Religion and Death

Votives and Sacrifice

Apulian Red Figure Krater 4th century b.c.


Votives were gifts offered to the gods by their worshippers. They were often given in thanks for something good happening or to ask the gods for a favour. Sometimes they could be offered as an apology to the gods for crimes involving blood-guilt, or the breaking religious customs. They could be given either voluntarily or in response to demands by the cult's priesthood.

Cult Statues Votives were kept on display in the god's sanctuary for a set period of time and then were usually ritually discarded. Bronze tripods, prize cauldrons and figurines, terracotta tablets and figurines, lamps, and vases are typical examples. Armour, weapons, jewelry and other more personalized items were dedicated in large numbers, along with marble statuettes and reliefs.

Some of the healing sanctuaries housed copies of body parts donated in thanks for or in hope of cures. Large sculptural monuments in bronze, marble and other costly materials were routinely donated by either private donors or individual city-states in the great Panhellenic sanctuaries like Olympia and Delphi.

Sacrifices were also thought of as gifts to the gods. They took the form of bloodless offerings such as grasses, roots, cereal grains, fruits, cheese, oil, honey, milk and incense, or were blood-offerings like wild and domesticated animals, birds and fish. The foodstuffs and liquids were either burnt on raised altars so that their smell could rise heavenward or dropped or poured into wells, holes or tombs. What was left was usually eaten by the sacrificers.

Attic Red Figure Kylix ca. 480 b.c. Attic Red Figure Kylix
ca. 480 BC
By the Foundry Painter and the potter Euphronios
31-19-2
A centauromachy or battle between two armed Greek warriors and an elderly centaur armed with the limb of a tree.
H. 9.7; L. 31.2; Dia. 23.8 cm. Photo by Maria Daniels for the Perseus Project. (large version)
South Italian Greek Terracotta Votive Figurine ca. 450-425 b.c. South Italian Greek Terracotta Votive Figurine
ca. 450-425 BC
MS 1857
Either a Demeter or Persephone figurine or a priestess. The low polos headdress is associated with both, but the apron suggests a priestess. Carrying a piglet, she holds aloft a circular box or kanoun. Inexpensive terracottas depicting female subjects turn up in very large quantities in sanctuaries dedicated to female goddesses throughout the Greek world. Women were especially active in all aspects of Demeter's cult.
H. 32.5; W. 13.0; Th. 8.0 cm. UM neg. S8-55808. (large verison)
Attic Red Figure Kylix ca. 490-480 b.c. Attic Red Figure Kylix
ca. 490-480 BC
By the Antiphon Painter and the potter Euphronios
Perhaps Chiusi, Italy
MS 2448
A youth walks along with a piglet and a sacrificial basket. The piglet was the favorite animal to sacrifice to Demeter and her daughter, Persephone, but could also be offered to other deities. In the autumn Demeter's Eleusinian initiates walked to the Saronic Gulf, each carrying a piglet. The animals were purified in the sea before being sacrificed. It may be a moment from this familiar annual event that is pictured here.
H. 10.0; L. 31.0; Dia. 24.0 cm. Photo by Maria Daniels for the Perseus Project. (large version)
Apulian Red Figure Krater 4th century b.c. Apulian Red Figure Krater
4th century BC
On loan, Philadelphia Museum of Art
L-64-42 detail
Scene of sacrifice, perhaps from a play. A grotesque bearded man, perhaps a slave, wearing a short chiton, high sandals and pointed straw hat, stands in front of an altar. He holds a libation pitcher and large knife. A second comic or bearded, mustachioed male, wearing a tall felt hat and short chiton, holds a sheep over an altar. A woman holds out a ritual winnowing basket, used in the rites of Demeter and Dionysus.
Photo courtesy Mediterranean Section, Univ. of Pennsylvania Museum. (large version)

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