Database: Offerings and Markets

Along with prayers and sacrifices, offerings were the most common religious practices in Ancient Greece. Any association, city, political group, or individual could make an offering. It required that they deposit a valuable good in a sacred precinct dedicated to a specific god or goddess. The idea was to invoke divine protection against some threat, to solve an issue, or to express gratitude for a wish fulfilled. During festivals, it was common to find markets and street vendors proposing all kinds of offerings for sale in the neighborhood of sanctuaries.