Three votive offerings from the Sanctuary of Eileithyia, on Kounados Hill, Paros

Hora, Hermione and another young woman dedicated three votive reliefs depicting parts of their body in the Sanctuary of the goddess, who responded to the invocations of pregnant women to ease their pain and help them during childbirth (1st century BC–1st century AD). The “prayer” of the dedicators may have pertained to some future invocation or acknowledged the goddess’s assistance which had already been offered, thus expressing the perceptions, desires and anxieties of women over their health. The dedication of similar votives survived in the Christian religion through the offering of tamata attached to icons in churches that depict a part of the human body, for the healing of which the faithful requests the assistance of God or a saint that performs miracles.