Locating Lost Gifts: Terracotta Figurines as Evidence for Ephemeral Offerings

Abstract

For the most part, Greek gods were not altruistic or loving. In order to get something, one needed to coerce, manipulate, or even bribe a god. Although there was no guidebook to ritual practice or a standardized belief system in ancient Greece, certain rites were repeated in similar ways at multiple locations by different people. Offering a gift to a god was one of these fundamental, and common, actions in Greek ritual practice.