Supplication  

From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia

Jupiter and Thetis (1811) by Ingres, Thetis is depicted in the painting by Ingres as pleading at the knees of Zeus: "She sank to the ground beside him, put her left arm round his knees, raised her right hand to touch his chin, and so made her petition to the Royal Son of Cronos" (Iliad, I).

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Wikipedia Wiktionary Wiki Commons Tumblr Wikisource YouTube Shop Featured: A Scheme for abolishing all Words is one of the wittiest and smartest comments on semantics. (Illustration: extreme close-up from the movie "The Big Swallow" (1901), produced and directed by James Williamson (1855-1933)

1. To humble oneself before another in making a request; to beg.
2. To plead with one's deity.

Supplication (also known as petitioning) is the most common form of prayer, wherein a person asks a supernatural deity to provide something, either for the person who is praying or for someone else on whose behalf a prayer of supplication is being made.

The concept is perfectly at home with secular use. The supplicant may also be described as a suppliant but the former word is more commonly used. The key meaning is of a request by the lesser person in an acknowledged unequal relationship.