus was largely wor-
shipped at Athens, especially in the earlier times.
Upon the Akropolis in front of the Erechtheion
was an altar to Ζζύί ύπατοί (Pausan., i. 26. 6), to
whom, as we learn from Demosthenes (In Meid.,
p. 531)—and this is important for our votive in-
scriptions—it was not an unknown thing for persons
περί vyieiai θύΐΐν και εϋχεσθαι. The superlative ύφ-ι-
στοί was probably substituted in place of ύπατοί by
the piety of later times, when Highest Zeus was
worshipped in all parts of Greece (Weicker, Gotterl.,
ii. p. 181). The connexion of Zeus Hypsistos with
healing is explained by the passage cited above
from Demosthenes, as well as by the fact that Zeus
was worshipped under the titles έξακεστήριοί and
παιάν (Hesych., s. vv.).
Votive dedications to Διΐ ύψίστω (sometimes
ΰψΊστω, or merely ϋψΑτω, or Διΐ) have been found in
many parts of the Graeco-Roman world, belonging
almost always to late times (e. g. C. I. 1869, 3669,
5929, 6832; Rangabe, Ant. Hell., No. 2362; Spratt
and Forbes, Travels in Lycia, ii. p. 290; and others
mentioned by Weicker, Gotterl., ii. p. 181,/z: cp.
Keil, zur Syllog. inscr. Boeotic., p. 655).
The dedication to some healing god of a repre-
sentation of that portion of the body which had
been cured, was an expression of piety common
with the Greeks, as it is still in some Roman
Catholic countries (Schomann, Gr. Alt.·, ii. p. 206;
cp. 1 Sam. vi. 4). More will be said on this point
when we come to the list of temple treasures in
the Amphiarai'on at Oropos (C. I. 1570). I now
proceed to the rest of these votive tablets.
LXI.
A plain tablet of white marble : height, 4| in.; breadth, 6 in. From the Elgin Collection. Dodwell, Tour, i. p. 402; Clarke, Travels,
pt. ii. § ii. p. 466; Osann, Syll., p. 224; C. I. 498; Museum Marbles, pt. ix. pl. 41, fig. 9,
ΣΥΝΤΡΟΦΟΣ
γΨίΣΤΩλίΙ
ΧΑΡΙΣΤΗΡΙΟΝ
Σύντροφοί νφ·ίστω Διι \αριστήριον.
See note on the preceding tablet.