Votive relief for the hero Amphiaraos

Within an architectural frame (pilasters to either side, architrave and antefixes above), this votive relief shows a special type of chariot race. The chariot, pulled by four horses, once had wheels depicted in paint – just as its bearded driver once held reins added in paint and now no longer preserved. Beside the charioteer is a nude youth in a helmet carrying a shield in his left hand. He holds onto the chariot with only his right hand, about to spring out of it mid-course and continue the race to the finish line on foot. At the top left of the relief, behind the rearmost horse’s head, is a blank votive plaque in low relief that was once painted with a scene or inscription. Mounted on a tenon, it corresponds in shape to the larger relief itself. The apobates race represented here (from the Greek word for “jumping off”) was practiced at the Panathenaic games in Athens and especially at the games held in Oropos (between Attika and Boeotia) in honour of Amphiaraos. Amphiaraos was an ancient local earth god who later came to be identified with a hero from the Theban epic cycle. According to the myth, this hero and his four-horse chariot were swallowed up by the earth at Oropos – whence he was accorded cultic honours at that site after his death. The Amphiareion was the seat of an oracle (the myth tells of the hero’s prophetic powers) as well as a healing sanctuary; the deified hero was said to appear in the dreams of those seeking cure and counsel. Pausanias (1, 34, 5) relates the instructions for the supplicants: after abstaining from wine for three days and fasting for one, the patient should sacrifice a ram and sleep upon its fleece. Once cured, he should dedicate to the god an image of the healed body parts. The temple regulations further prescribe a “cure tax” of 1–1.5 drachmas. Given its find spot, the Berlin relief was surely dedicated to Amphiaraos – perhaps as a vow, but more probably as thanks for a victory in the apobates race held in his honour.