Gifts for the Goddess

In the ancient Greek world, the worshippers communicated with the deities through offerings and prayers. The offerings could be food, such as animal offerings, cakes, and fruits, or might be votive offerings such as jewelry, garments, weapons, figurines, and statues.

As the votive offerings naturally belonged to the deity for all eternity, they became quite numerous through time and filled up the sanctuary to a point were all surfaces would be covered with these gifts, both inside and outside the temple. As a consequence, it could be necessary to tidy-up, and many offerings would be placed in deposits in the ground within the sanctuary. Two such votive deposits were found in Lindos and are the reason why we today have such a fantastic selection of the gifts for the Lindian goddess displayed at the National Museum of Denmark.

Through photogrammetry, which requires approximately 150 photographs to be taken of each object, it is possible to create 3D-models that allow us to see the votive offerings from all angles and zoom in and out as desired. A selection of the objects from the exhibition will be made available here continuously and allow for close digital encounters and interaction with the gifts for the goddess.