Ancient CyprusAncient Cyprus

Glossary Sculpture, figurines and art

Votary

Also called: votaries

A worshipper shown in a statue or figurine, usually dedicated in a sanctuary to stand before the deity on the donor's behalf.

Most Cypriot sculpture of the Archaic and Classical periods shows votaries rather than gods. Limestone and terracotta men and women, often holding an offering such as a small animal, a bird or a flower, or with one hand raised to the chest, were set up in rows in open-air sanctuaries. Sites such as Ayia Irini, Golgoi and Idalion produced them in great numbers.

Votaries wear many kinds of dress: a Cypriot tunic and mantle, a pointed cap, a Greek mantle or an Egyptianizing kilt. Because each figure stood in for its dedicant, dress and gesture are read as evidence for status and fashion in the sanctuary. See Archaic limestone statues and temple boys.

Full entry: Archaic Limestone Statues

Related terms

  • Coroplast

    A maker of terracotta figurines; coroplastic art is the modelling of figures in fired clay, the largest class of Cypriot figurative art.

  • Kore

    A Greek Archaic statue of a standing, clothed young woman (plural korai), a type Cypriot sculptors followed from the late sixth century BCE.

  • Egyptianizing

    Borrowing the look of Egyptian art (dress, poses, crowns and motifs) in objects made outside Egypt, often through Phoenician intermediaries.

  • Kilt

    A knee-length wrapped skirt of Egyptian origin, pleated and often with a decorated front panel, worn by many Cypriot limestone votaries.

  • Votive

    An object given to a god in fulfilment of a vow or in hope of favour, and left in a sanctuary as the god's property.

  • Open-air sanctuary

    A sanctuary laid out as an open walled court with an altar and offerings, the usual form of Cypriot cult place in the Iron Age.

  • Temenos

    The sacred area of a sanctuary, marked off by a wall or boundary, inside which the altar, offerings and any cult buildings stood.

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