Marble Votive Relief Dedicated to a Hero in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, February 2012

Marble votive relief dedicated to a hero

Period: Late Classical

Date: late 4th century B.C.

Culture: Greek, Attic

Medium: Marble

Dimensions: Overall: 9 7/16 x 10 1/2 x 2in. (24 x 26.7 x 5.1cm)

Classification: Stone Sculpture

Credit Line: Gift of Joseph V. Noble, 1957

Accession Number: 57.42

Description:

Inscribed to the physician

A hero was a deceased person who exerted from his grave a power for good or evil and demanded appropriate honor. The cult was concentrated at the grave, which was marked off as a special precinct and known as a heroon. As with the Olympian gods, there were animal sacrifices and offering of food and libation. The principal cultic activity was a feast of the living in company with the dead hero and in his honor. Votive reliefs often show the hero, as here, reclining at such a meal and being approached by worshipers, shown in smaller scale.

Text from: www.metmuseum.org/collection/the-collection-online/search/254966