AIO 1318 Assembly decree concerning sacrifices in cult of Asklepios in Piraeus

Assembly decree concerning sacrifices in cult of Asklepios in Piraeus

AIO 1318 Date: Early iv BC

. . . upon the table the following: . . . 1 mast-head cup^[1]; mast-head cup(s?) . . . a mast-head cup(?) into which the olive oil . . . another mast-head cup; a drinking cup (5) . . . made of metal(?); a statuette . . . a canteen-flask; a box; an incense-censer . . . a small tripod; small shield(s?) . . . 2 large shields; a large cupping-glass with a chain attached; 1 strigil (10) with a chain attached; a large strigil; another one with a chain attached; 2 cupping-glasses; a drinking cup; a canteen- flask or small cup; a cooling vessel; a brooch; 4 crowns Uninscribed line The following objects made of iron: (15) a large ring with a chain attached; a large strigil; medical forceps; 5 surgeon’s knives and forceps; 2 tablets^[2]/platters . . . tongs; 3 medical forceps; 4 strigils; (20) a ring with a chain; a statuette and . . . throughout the sanctuary worked in low relief . . .

Decree^[3] The People decided. Athenodoros proposed. Concerning what the priest of Asklepios, Euthydemos,^[4] says, the People (25) shall resolve: in order that the preliminary sacrifices (prothumata) may be offered which Euthydemos the priest of Asklepios recommends (exegetai), and the other sacrifices take place on behalf of the People of the Athenians, the People shall resolve: that the overseers (epistatas) of the Asklepieion shall make the preliminary sacrifices (prothumata) that Euthydemos recommends (exegetai), (30) with money from the quarry set aside for the god, and pay the other money towards the building of the sanctuary; and in order that the Athenians may distribute as much meat as possible, the religious officials (hieropoios) in office shall take care of the (35) festival with respect to what comes from the People (dēmo);^[5] and distribute the meat of the leading ox to the prytany members and to the nine archons and the religious officials and those participating in the procession, and distribute the other [meat to the Athenians] . . .

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Greek text

References:

AIO 1318 (Translated text) (AIO)

IG II² 47 (PHI)

SEG 65.29

Syll.³ 144

Sokolowski, LSS 11

Samama, Médecins 4 (ll. 14-19)

Papazarkadas, Sacred and Public Land, 42 n. 109 (Decree, ll. 30-31)

CGRN 46 (CGRN)

Translation by: Stephen Lambert, Feyo Schuddeboom, S. Douglas Olson

Images: Krateros - (1)

Monument type: Stele

Inscription type: Decree (People)

Findspot: Piraeus (Piraeus Museum 1671)

Transliterations on Places on

[1] A drinking vessel of some sort, said by Callixeinos of Rhodes (FGrH 627 F 3) to be “an elongated cup, somewhat pinched in the middle and having handles that extend as far down as the base”. See Bianchi on Cratin. fr. 40.2 (where seemingly carried by Dionysos). [2] For grinding drugs? [3] This Athenian decree relating to the cult of Asklepios at the Asklepieion at Zea in Piraeus follows an inventory of medical supplies in a different hand. On this sanctuary, see IG I³ 1081 with notes. For comparable Assembly decrees providing for sacrifices and meat distributions cf. IG I³ 82 (perhaps funded from the special fund of Hephaistos and Athena connected with the mint) and IG II³ 1, 447 (funded from the proceeds of rental of land known as the Nea). These notes are intended to supplement the discussion of this inscription at CGRN 46 (decree only). [4] This is an example of an Assembly decree passed on the basis of a recommendation by someone with specialist religious expertise; cf. OR 141, ll. 47-61 (esp. 59-61); P. J. Rhodes, The Athenian Boule (1972), 43 n. 6. The priest Euthydemos (of Eleusis) is also found stipulating preliminary sacrifices in IG II² 4962. Lambert, Historia 59, 2010, 170, notes that it would seem unlikely that he was an amateur "democratic" priest in office for one year only, like the priest of Asklepios in the city (IG II³ 1, 359 with n. 1). Euthydemos also belonged to a prominent family connected with the politician Moirokles of Eleusis (cf. IG II³ 1, 414) and a late fourth-century demarch of Eleusis, and Lambert speculates that he may have held a priesthood for life supplied by one of the Eleusinian genē. For a later priest of Asklepios in Piraeus, also a demesman of Eleusis, see IG II³ 4, 882. For a recent discussion of the Asklepieion in Piraeus see J. Lamont, in M. M. Miles ed., Autopsy in Athens (2015), 37-50 = SEG 65.29. [5] In a decree of the demos = People, this should mean the demos = People and not the deme Piraeus (if the deme were intended one would expect the deme name here and/or the word demotai, "demesmen", cf. IG I³ 82, l. 12). The festival of Asklepios in the Piraeus was patently a polis festival and this would seem to be a reference to provision for the sacrifices in the city's sacrificial calendar (cf. SEG 52.48A and SEG 52.48B). For a similar reference see RO 37, ll. 20, 87, with n. 6 (city's contributions to rites performed by genos Salaminioi). Apart from the city itself, other groups will also have contributed to the festival, as for example the genos Salaminioi did at the Panathenaia, RO 37, l. 88.

Added: 3 Jan 2018
Updated: 19 Aug 2025
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ID: AIO_1318