Rules of the Game. Individual Donations in relation to the Cult Image during the Hellenistic Period

Dirk Steuernagel

p. 77-97


Extrait

Introduction

1Discussions about the developments of Greek religion between the Late Classical and the Hellenistic Age have revealed an apparently self-contradictory change, concerning the relationship between worshippers and gods. On the one hand, language and wording of Hellenistic votive inscriptions seem to reflect a rather personal and emotional way of addressing the divinity, and at the same time the gods often seem to become apparent to their worshippers directly, for example by epiphany and in dreams1. On the other hand, visual representations of Hellenistic gods show them somewhat dissociated from men. This process had its starting point already in the IVth century B.C. On votive reliefs of this period from Attica, we see divinities clearly distinguished from men by position and scale (fig. 1)2. Still, both are acting on the same level, within the same architectural frame and are interrelated by rituals of prayer and sacrifice, in which the deity takes active part throug

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