The Votive Relief of Neoptolemos in the Athenian Agora Museum

Abstract

The scene depicted on the right side of the relief in the Agora Museum Inv. No. I 7154 has been interpreted as the handing over of the newborn Dionysus by Hermes to the nymphs. This subject, however, bears no relation at all to the north slope of the Acropolis, to which the deities present at the scene – Zeus, Demeter, Apollo, Artemis, the nymphs and Pan – collectively refer. In fact the scene of the action is directly connected with the baby Ion, son of Apollo and Creusa, who was abandoned by his mother in Apollo’s cave, from where Hermes took the child to Delphi.This new interpretation allows a better understanding of the iconographic details of the relief, which according to the inscription on the bottom rim was dedicated by Neoptolemos, son of Anticles, of Melite, a wealthy Athenian and benefactor of a number of sanctuaries in Athens.