AIUK45 no. 20 Dedication to Zeus Hypsistos by Olympias

Dedication to Zeus Hypsistos by Olympias

AIUK 4.5 (BM, Dedications) no. 20 Date: 2nd-3rd cent. AD

Ὀλυμπιὰς Ὑψίστῳ εὐχήν. Relief

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Translated text

References:

AIUK 4.5 (BM, Dedications) no. 20 (Translated text) (AIO) (AIUK)

IG II² 4800 (PHI)

IG II³ 4 1270 (IG Online)

GIBM I 62

Translation by: Peter Liddel, Polly Low

AIO Images: 1

Monument type: Plaque

Inscription type: Dedication (private, Hypsistos)

Findspot: Pnyx (BM 1816,0610.216)

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 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 the area of a 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 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, 1254 and 1262. 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: 24 May 2023
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