Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 14, 1903.djvu/302

 276 Greek Votive Offerings.

statues were votive and others were not " (p. 168). But is not the solution of this and kindred problems to be found in the fact that honorific statues are only an outcome or development of votive offerings? In all personal dedica- tions there is an element of honour to the dedicator as well as of honour to the deity. This element increases pari passu with the importance of the gift. Any one might offer a small terra-cotta group, but a life-size portrait was quite another thing — probably a privilege reserved for the great and good. As temple-precincts became crowded, permission to dedicate portrait-statues would be more and more restricted ; a vote of the people would become necessary, and so stress would be laid upon the honorific aspect of the dedication. Greater honour still would be conferred upon public benefactors, of whom portrait-statues w'ere erected at the public cost. Finally, the honour done to the man altogether eclipses the original notion of an offering to the god, and these statues are put up in any place of public resort. In short, we trace the following evolution : —

(«) A man dedicates his own portrait in the sacred precinct at his own expense.

[b) A man is allowed by vote of the people to dedicate

his own portrait in the sacred precinct at his own expense.

(c) The people dedicate a man's portrait in the sacred

precinct at their expense. id) The people erect a man's portrait in some public place at their expense.

But how are we to distinguish the different stages of this sequence as " votive " and " honorific " ? All are votive except, perhaps, the last. All are honorific except, perhaps, the first. Any line that can be drawn will be somewhat arbitrary. Even Pausanias, who (Paus. 5. 21. i) distinguishes stage (<?) from stage (3), uses of the latter the