IGI3 828 Dedication by the fisherman [Nau]lochos

Dedication by the fisherman [Nau]lochos

IG I³ 828 Date: ca. 480-475 BC

This maiden (koren), as a first fruit (aparchen),^[1] [Nau]lochos dedicated out of his catch, | which the sea lord with the golden trident provided for him.^[2]

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References:

IG I³ 828 (Translated text) (IG Online) (PHI)

SEG 14.12 (D229)

Raubitschek, Dedications 229 (PHI)

CEG 1, 266

Kaczko, Attic Dedicatory Epigrams, 83

Translation by: Edmund Stewart

Monument type: Fragments

Inscription type: Dedication (private), Metrical (elegiac couplet)

Original location: Acropolis

Findspot: Acropolis (EM 6431)

Transliterations on Places on

[1] Textual note: The first three letters of the dedicant’s name are missing. Peek (Wissenschaftliche Zeitschrift Halle-Wittenberg, 3, 1953/4, 377-90 = SEG 14.12) and IG I³ restore the appropriately maritime-sounding 'Naulochos' (meaning literally 'ship ambush'). Alternatively, Raubitschek proposed Isolochos in an attempt to make the dedicant the father of Pythodoros, friend of Zeno of Elea and general of 426/5 (D. Nails, The People of Plato 2002, 259-60). This suggestion is however unmetrical.

This verse inscription (an elegiac couplet) survives on six fragments of a marble support for a kore statue (on this type of offering see IG I³ 628). Contrary to Raubitschek’s suggestion that the dedicant was a member of the Athenian elite, he may well have worked as a fisherman as his main occupation. As such, this dedication can perhaps be interpreted as one of a series of thank offerings made by craftsmen or other technitai for professional success. The term for tithe (aparche) may be translated as ‘first fruits’, yet it should probably not be understood as the profit from a single or initial annual fishing trip (comparable with the first fruits of a harvest). If Naulochos was indeed a professional fisherman, then this reasonably substantial dedication is likely to have been paid for using profits gained over an extended period. For a similar offering of a kore statue by a craftsman as an aparche, see IG I³ 628. IG I³ 994 is another dedication by a fisherman, commemorating a single particularly impressive catch. On dedications including occupational titles in general, see IG I³ 546. [2] i.e. Poseidon.

Added: 19 Aug 2025
Updated: 19 Aug 2025
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