Votive Plaque with Two Breasts Dedicated to Zeus Hypsistos
Unknown · Roman Imperial, first to early fourth century AD
A small rectangular plaque of limestone, seventeen centimetres wide, shows two breasts modelled in high relief above a Greek inscription. Holes drilled in the upper corners allowed it to be hung on a wall or a post in a sanctuary. The surface is worn and a corner is broken, but the dedication can still be read: it is addressed to the Most High God, Theos Hypsistos, invoked here as a healer. Look at the simple, direct modelling, the work of a local carver rather than a sculptor.
Plaques showing the part of the body that hurt, or that had been cured, were offered to healing gods across the Greek and Roman world. On Cyprus they were especially common at Golgoi, near modern Athienou, where this one probably comes from. The Most High God was a title used by Jews, pagans and later Christians alike, and it is uncertain which community the dedicant belonged to. The Louvre purchased the plaque in eighteen ninety-seven.
Did You Know? Anatomical offerings like this survive in their thousands across the Greek and Roman world, each one a small record of an illness and a prayer.
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