The Moschophoros, an Acropolis Dedication of about 570 BC
The Calf-Bearer, carved about 570 BC and set up on the Athenian Acropolis by a man wealthy enough to give a bull to the goddess and have himself carved carrying it. The dedication names him. That is the point of it.
Archaic Athenian cult was not separate from Athenian politics; it was where politics was conducted. A festival was organised by a family, a priesthood was held by a clan, a dedication on the Acropolis was a claim to standing, and the reorganisation of the Panathenaia under the tyrants was a state programme. Cleisthenes' reforms of 508/7 worked partly because they redistributed people among new tribes with new heroes and new shrines. See religious cults and political control in archaic Athens.
CC BY-SA 2.5 — source (Wikimedia Commons). Free to reuse under the stated licence.
