Painted wooden panel depicting a sacrificial procession, 6th century B.C. (Athens, National Archaeological Museum, inv. no. 16464):
Matthew Dillon,
Girls and Women in Classical Greek Religion (London: Routledge, 2002), p. 228, with notes on p. 355:
Four painted wooden pinakes (offering tablets; they are all polychromatic)
dating to 540–520 BC were discovered in a cave, where the nymphs were
worshipped, at Pitsa near Sikyon in the Peloponnese. The best-preserved pinax,
with the colouring and the entire tablet almost intact, depicts a sacrificial scene
in which women are prominent (Figure 7.3).105
The names of the dedicators, the deities being honoured and the name of
the painter are provided by the painted inscriptions on the pinax. On the far
right is an altar of the nymphs, associated with childbirth, and a procession is
shown which has just arrived in front of the altar. First in front of the altar is a
woman; she holds an oinochoe in her right hand, from which she appears to be
about to pour a libation. On her head she carries a large flat basket, on which
are two vessels on either side of what appears to be a box. The box presumably contains sacrificial items, such as perhaps the knife. She is immediately
followed by a boy who leads a sheep by a rope; like the other figures the boy is
wreathed. He is followed by two males, also boys but larger, yet not adults.
One strums a lyre while the other plays the flute. Two women follow carrying
sprigs of vegetation, and behind the second woman is a shrouded figure, also
clearly carrying a sprig of vegetation; she is taller than the other women, both
in height and in girth: she appears to be pregnant (unfortunately the pinax is
damaged and her face is lost); the last in the processional line and clearly the
largest of the figures, she is the most important and the sacrifice of the sheep is
for her benefit. At least two women are named on this pinax: Euthydika and
Eupolis, and perhaps a third; these could refer to the three women depicted in
the procession.106
105 Figure 7.3: Pitsa painted wooden plaque, NM 16464; polychrome (mainly blue
and red paint for the figures on a cream-brown background); the less well
preserved ones are: 16465, 16466, 16467; see SEG 23.264 a–c (Hausmann
1960: 14 pl. 4; Schelp 1975: 86 K16; Robertson 1975: pl. 34d; 1981: pl. 45;
Lorber 1979: 93, no. 154, pls 45.154, 46.154; Amyx 1988: 394–5, 543, 604–5;
Boardman 1993: pl. vii.64; 1996: 122 fig. 112; van Straten 1995: 57–8, pl. 56;
Carratelli 1996: 101; Schefold 1998: pl. 38).
106 A third group of letters could be interpreted as the name 'Ethelonche'.
Jennifer Larson,
Greek Nymphs: Myth, Cult, Lore (New York: Oxford University Press, 2001), pp. 232-233, with notes on p. 326:
The discovery in 1934 of Saftulis cave near Sikyon created a sensation when
it was found to contain unique examples of archaic painting on wood panels.13
The four votive tablets, or pinakes, had been preserved in the dry atmosphere of the cave, though two were fragmentary. The best-preserved one
(figure 5.1) shows a sacrificial scene, with three adult women, younger flute
and lyre players, and a slave with the necessary sacrificial wares approaching
an altar. A sheep is the intended victim, and the tablet is inscribed with the
names of two women, Euthydika and Eucholis, and the words "dedicated
to the nymphs." .... One important question is whether similar tablets would have been placed
in other nymph caves, or if they were characteristic only of the Sikyon-Corinth area, which was noted for its skilled painters in this period. Indications are that wooden votives were an important part of the rustic cult tradition, and it is most likely that wooden artifacts, including pinakes, have been
ost in large numbers from cave sites.14 These tablets (the two best-preserved
examples were dated 540–30) provide us with some interesting information
about the cult of the nymphs in the sixth century in the eastern Peloponnese.
First, the nymphs receive a typical blood sacrifice like that offered to the
Olympian gods. There was nothing unusual about such a sacrifice except its
value. Other evidence shows that while blood sacrifices for the nymphs were
not unknown, lesser offerings were more common. These votive tablets
probably commemorated some special occasion that called for a richer-than-usual offering to the nymphs. The prominence of the female dedicators in
the sacrificial scene is also suggestive. They invite comparison with the mother
of Sostratos in Menander's Dyscolus, who is described as particularly enthusiastic in her devotions to local deities and who makes pilgrimages to their
shrines with an entourage of musicians and servants similar to that shown in
the tablet.
13. Orlandos (1965) 204–5 s.v. Pitsa; AA 50 (1935) 198; Hausmann (1960)
15–16 fig. 4; Neumann (1979) 27, pl. 12a; Amyx (1988) 2.604–5. The third and
fourth tablets show groups of female figures. Tablet inscriptions: BCH 91 (1967)
644–46; SEG 23 (1968) 264.
14. For the popularity of wooden tablets, see Van Straten in Versnel (1981a)
78–79; Ar. Thesm. 770–75; Aen. Tact. 31, 15; Van Straten (1995) 57–58.
See also A.D. Rizakis,
Achaïe III. Les cités achéennes: Épigraphie et histoire (Paris: de Boccard, 2008 =
Meletemata, 55), pp. 249-251 (number 185a), and Theodora Kopestonsky, "The Greek Cult of The Nymphs at Corinth,"
Hesperia 85.4 (October-December 2016) 711-777 (at 760-763).
