Dictionary of Greek and Roman antiquities. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

DONARIA. DONARIA. 433
forfeited to the gods. Almost all presents of this as anathemata for the gods. (Aristoph. Equit.
kind were dedicated in temples, to which in some 792, and Schol.) The Athenians always dediplaces an especial building wras added, in which cated to Athena the tenth part of the spoil and
these treasures were preserved. Such buildings of confiscated goods; and to all the other gods colwere called Vo'avepof (treasuries); and in the most lectively, the fiftieth part. (Demosth. c. Timnocr.
frequented temples of Greece many states had their p. 738, &c.) After a seafight, a ship, placed upon
separate treasuries. (Biickh, Pieb. Econ. of Atlr. some eminence, was sometimes dedicated to Nepp. 441, &c. 2d edit.) The act of dedication was tune. (Thucyd. ii. 84; Herod. viii. 121.) It is
called &haT'reOvat, donate, dedicate, or sackare. not improbable that trophies which were always
The custom of making donations to the gods is erected on the field of battle, as well as the statues
found among the ancients from the earliest times of the victors in Olympia and other places, were
of which we have any record, down to the intro- originally intended as tokens of gratitude to the
duction of Christianity; and even after that period god who was supposed to be the cause of the sucit was, with some modifications, observed by the cess which the victorious party had gained. Wye
Christians during the middle ages. In the heroic also find that on some occasions the tenth part of
ages of Grecian history the anathemata were of a the profit of soine colnmercial undertaking was
simple description, and consisted of chaplets and dedicated to a god in the shape of a work of art.
garlands of flowers. A very c~mmon donation to Respecting the large and beautiful crater dedicated
thile gods seems to have been that of locks of hair oy the S:mlianls to Hiera, sie the article CRATER.
(KJprVS darapXai), which youths and maidens, Individuals who had escaped from some danger
especially young brides, cut off from their heads were no less anxious to show their gratitude to thle
and consecrated to some deity. (Horn. n. xxiii. gods by anathemata than communities. The in..
141; Aeschyl. Cltoeplh. 6; Eurip. Orest. 96 and stances which occur most frequently, are those of
1427, Baccrl. 493, Helen. 10,93; Plut. ThIes. 5; persons who had recovered from an illness, espePaus. i. 37. ~ 2.) This custom in some places cially by spending one or more nights in a temple
lasted till a very late period: the maidens of Delos of Asclepius (incubatio). The most celebrated
dedicated their hair before their wedding to temples of this divinity were those of Epidaurus,
Hlecaerge (Panus. i. 43. ~ 4), and those of Megara Cos, Tricca, and at a later period, that of Rome.
to Iphinoe. Pausalnias (ii. 11. ~ 6) saw the statue (Plin. H. N. xxix. 1; compare F. A. Wolf, Verof Hygieia at Titane, covered all over with ~eisctet Sc/hriftelnd A.fb'iitve, p. 411, &c.) Cures
locks of hair which had been dedicated by women. were also effected in the grotto of Pluto and
Costly garments. (7reirxo.) are likewise mentioned Proserpina, in the neighbourhood of Nisa. (Strab.
among the earliest presents ande to the gods, ix. p. 437, xiv. p, 649,) In all cases in which a
especially to Athena and Hera. (Hom. II. vi. cure was effected presents were made to the
293, 303.) At Athens the sacred ord~rhos of temple, and little tablets (tabzlle rotivae) were
Athena, in which the great adventures of ancient suspended on its walls, containing an account of
heroes were worked, was woven by maidens every the danger from which the patient had escaped,
fifth year, at the festival of the great Panathenaea. and of the manner in which he had been restored
[ARRErPHORIn.] (Compare Aristoph. A4. 792; to health. Some tablets of this kind, with their
Pollux. vii. 50; Wesselimg, ad Diod. Sic. ii. p. inscriptions, are still extaLt, (Wolf, 1. c. p. 424,
440.) A similar peplas was woven every five &c.) From some relics of ancient art we must
years at Olympia, by sixteen women, and dedi- infer, that in somne cases, when a particular part of
cated to Hera. (Pans. v. 16. ~ 2.) the body was attacked by disease, the person, after
At the time when the fine arts flourished in his recovery, dedicated an imitation of that part
Greece the anathemata were generally works of in gold or silver to the god to whom he owed his
art of exquisite workmanship, such as high tripods recovery. Persons who had escaped from shipbearing vases, craters, cups, candelabras, pictures, wreck usually dedicated to Neptune the dress
statues, and various other things. The materials which they wore at the time of their danger (Itor.
of which they were made differed according to cir- Caroe. i. 5. 13; Virg. Aeoz. xii. 768); but if they
cumstances; some were of bronze, others of silver or had escaped naked, they dedicated some locks of
gold (Athen. vi. p. 231, &c.), and their number is their hair. (Lucian, de Mere. Cond. c. 1. vol. i. p.
to us almost inconceivable. (Demosth. 0lyotl. iii. 652, ed. Reiz.) Shipwrecked persons also susp. 35.) The treasures of the temples of Delphi pended votive tablets in the temple of Neptune, on
and Olympia, in particular, surpass all conception. which their accident was described or painted.
Even Pausanias, at a period whean numberless Individuals who gave up the profession or occupaworks of art must have perished in the various tion by which they had gained their livelihood,
ravages and plunders to which Greece had been frequently dedicated in a temple the instruments
exposed, saw and described an astonishing number which they had sed, as grateful acknowledgment
of anatloemata. MMany works of art are stili ex- of the favour of the gods. The soldier thus deditant, bearing evidence by their inscriptians that cated his arms, the fishernman his net, the shepherd
they were dedicated to the gods as tokens of grati- his flute, the poet his lyre, cithara, or harp, &c.
tude. Every one knows of the magnificent presents It would be impossible to attempt to enumerate
which Croesus made to the god of Delphi. (Herod. all the occasions on which individuals, as well as
i. 50, &c.) It was an almost invariable custom, communities, showed their gratefulness towards
after the happy issue of a war, to dedicate the the gods by anathemata. Descriptions of the most
tenth part ofl the spoil (&c8po~ LOJ, QicpdArEoY, or remarkable presents in the various temples of
7rpwsrAxeLoV) to the gods, generally in the form of Greece may be read in the works of Herodotus,
some work of art. (Herod. viii. 82, 121; Thucyd. Strabo, Pausanias, Athenaeus, and others.
i. 132; Panls. iii. 18. ~ 5; Athen. vi. p. 231, &c.) The custom of making presents to the gods was
Sometimes magnificent specimens of armour, such common to Greeks and Romans, but among the
as a fine sword, helmet, or shield, were set apart latter the donaria were neither as numerous nor