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Greece, Etruria & Rome · c. 800 BCE – 500 CE

Anatomical votives

Meaning

A terracotta or bronze model of a body part (eye, ear, foot, leg, breast, womb, genitals, internal organs) represented the part of the body that was ill, or had been cured, placed in the god's keeping.

Intent

Worshippers dedicated them at healing sanctuaries of Asklepios and other gods, either asking for a cure or thanking the god after one, as a lasting record of the prayer. Wombs and genitals relate to fertility and childbirth.

Significance

They are among the most direct records of ancient illness and healing religion, and the clear ancestors of the Catholic ex-voto and the Latin American milagro, a continuous practice of more than 2,500 years.

History

Anatomical votives appear in Greece in the 5th century BCE (Corinth Asklepieion) and flood Etruscan and central Italian sanctuaries from the 4th to 1st centuries BCE, with tens of thousands at sites like Veii and Ponte di Nona. The practice continued into Christian Europe.

Making yours
Mould-made terracotta 5–30 cm, often hollow and with a flat back for hanging. Bronze sheet eyes and limbs are smaller.
Greece, Etruria & Rome: the tradition

Greeks called amulets periapta or phylakteria, 'things tied on' and 'protectors'; Romans said amuletum or ligatura. Both cultures feared the envious glance, baskania in Greek and invidia or fascinatio in Latin, and answered it with laughter, shock and the power of images: the Gorgon's face, the phallus, the crescent moon. Children, brides, soldiers and livestock were the most protected. Graeco-Egyptian magicians of the Roman Empire engraved gems and gold foils with divine names and signs, forming a written magic that passed to Byzantium, Islam and medieval Europe. Pliny the Elder's Natural History (77 CE) records hundreds of amuletic stones, plants and animal parts, and became the source book for later lapidaries.

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Votive Head of a KingVotive Head of a KingEgypt, Greco-Roman period (332 BCE–395 CE), reign of Ptolemy II Philadelphus (285–246 BCE) · 305–246 BCEVotive Arm and Hand of Zeus SabaziosVotive Arm and Hand of Zeus SabaziosItaly, Roman · 1–200 CEEx-voto: head of boy showing ring worm. Cast of original in Museum Campidoglio, Rome. Profile.Ex-voto: head of boy showing ring worm. Cast of original in Museum Campidoglio, Rome. Profile.United KingdomA clay-baked male genitalia. Roman votive offeringA clay-baked male genitalia. Roman votive offeringbetween 200 BC and 200 ADRoman votive offeringRoman votive offeringCup votive inscriptionCup votive inscriptionRoman ex-voto offering (?obstetrical) found in Suffolk.Roman ex-voto offering (?obstetrical) found in Suffolk.United KingdomClay-backed uterus. Roman votive offeringClay-backed uterus. Roman votive offeringbetween 200 BC and 200 ADA clay-bakedface. Roman votive offeringA clay-bakedface. Roman votive offeringA clay-backed face. 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Roman votive offeringClay-backed uterus. Roman votive offeringA clay-baked ear. Roman votive offeringA clay-baked ear. Roman votive offeringA clay-baked face Roman votive offeringA clay-baked face Roman votive offeringA clay-baked ear. Roman votive offeringA clay-baked ear. Roman votive offeringA clay-baked vulvas. Roman votive offeringA clay-baked vulvas. Roman votive offeringA clay-baked eye. Roman votive offeringA clay-baked eye. Roman votive offeringA clay-baked vulvas. Roman votive offeringA clay-baked vulvas. Roman votive offeringA clay-baked eye. Roman votive offeringA clay-baked eye. Roman votive offeringA clay-baked ear. Roman votive offeringA clay-baked ear. Roman votive offeringA clay-baked eye. Roman votive offeringA clay-baked eye. Roman votive offeringA clay-baked ear. Roman votive offeringA clay-baked ear. Roman votive offeringA clay-baked face. Roman votive offeringA clay-baked face. Roman votive offeringA clay-baked teeth. Roman votive offeringA clay-baked teeth. 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Roman votive offeringA clay-baked foot. Roman votive offeringA clay-baked foot. Roman votive offeringA clay-baked breast. Roman votive offeringA clay-baked breast. Roman votive offeringA clay-baked foot. Roman votive offeringA clay-baked foot. Roman votive offering

More from Greece, Etruria & Rome: Gorgoneion (Medusa head) · Bullae · Lunulae (crescent pendants) · Magical gems (Abraxas, Chnoubis) · Amulet capsules & gold lamellae · Herakles knots & Sabazios hands · Other & unsorted Greece
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Anything in the gallery can be made: any piece, any tradition, in its own material or yours, by hand from the documented original. Numbered. Price on commission, quoted before anything is made. I reply within one business day.