Since the dawn of time, mankind has offered gifts to the gods to catch their attention and to win their favor. This splendid, abstract votive, dating to the age of the biblical patriarchs, depicts a praying person reduced to his most essential elements: two slender legs, an arm curved reverently across the chest, a round head with a nose and two large eyes. The splayed weight of the foot was most likely intended to hold the figure upright in the ground before the shrine where the votary had placed it. We understand instinctively--as the ancient gods were supposed to--that in spite of his abstract appearance, this charming figure represents a very real person, someone with hopes, dreams and desires not so very different from our own.