Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 14, 1903.djvu/290

 264 Greek Votive Offerings.

proper furniture for all uses, and beautiful things for his delight {a'^akixaTo)." This covers the temple-buildings, the precinct, votive altars, garments, etc. (2) For the maintenance and glorification of the shrine firstfruits and tithes of all sorts are required. These may be given in kind by hunters, breeders and farmers. Or they may be mineral offerings, whether ingots or manufactured articles or coins. Finally (3) " anything specially rare or precious would be an acceptable gift to a deity of like passions with the giver." Objects of this sort come under the title uKpoOlvia.

II. The second and larger division stands mentally and morally on a higher level. It " may be called ideal, as meaning more than appears on the surface ; and memorial, as intended to keep the god's beneficence before the mind of the man, and no less the man's piety or gratitude before the mind of the god.'" Thus, on the one hand, Asclepius bids an unbeliever dedicate a silver sow in memory of her stupidity {Epidaurian Cures 59, 39) ; and, on the other, Aceson in offering a relief to Asclepius says : — " You know why; if not, this tablet will remind you" [Anth. Pal. 6. 147). The objects presented to the god from this more advanced stand-point, where it is the thought rather than the thing that matters, are sub-divided by Dr. Rouse as follows: (i) The image of the patron deity, usually a simple copy of the cult-statue, e.g. the figures of Artemis with the fawn found in Corcyra {Bull, de corr. hell. XV. I ff.) ; rarely a copy of the statue modified by some attribute appropriate to the occasion, e.g. the colossus holding a ship's beak that was erected at Delphi after Salamis (Hdt. 8. 121). (2) The deity in his power, the latter being represented by some conventional attribute, e.g. Heracles with club and lionskin (Sybel, Kat. d. Skulpt. 2U Athen 320, a relief from Ithome) ; or by some traditional attitude, e.g. Apollo seated on the oracular tripod (Sybel ib. 1389, a relief from the Athenian Pythium). (3) The