IGII2 1199 Decree of Aixone awarding honours connected with the festival of Hebe, 320/19 BC

Decree of Aixone awarding honours connected with the festival of Hebe, 320/19 BC

IG II² 1199 Date: 320/19 BC

Philaios (?) son of Chremes proposed:^[1] since the religious officials (hieropoioi) allotted for the sanctuary of Hebe took care justly and with love of honour (philotimōs) of the sacrifice for Hebe (5) and the other gods to whom they must sacrifice, and have submitted a reckoning (logon) and accounts (euthunas), to crown each of them with a foliage crown, Anticharmos son of Nauson and Nearchos (?) son of Chairigenes, (10) Theodotos son of Aischron, Aristokles son of Kalliphon, for their justice and love of honour (philotimias) towards the demesmen;^[2] and this decree shall be inscribed on a stone stele and set up in the sanctuary (15) of Hebe by the demarch in office after the archonship of Neaichmos (320/19). Uninscribed space And to praise also the controllers (sōphronistas) and crown with a foliage crown each of them, Kimon, Megalexis or Metalexis, (20) Pythodoros son of Pytheas, and the herald Charikles, for their love of honour (philotimias) concerning the all-night rite (pannuchida);^[3] and to praise also the priest of the Herakleidai, Kallias, and the priestess of Hebe and (25) Alkmene, and the archon Kallisthenes son of Nauson and to crown each of them for their piety and love of honour (philotimias) towards the gods;^[4] and to inscribe this decree on a stone stele (30) and stand it in the sanctuary of Hebe.

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References:

IG II² 1199 (Translated text) (PHI)

SEG 32.143 (date)

SEG 57.121

SEG 53.147

Ackermann, Aixone, 292-305 no. 16

Translation by: Stephen Lambert, Feyo Schuddeboom

Images: Krateros - (1)

Monument type: Stele

Inscription type: Decree (Deme Aixone)

Original location: Aixone (Sanctuary of Hebe)

Findspot: Pirnari (= Aixone), excavations in area of church of Agios Nikolaos (with IG II2 2492) (EM 7725)

Transliterations on Places on

[1] Textual Note. Some letters read by early editors are no longer legible. This creates minor issues in: 1 Philetos is an alternative possible, if unlikely, reading of the name Philaios, favoured by A. Makres, in D. Jordan and J. S. Traill eds., Lettered Attica, 2003, 78-84 = SEG 53.147, but see also Ackermann, 295-6. 9 Ackermann, 296, notes that the reading of Nearchos, no longer legible on the stone, is questionable on grounds of spacing. 16 Ackermann correctly rejects Kirchner's suggestion (IG) that Neaichmos was demarch of Aixone ca. 325/4 BC rather than the known eponymous archon of the city for 320/19 BC. 19 Megalexis, ΜΕΓΑΛΗΞΙΣ, appears to be the correct reading (Ackermann), but is an otherwise unattested name, and it is possible that the man was in fact Metalexis, ΜΕΤΑΛΗΞΙΣ, a name otherwise attested in Attica, albeit only once.

This decree of the deme Aixone awards foliage crowns to members of the deme who had been involved in organising the festival of Hebe in 320/19 BC: ll. 1-16 are a self-contained decree and honour the religious officials (hieropoioi) responsible for the sacrifice; it is marked off by uninscribed space at the end of l. 16 from ll. 17-30, which honour priests and other deme officials for their work in connection with the same event. These lines seem to be a rider to ll. 1-16, but it is notable that its proposer is not named (for an implied "rider" in another "decree", in fact a lease, of this deme, see IG II² 2492). The proposer of the first decree, whatever his name, was brother of the proposer of Ackermann no. 2 and no. 3.

On the deme Aixone and its inscriptions see Ackermann no. 1, with notes. In myth Hebe, a personification of hēbē, "youth" or "prime of life", which also forms part of the word "ephebe" (literally, "one at the prime of life"), was the youthful daughter of Zeus and Hera who became the wife of Herakles. One of the copies of the lease of public lands by the deme, IG II² 2492, was erected "inside" the sanctuary of Hebe (ll. 22-23), from which one may infer that it was a major sanctuary of the deme. Ackermann no. 17 may have related to the same festival.

