Glossary Religion and cult
Cult image
Also called: cult statue
The statue or object that stood for a god in a sanctuary and received worship, as distinct from the offerings brought to it.
Few cult images are known from Cyprus, and identifying one is hard, since most figures from sanctuaries are votives. The goddess of Palaepaphos was worshipped in the form of a conical stone, shown on later coins. The Ingot God and Horned God from Late Bronze Age Enkomi may be the cult statues of their sanctuaries. For prehistoric figurines, scholars have argued that the find contexts do not support treating them as cult images. See Neolithic and picrolite figurines.
Related terms
- Ingot God
A bronze statuette of an armed god in a horned helmet, standing on a base shaped like an oxhide copper ingot, from Late Bronze Age Enkomi.
- Horned God
A bronze statue of a young god in a horned cap, found in a twelfth-century BCE sanctuary at Enkomi and now in the Cyprus Museum.
- Votive
An object given to a god in fulfilment of a vow or in hope of favour, and left in a sanctuary as the god's property.