Collection: London, British Museum
Title: Votive relief to Bendis
Findspot: Found at Piraeus
Summary: Bendis receiving worshippers
Object Function: Votive
Material: Marble
Sculpture Type: Stele, relief-decorated
Category: Single monument
Style: Late Classical
Technique: Low relief
Original or Copy: Original
Date: ca. 350 BC - ca. 325 BC
Scale: Miniature
Region: Attica
Period: Late Classical

Subject Description:

Votive relief to Bendis, a Thracian deity whose cult was introduced into Athens toward the end of the 5th century. Her sanctuary was located in the Piraeus, where this relief was said to be found. The goddess stands at the right dressed in a short chiton-like garment with overfold reaching to the hips. The lightweight cloth produces many folds, especially where the dress is caught up by the animal skin worn from the left shoulder and wrapped tightly around the waist. It is a garment similar to one often worn by Greek Artemis. However the close-fitting long sleeves, resembling an element of Oriental costume, apparently belong to a garment worn beneath the chiton. For a similar representation see the inscribed figure of Bendis on the skyphos in Tübingen (Univ S/10 1347). The hood is also Eastern in style. Over the chiton and skin she wears a Thracian mantle fastened in front by a round brooch. Her legs are protected by long, leather boots. Her left hand is raised, capping the point of a long spear. With her right hand she appears to offer a round object to her worshippers, usually identified as a patera, though possibly the wreaths mentioned on the Copenhagen relief (see below).

To the left extends a line of worshippers led by two older, bearded and filleted (at least the second) men dressed in himatia. The first carries a torch in the right hand and receives the proffered object with the left. These are probably the e)pimelhtai/, mentioned in the inscription of an analogous relief in the Ny-Carlsberg in Copenhagen (Gl. 462; Poulsen 1951, 231) which records the awarding of wreaths to the overseers. The Copenhagen relief is dated to 329/28 BC. The torch presumably refers to the ceremonial torch races on horseback described by Plato (Plat. Rep. 328a) which were associated with the cult. The leaders are followed by eight youths, each nude and wearing a fillet but otherwise differentiated as much as possible by a variety of poses and attitudes.

Form & Style:

The relief is bordered on either side by pilasters, on the bottom by a ground line and above by an architrave whose architectural quality is emphasized by the row of antefixes which defines an otherwise simple molding as the element of a structure.

Date Description:

Generally dated to the second half of the 4c, but before the relief in Copenhagen dated by inscription to 329/28.

Condition: Intact

Condition Description:

Marginal loss at corners. Surface in good condition, with little weathering.

Material Description: Pentelic marble (Smith)

Collection History: Purchased in 1895. Said to have been found in Piraeus.

Sources Used: LIMC, 3.1 (Goceva & Popov); Nilsson 1960, 63; Picard/Manuel, 4.2, 1212; Smith 1892-1904, 3 no. 2155

Other Bibliography: Popov 1975; Goceva 1974, 81-6; Deubner 1932, 219-20; Demargne 1899, 370-73