AIUK45 no. 13 Dedication to Zeus Hypsistos by Isias

Dedication to Zeus Hypsistos by Isias

AIUK 4.5 (BM, Dedications) no. 13 Date: 2nd - 3rd cent. AD

Relief Isias, to the Highest (God), a vow. ^[1]

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Greek text

References:

AIUK 4.5 (BM, Dedications) no. 13 (Translated text) (AIO) (AIUK)

IG II² 4804 (PHI)

IG II³ 4 1255 (IG Online)

GIBM I 67

Translation by: Peter Liddel, Polly Low

AIO Images: 1 2

Monument type: Plaque

Inscription type: Dedication (private, Hypsistos)

Findspot: Pnyx (BM 1816,0610.209)

Transliterations on Places on

[1] This is one of a number of inscribed dedications to “Zeus The All High” (Zeus Hypsistos) which were discovered in Athens in 1803 by George Hamilton-Gordon, fourth Earl of Aberdeen (1784-1860), who was later to become British Prime Minister. Dating from the 1st, and mostly to the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD, Aberdeen found them in excavations on the Pnyx hill, which had formerly been the meeting place of the Athenian Assembly. It seems that they were originally set up in niches of the escarpment of the Pnyx auditorium. Many of them take the shape of miniature altars, anatomical votives (including representations of breasts, vulvae, eyes, parts of the face, limbs) or plain plaques dedicated to Zeus The All High (sometimes, as here, referred to simply as "The All High One" or "The All High God"). On the character of the cult, see S. Mitchell, in S. Athanassiadi and M. Frede eds., Pagan Monotheism in Late Antiquity (1999), 81–148 (Attic inscriptions, 128–129), suggesting that the cult represents an important point of transition between paganism and monotheism; and in S. Mitchell and P. van Nuffelen eds., One God (2010), 167−208 (cf. SEG 60.2036).

The word “vow” (euchē) is common in this form of dedication, but it is not clear whether it seeks or follows the intervention of the god. In this case, a single breast is carved in relief above the inscription. Votive breasts are a common form of dedication, and several examples are known from this sanctuary (see AIUK 4.5 nos. 14 and 15; cf. also IG II³ 4, 1243, 1244, 1245, 1248, 1249, 1251 (a pair)). They must have some connection with female health, although we need not necessarily assume that the dedicant was suffering from a disease directly afflicting the breast. A connection with breast-feeding, or fertility more generally, is also possible.

For other inscribed dedications from the Pnyx Hill now at the British Museum, see AIUK 4.5 nos. 12-23 with general discussion at AIUK 4.5 section 6B; for an account of their discovery, transportation to London and eventual transfer to the British Museum, see AIUK 4.5 section 1.

For the whole set of extant inscribed dedications associated with Hypsistos, many of which were discovered subsequent to Aberdeen's excavations. see IG II³ 4, 1239 - 1276. This includes a dedication in the collection of the British School at Athens, IG II³ 4, 1269 = AIUK 2 no. 7. Forsén's comparison of the dimensions of extant votives with those of the carved niches in the scarp to the east of the bema of the Pnyx allows him to hypothesise, sometimes with a quite high degree of precision, about their original location; see Forsén, Hesperia 62, 1993, 507-21.

Added: 15 Mar 2022
Updated: 29 Mar 2024
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