Sabazius was an eastern god of fertility and vegetation. In Roman times he was worshiped in association with other deities, particularly Dionysus (Bacchus).
His cult inspired a series of votive images of hands, the fingers of which form the gesture of benediction still familiar in Christian practice.
Missing from the hand seen here is the small figure of Sabazius himself, who was typically seated in the palm of the hand above the ram’s head (see left image).
The hand is surrounded by his major cult symbols, including a snake, a lizard (see image to the right), and the heads of a lion, a ram, and a bull. On the tip of the thumb is the pinecone of Dionysus.
The opening in the wrist, shaped like a temple, had a hinged door that revealed an unknown, lost object, perhaps a reclining mother and child, as seen in other examples.
