Familiarity and Phenomenology in Greece: Accumulated Votives as Group-made Monuments

Abstract

Greek devotional activity from the eighth through third centuries included the accumulation of common votive types, many of which exhibited similar motifs and repetitive designs. This paper explores constructed assemblages by focusing on the dedication of objects featuring visual and iconographic “sameness.” Building on the work of D. Morgan and J. González, this paper theorizes Greek votive accumulations as larger conglomerations that impact religious experience through the artifacts’ very number and ubiquity. Evidence from Athens and Corinth suggests that an individual’s personal biography and past movements through the local landscape gave pervasive religious imagery a sense of familiarity and meaningfulness. While the appearance of ubiquitous votives may have been dictated by tradition and manufacturing realities, their use to create monumental votive deposits had phenomenological impact. Drawing on evidence from treasury records and excavated material at a number of Greek sanctuaries, this paper argues that, when they formed assemblages of repetitive religious images, worshippers created larger, dynamic monuments out of individual items. The clustered offerings participated in an “aesthetics of accumulation,” visually and physically linking individuals to a network of other worshippers.