Agones hippikoi and votive offerings

This paper offers a survey of votive offerings related to equestrian contests. After discussing several biases that the research must take into account, four categories of dedications and implied “messages” are differentiated: material dedications (used and reproduced objects); event-based pictorial votive offerings; prizes; and non-specific valuables. Next, we ask the question, how far did a sanctuary’s connection with equestrian contests produce an effect on the stock of dedications. The Athenian Acropolis is used as a case study. Although equestrian contests enjoyed a high reputation within the Panathenaic games in honor of Athena Polias –cf. the range of different hippic competitions and the number of prize amphorae earned through victory in the respective contests– dedications in connection with equestrian competitions played a rather marginal role in the 6th/5th century BC: in the 6th century a remarkable quantity and a rather broad spectrum of hippic dedications can be observed on the Acropolis, but apparently only few of them have been related to equestrian contests, whereas in the 5th century not only is the number of votive offerings connected with hippic competitions sparse, but even the hippic theme in general seems to play a diminished role within the dedications.