IGII34 128 Dedication to Apollo Hypo Makrais

Dedication to Apollo Hypo Makrais

IG II³ 4 128 Date: Mid-i AD

With good fortune, In myrtle crown:^[1] G(aius) Julius Metrodoros of Marath(on),^[2] having been court president (thesmothetēsas), (5) dedicated (this) to Apollo Below the Long Rocks (hupo Makrais).^[3]

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References:

IG II³ 4 128 (Translated text) (IG Online)

IG II² 2891 (PHI)

Nulton, Sanctuary 1

Schmalz 88

Translation by: Chris de Lisle

Images: Acropolis Museum - (1)

Monument type: Plaque

Inscription type: Dedication (court president (thesmothetes)), Dedication (Apollo Hypo Makrais)

Original location: Cave of Apollo, Acropolis

Findspot: Acropolis, Cave of Apollo (Acropolis Museum EM 8124)

Transliterations on Places on

[1] This marble plaque is a dedication to Apollo Below the Long Rocks, which was originally inserted into a niche in the wall of the Cave of Apollo, on the north face of the Acropolis, next to the Cave of Pan. In myth, this cave was the spot where Apollo raped Kreousa the daughter of Erechtheus and where Kreousa exposed the resulting son, Ion, the ancestor of the Athenians and all other Ionian Greeks (Euripides Ion, 8-13, 281-86, 492-508, 936-41; Paus. 1.28.4). There were regular rites on the site in the fifth century BC (SEG 52.48A F5, ll. 4-5). Plaques like this began to be dedicated by the ten annual archons of Athens: the eponymous archon, the "king" (basileus), the polemarch, the six court presidents (thesmothetai) and their secretary, in the early first century AD (probably in the reign of Claudius), continuing until the mid-third century AD (on the archons in the Imperial period, see SEG 26.166). On almost all of these plaques, the dedicator's name is surrounded by a crown (wreath) of myrtle with the opening at the top, whereas normally epigraphic crowns, whether of olive, laurel, myrtle or other species, open at the bottom. These wreaths seem to represent the myrtle crowns which were worn by the archons during their year of office and symbolised their political and religious authority (Aristophanes F 124; Ath. Pol. 57.4; Hesychios s.v. Myrrhinon; Scholia in Aristophanes, Wasps 861; Pollux 10.69; Parker, Polytheism, 97). It seems that the archons dedicated these plaques in mid-summer, when they ended their year in office and entered the Council of the Areopagos. Perhaps they dedicated their actual myrtle crowns at the same time (cf. IG II² 1425, ll. 126-27, 224-26). This ceremony may have taken place in this particular sanctuary because Ion had been the first polemarch, and thus the first Athenian to hold a magistracy other than the kingship (Hdt. 8.44.2; Ath. Pol. 3.2). The decision to begin commemorating this ceremony with marble plaques may reflect the increasing prominence of the Areopagos in the Imperial period and the desire to emphasise the aspect of the Areopagos that most resembled the Roman Senate – the fact that its members were ex-magistrates (Rigsby, in Studies ... Tracy, 2010). It may also reflect the desire of the archons for a cult centre of their own, like the cult of Apollo Prostaterios maintained by the prytaneis and the cult of Artemis Boulaia by the Council (Woodhead, Hesperia 28, 1959, 285; Nulton pp. 25-30; SEG 52.48A F5, ll. 2-3). [2] Metrodoros is the earliest known Athenian to bear the Roman nomen Julius (Schmalz, p. 287). [3] "Below the Long Rocks" (hypo Makrais) is the form of the epithet which appears in Euripides and fifth-century epigraphy and the form used by just over half of all the dedications in the cave. Most of the rest use the form Apollo "Below the Heights" (hyp' Akrais). Both variants seem to have co-existed for the entire period in which plaques were dedicated in the sanctuary, neither becoming more or less common over time.

Added: 26 Jul 2018
Updated: 6 Aug 2024
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