you will give.' In their prayers Greeks often alluded explicitly to this nexus of mutual benefit and obligation between man
and god:
If ever I burnt the rich thighs of bulls and goats in your honour, grant me this prayer.
Maiden [Athena], Telesinos dedicated this image to you on the acropolis. May you take delight in it, and
allow him to dedicate another [by preserving his life and wealth].Protect our city. I believe that what I say is in our common interest. For a flourishing city honours the gods.Mistress [Athena], Menandros dedicated this offering to you in gratitude, in fulfilment of a vow. Protect him,
daughter of Zeus, in gratitude for this.A Rustic Procession For Dionysus, on an Athenian cup of about 550 B.C. The image of a large, hairy satyr holding a
massive phallus erect, is carried by a group of village boys, one of whom has climbed on to the satyr's back. Ivy tendrils
and ribbons add a festive air to what was probably a ribald occasion celebrating the god of wine and fertility. The satyr,
attendant of the god, is a fine creation of the Greek artist's imagination, horse-tailed and horse-eared, often depicted as a
randy coward, but here in effigy on a mortal occasion of worship.
The gods were thus brought within a comprehensible pattern of social relations. As an old tag said, 'Gifts persuade the gods,
gifts reverend kings'; gift-giving was perhaps the most important mechanism of social relationships in Homeric society. It
might seem to follow that the richest men could secure the most divine favour, and that punishment for crime could be
bought off by gifts. The rich and the villainous were certainly free to nourish such hopes. Their subjects and their victims,
though, might take a different view. There were always those who insisted that the gods 'rejected the sacrifices' of oath-
breakers, and that the modest offerings of the innocent were more acceptable than hecatombs slaughtered by the lawless
rich. One offered what one could from what one had. A Greek was not ashamed to mention to the gods that if he were a
little richer (wealth being a gift of the gods) he could bring larger offerings. The real psychological significance of 'do ut
des' was not the hope of bribery, but the fact that it allowed the worshipper to feel that he had established an ordered,
continuing, two-sided relation with the god.