IGII34 1274 Dedication to Zeus Hypsistos by Isidote

Dedication to Zeus Hypsistos by Isidote

IG II³ 4 1274 Date: 2nd - 3rd cent. AD

Relief Isidote, to Zeus the Highest. ^[1]

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References:

IG II³ 4 1274 (Translated text) (IG Online)

IG II² 4808 (PHI)

Translation by: Peter Liddel

AIO Images: 1

Images: Arachne - (1, 2, 3)

Monument type: Plaque

Inscription type: Dedication (private, Zeus Hypsistos)

Findspot: Acropolis, North Slope (Lost (former Berlin SK 720))

Transliterations on Places on

[1] This is one of a number of imperial period dedications to Zeus Hypsistos (“Zeus The All High”) deriving possibly from the former site of the Athenian Assembly on the Pnyx. For other such dedications see AIUK 4.5 no. 13, with notes. Many of them take the form of anatomical votives. In this case the relief above the inscription represents the upper face consisting of eyes with eyebrows and the nose cut off below the bridge. Votive eyes are a common form of dedication in the context of healing cults, and other examples are known from this sanctuary (see AIUK 4.5 nos 16, 17 and IG II³ 4, 1274). Votive eyes need not necessarily imply a dedicant seeking the healing of diseased or injured eyes, but might allude to the eyes with which the dedicant saw a vision of a deity, or to the eyes of the deity him- or herself.

This inscription was once in the antiquity collection of the Staatliche Museen - Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Berlin, but was lost during the war of 1939-45 (see also IG II³ 4, 1248, 1249). Prior to this, a cast was made and is kept at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

Added: 15 Mar 2022
Updated: 28 Mar 2024
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ID: AIO_2287