15.240. Votive offering to Asklepios

Description:
Small white marble plaque/votive relief (W. 0.10 × H. 0.08 × D. 0.03) with a relief of two eyes. Perhaps cut down to left; broken away at right.
Text:
Inscribed on the face, below the eyes.
Letters:
No measurements; square sigma.
Date:
Perhaps first century A.D. (lettering).
Findspot:
Stray find
Original Location:
Unknown
Last recorded location:
Museum, on display (1980)
History of discovery:
Brought by a farmer to the NYU expedition in 1970 (70.551)
Bibliography:
Unpublished.
Text constituted from:
Transcription (Reynolds). This edition Reynolds (2007).
1 [···] Ἐλευθερ[ίος]
2[θε]ῷ Ἀσκλη̣[πίῳ]
3[ ?vv. ] vv. εὐχ[ὴν] vv.
1[···]ΕΛΕΥΘΕΡ[···]
2[··]ΩΑΣΚΛ·[···]
3[··]  ΕΥΧ[··]  
<ab>
<lb n="1" />
<gap reason="lost" extent="3" unit="character" />
Ἐλευθερ
<supplied reason="lost" >
ίος
</supplied>
<lb n="2" />
<supplied reason="lost" >
θε
</supplied>
ῷ
Ἀσκλ
<unclear reason="damage" >
η
</unclear>
<supplied reason="lost" >
πίῳ
</supplied>
<lb n="3" />
<supplied reason="lost" >
<space extent="2" unit="character" id="space3" dim="horizontal" />
</supplied>
<space extent="2" unit="character" dim="horizontal" />
εὐχ
<supplied reason="lost" >
ὴν
</supplied>
<space extent="2" unit="character" dim="horizontal" />
</ab>

Translation:

[·· ? ··] Eleuther[ios] to the god Asklepios (in payment of) a vow.

Commentary:

One of a group of votive offerings dedicated to Asclepius: three reliefs, 5.112 (=63.568), 5.117 (=63.570), 15.240 (=70.551), and a base, 4.113 (=90.26); the other three were found in or near the Baths of Hadrian.

Presumably the dedicator, whose gender is not clear, hoped for a cure for his/her eyes. Several dedications to Asclepius have been found in or near the Hadrianic Baths where there may have been a cult-place in which this stone too could have originated. All the dedications known are comparatively simple and suggest dedicators of no great wealth or status. The dedicator's name may be feminine (Eleutheria) instead of the masculine supplied here, but while neither is at all common, the masculine is overall the commoner.

Photographs:

Face (1980)
 Face (1980)

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