The gods worshipped at this sanctuary were all associated with Herakles: apart from his wife, Hebe, the inscription mentions his mother, Alkmene; and his children, the Herakleidai. Their worship in Attica is well attested; for example, we know that Hebe had an altar near that of Herakles at the Kynosarges in Athens (Paus. 1.19.3); Alkmene, too, had an altar there (loc. cit.) and is also found in the sacrificial calendar of Thorikos (Lupu, NGSL 1, l. 37); the Herakleidai appear in the sacrificial calendars of Thorikos (Lupu, NGSL 1, l. 36) and Erchia (SEG 21.541, col. 2, l. 42), and on an eschara (sacrificial table) found at Porto Rafti (IG II³ 4, 1873). For further discussion of the deities named in this inscription see Ackermann, Aixone, 317-28. [2] The title "hieropoioi" (literally, "doers of rites", but translated on AIO "religious officials") was applied to boards of officials, at both city and local level, who were typically responsible, as here, for conducting sacrifices on behalf of the community, but could also have broader duties in relation to festivals (e.g. for obtaining sacrificial victims). For the office at city level see Ath. Pol. 54.6-7; and they are attested in a number of demes (search "religious officials"; Whitehead, Demes of Attica, 1986, 142-3).

The requirement on officials to undergo a process of accounting, euthynai, both financial and for general conduct in office, was ubiquitous in Classical Athens, and was regarded as a crucial component of a democracy (cf. Hdt. 3.80.6), at both city and local levels, though in the demes the detail of the process varied from deme to deme (summary at Ackermann, 298-300). Two deme decrees are especially informative on this subject: IG II² 1174 (Halai Aixonides) and IG II² 1183 = RO 63 (ascribed in RO to Hagnous, but the earlier attribution to Myrrhinous has since been confirmed by new evidence, see SEG 63.156, with Csapo and Wilson II, 196). See also SEG 22.117 (Ikarion). Under the regime of Demetrios of Phaleron, a requirement seems to have been introduced for deme officials to submit accounts to the city, see SEG 43.26 (Acharnai).

Unsurprisingly all four hieropoioi are attested elsewhere, in person or by family. Anticharmos is brother of the Kallisthenes who served as archon of the festival (25-26), and son of the Nauson who was member of the deme commission charged with selling olive wood at IG II² 2492, l. 47. Nearchos (?) is son of the Chairigenes who features in the first half of the 4th cent. in a list of men from Kekropis, Agora XV 16, l. 11. Theodotos was (perhaps significantly for the festival he was later engaged with here) an ephebe of Kekropis in 334/3 BC, RO 89, col. 2, l. 18, and so now ca. 34 years of age. He was perhaps also grandson of the Theodotos of Aixone who was superintendent of the dockyards (epimelētēs neōriōn) in 367/6 BC, IG II² 1622, l. 502. Aristokles was probably son of the Kalliphon of Aixone who was a councillor on Imbros in 352/1 BC, IG XII 8, 63 b, l. 7. [3] Sophronistai ("controllers"; the term suggests disciplinary responsibility) are mainly attested in the context of the ephebate, where one was appointed to oversee each tribal contingent of ephebes (Ath. Pol. 42, 2-3; RO 89, with notes). Our three sophronistai are clearly not identical with these city officials, though there is a conceptual connection, in that they exercised their responsibilities at a "youth festival" of the deme, and specifically at the festival's "all-night rite" (pannychis). Such revels are attested as components of some festivals at city level (e.g. Little Panathenaia, IG II³ 1, 447, b 56, 58-59; Bendideia, IG I³ 136, l. 27) and at deme level most famously in a fictional context at the Tauropolia, probably at Halai Araphenides, Menander Epitrepontes, 451-3, at which a girl is assaulted (Ackermann, 303-4).

In addition to the heralds who exercised functions at city level, a herald is attested in seven demes, usually making public announcements. It is unlear precisely what his duties may have been at a pannychis (Ackermann, 303). Meg/talexis may be father of the E- son of -lexis of Aixone who was an epilektos in 318/7 BC, SEG 36.155 I, l. 35 + Agora XVI 105. Pythodoros son of Pytheas is not identifiable with certainty elsewhere (see Ackermann, p. 461). [4] Nothing further is known about this priesthood of the Herakleidai (appointed by deme or from a local genos?) or its tenant, Kallias. Davies, APF p. 360, would identify him with the Kallias son of Kalliades of Aixone on the funerary monument, IG II² 5430, but Ackermann, 453, sounds a note of caution: the name Kallias is very common (she lists 6 in Aixone alone). The priestess of Hebe and Alkmene in Aixone is also otherwise unattested. Naming practice varies in this inscription, and there may be no particular significance in the fact she is not named. (There is no hesitation about naming priestesses elsewhere in Attic decrees). The archon Kallisthenes, brother of Anticharmos, one of the hieropoioi (8-9), was not an eponymous official but a cult archon of the type we encounter, for example, in the decree of the genos Salaminioi, RO 37 l. 47.

Added: 10 Jan 2017
Updated: 2 Aug 2023
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