Amphiaraos-Seer, Relief, National Archaeological Museum Athens No 3369, Replica, 45 x 53 cm, 9,2 kg
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Amphiaraos votive relief, original, National Archaeological Museum Athens, Inv. No. 3369,
the following link will take you directly to the corresponding exhibit in the National Museum in Athens (in the last third, please scroll down to the illustrations):
Amphiaraos was a famous mythical seer,
married to Eriphyle, who, bribed by Polyneikes with the Harmonia collar, forced him to take part in the procession of the Seven against Thebes, although he anticipated its unfortunate outcome. So he asked his son Alkmaion to avenge his death against his mother. Amphiaraos was swallowed up by his car, fleeing the fighting.
Amphiaraos, a son of the god of salvation Apollon, had numerous places of worship in Greece and was revered as God. In Oropos, an ancient town in North-Atlantic, from which this votive relief in the amphiareion originates, he gave birth to a trauma oracle. But obviously people were also begging him for healing. The motif shows a patient bitten by an Aesculapian snake (non-toxic) - a prerequisite for recovery. In the foreground, Amphiaraos scans the shoulder of a person seeking healing.
This pond relief in pentelic marble was commissioned by Archinos. It was designed in the style of a naiskos (Greek "temple") with columns or pillars with triangular gables. It was used in particular as a tomb relief of ancient Greek cemeteries.
Late classical period, dated to the 1st half of the 4th century BC, original size 0.52 m x 0.55 m, exhibited at the National Archaeological Museum in Athens under inventory no. 3369.