IGII34 1254 Dedication to Zeus Hypsistos(?)

Dedication to Zeus Hypsistos(?)

IG II³ 4 1254 Date: 2nd cent. AD

. . . bodies (?) . . . . . . ^[1] Relief

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References:

IG II³ 4 1254 (Translated text) (IG Online)

Agora XVIII 574

Translation by: Peter Liddel

Images: Agora Excavations - (1)

Monument type: Plaque

Inscription type: Dedication (private, Hypsistos?)

Findspot: Between Acropolis and Areopagos (Ag. I 5721)

Transliterations on Places on

[1] This is identified as 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. This example represents a belly and vulva. It must have some connection with female health, although we need not necessarily assume that the dedicant was suffering from a disease or injury directly afflicting the belly, genitalia or reproductive organs. A connection with fertility more generally is also possible. Two other representations of vulvae survive among the inscribed dedications to Hypsistos: see IG II³ 4, 1262 and IG II³ 4, 1270 = AIUK 4.5 no. 20. For vulvae deriving from places in Attica other than the Pnyx as dedications to Aphrodite, see IG II³ 4, 1519-21, 1532.

Added: 15 Mar 2022
Updated: 15 Mar 2022
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ID: AIO_2268