IGI3 666 Dedication by the kitharode Alkibios

Dedication by the kitharode Alkibios

IG I³ 666 Date: ca. 510-500 BC

Alkibios dedicated this, the kitharode,^[1] Nesiotes.^[2]

Previous - IG I³ 646 Next - IG I³ 754

References:

IG I³ 666 (Translated text) (IG Online) (PHI)

Raubitschek, Dedications 84 (PHI)

Translation by: Edmund Stewart

Monument type: Base

Inscription type: Dedications (private)

Findspot: Acropolis (Acropolis Museum 13262)

Transliterations on Places on

[1] This statue base potentially supported either a victory tripod or a statue of the dedicant. This is one of two Acropolis dedications from the turn of the fifth century by musical professionals, along with IG I³ 754. It has been supposed that these kitharodes (lyre-players) were victors at the Panathenaea (see H. Kotsidu, Die musischen Agone der Panathenäen 1991, 76, 78-80). Although there is no explicit reference to this festival, the evidence of the Panathenaic amphorae shows that musical contests were in place by at least the end of the sixth century BC (J. L. Shear, Serving Athena 2021, 175). Whether or not these musicians appeared successfully at this or other festivals, they are now otherwise unknown.

The use of ‘kitharode’ as an occupational term testifies to the accepted status of music and poetry as a professional skill (techne), alongside those of other craftsmen dedicants of the Acropolis (though kitharoidia had a relatively high status in comparison to other musical disciplines). See further E. Stewart, in E. Stewart, E. M. Harris and D. M. Lewis, Skilled Labour and Professionalism in Ancient Greece and Rome, 2020, 269-92, as well as, on kitharodes in general, T. Power, The Culture of Kitharôidia 2010, esp. 31-2. The social background of Alkibios and Opsiades is unlikely to have differed greatly from the other professionals represented in dedications containing occupational terms (for which see IG I³ 546 with note), though the status of their profession (techne) was arguably higher in some cases. Wilson notes in particular the absence of patronymics in this inscription and IG I³ 754. His suspicion that ‘skilled practitioners of humble origins’ may have ‘raised themselves economically and socially by virtue of their skill’ appears reasonable (P. Wilson, in P. Murray and P. Wilson, Music and the Muses 2004, 284, n. 41). [2] The meaning of the word in the fourth line is uncertain and has been left untranslated. Literally nesiotes means 'islander' and may perhaps indicate the origins of Alkibios’ home (perhaps the kitharodic centre of Lesbos or nearby Halonnesos). Alternatively, and perhaps less probably, this might be a signature by the sculptor Nesiotes, though the absence of the verb ‘made this’ appears to tell against this possibility.

Added: 19 Aug 2025
Updated: 19 Aug 2025
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ID: AIO_3443