SEG 42.112 Decree of Halai Aixonides honouring the priest of Apollo Zoster and demesmen collaborating with him

Decree of Halai Aixonides honouring the priest of Apollo Zoster and demesmen collaborating with him

SEG 42.112 Date: Ca. 360-350 BC

The Halaians^[1] decided. Hagnotheos son of Ekphantides proposed. Since Polystratos, having become priest of Apollo Zoster,^[2] is conducting the priesthood well and piously and worthily of the god, and has fitted out or repaired (epeskeuaken) the sanctuary in an extremely honour-loving way (lian philotimōs),^[3] and has adorned the statues with those chosen (hairethentōn) (5) from the demesmen, and managed the sacrifice at the Zosteria according to tradition, and gave an account (logous) of his management to the demesmen; for all these things, to praise the priest of Apollo, Polystratos son of Charmantides of Halai, and crown him with a laurel^[4] crown for his piety and justice; and to praise also those chosen to manage the sanctuary (10) with him, and crown each of them with a laurel crown, Theodotos son of Theodotos of Halai, Aischeas son of Phileriphos of Halai, Pantakles son of Sokrates of Halai, Hagnias son of Melesias of Halai;^[5] and to inscribe this decree and stand it at the sanctuary of Apollo; and the treasurer shall give whatever may be the cost of it, and account for it to the demesmen.

col. 1

The Halaians (crown) Polystratos

col. 2

The Halaians (crown) those chosen.

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References:

SEG 42.112 (Translated text) (PHI)

Kourouniotes, Iερόν του Απόλλωνος, 40 no. 4

Peek, Attische Inschriften, 9-10 no. 7a (PHI)

RO 46

Russo, Ripartizioni, D44

Translation by: Stephen Lambert

Monument type: Cult table

Inscription type: Decree (Deme Halai Aixonides)

Original location: Halai Aixonides (Temple of Apollo Zoster)

Findspot: Vouliagmeni (Halai Aixonides) (Temple of Apollo Zoster) (In situ)

Transliterations on Places on

[1] A key feature of the democratic reforms of Cleisthenes in 508 BC was a new system of organisation of the Athenian citizen body into 10 tribes each composed of a number of "demes" (local communities). The Greek word demos was used to refer both to the citizen body as a whole (in which context it is usually translated "People") and to these local communities (in which context it is usually translated "deme"). In Classical Athens there were 139 Attic demoi = demes (that number is not attested until the fourth century BC), organised into their tribes in broadly regional groups called trittyes (= "ridings" or "thirds"), such that each tribe was composed of demes in a coastal, city and inland trittys. (The allocation of demes to trittyes is uncertain in some cases, see IG II³ 4, 26, with notes. Demes were also impacted by the tribal reorganisations of the Hellenistic and Roman periods, the earliest of which took place in 307/6 BC, AIUK 4.2, 7 n. 37). Each deme supplied a fixed quota of men to serve on the Council of 500 ("bouleutic quota"), broadly in proportion to the deme's size. Demes were "descent groups" in that, subsequent to their creation, membership was acquired by descent in the male line, though there were exceptions, for example adopted children and men created citizens by decree of the Athenian Assembly. The third element of an Athenian man's name came to be the "demotic", an adjective signifying his deme, as, in the case of the priest honoured in this decree, Polystratos son of Charmantides Halaieus ("of Halai") (7-8, though the demotic of the proposer of this decree in l. 1 is omitted, as commonly for members of a deme named in inscriptions of that deme. Citizen women did not belong to demes in their own right, but were usually named as daughter or wife of a man of the deme. There were, however, exceptions; see e.g. n. 5 below). The trittyes seem to have been largely artificial units which did not produce inscriptions, but the tribes and especially the demes functioned as active units of community, producing a wealth of epigraphical documentation. Around two hundred inscriptions recording activity of the demes are extant, the majority dating to the later 5th and 4th centuries BC (143 were listed by D. Whitehead, The Demes of Attica, 1986, Appendix 3). The single most illuminating item of literary evidence for deme life is Demosthenes 57 Against Euboulides, discussed in the notes to SEG 2.7. On demes in general, apart from Whitehead's still useful monograph, see R. Osborne, Demos. The Discovery of Classical Attika (1985); N. F. Jones, The Associations of Classical Athens (1999) and Rural Athens under the Democracy (2004); P. Ismard, La cité des résaux (2010); and most recently, Humphreys, Kinship, 773-812.

The most significant category of deme document are the decrees passed by the deme Assembly (agora), comparable at a local level to the decrees passed by the demos as a whole in the Athenian Assembly (ekklesia). The earliest inscribed deme decrees date to around or a little before 450 BC, though before that the Athenian Assembly itself occasionally passed decrees that were inscribed in the demes (IG I³ 2 and 3 [Marathon], IG I³ 5 [Eleusis], IG I³ 8 [Sounion]). IG I³ 244, of the city deme Skambonidai, datable to ca. 475-450 BC, has a claim to be the earliest inscribed deme decree and characteristically of the first century or so of such decrees it deals with the related topics of religious observance, finance and accountability of deme officials. Other examples of enactments of demes from this early phase are the accounts of Nemesis at Rhamnous, OR 134, the sacrificial calendar of Thorikos, OR 146, the decree of Plotheia, OR 159, the accounts of the deme Ikarion, IG I³ 253 and the associated decree regulating the Ikarian Dionysia, IG I³ 254, the decree of Paiania, IG I³ 250. The decree of Halai Aixonides of 368/7 BC prescribing an audit procedure, IG II² 1174, also belongs in this group. In the 350s BC the demes began honouring their benefactors with inscribed decrees; frequently, but not always, they were demarchs or other officials or liturgists of the deme, and ca. 60 such decrees are extant from the next century or so. This decree is one of the earliest examples of this practice, which is in a sense a natural development of the preoccupation of earlier deme decrees with accountability (often the honorands of the decrees were subject to the accounting procedures that feature in earlier deme decrees), but also appears to have been part of a shift across the polis as a whole, triggered by the Athenian financial crisis of the 350s, from extracting contributions benefiting the community by compulsory systems such as liturgies, towards encouraging voluntary benefactions by means of honorific decrees. A comparable phenomenon is observable at city level with the beginning, in the mid-340s BC, of the regular series of inscribed Assembly decrees honouring Athenian officials (earliest case, IG II³ 1, 301; for an apparently related development in the wording of dedications made by Athenian officials from 357/6 BC see AIO Papers 9). Except for the garrison demes Eleusis and Rhamnous, where the decree-inscribing habit was maintained in the 3rd century partly by the involvement of military units stationed there (see I Eleusis 68, with notes), there are not many deme decrees firmly datable later than 300 BC; Halai Aixonides is unusual in having two: SEG 38.124 and SEG 49.141. Humphreys, 1094, suggests that the presence of a garrison in the coastal fortifications of the deme (on which see further below), "as at other forts ... kept deme institutions alive when they were disappearing elsewhere". The two latest inscribed deme decrees of all, I Eleusis 229, probably of 150/49 BC, and SEG 42.116 (honouring Satyra, priestess of the Thesmophoroi in Melite), of around the same period, are best interpreted as part of the revival of religious rites and institutions that is well documented in the years following the re-establishment of Athenian control over Delos in 166 BC, and the consequent improvement in the economic conditions of the city (see the notes to I Eleusis 229).

The deme that produced this decree was Halai Aixonides, on the west coast of Attica, south of the city of Athens, in the area of the modern Athenian coastal suburbs of Ano Voula and Vouliagmeni. This was just south of the ancient deme Aixone, together with which Halai formed the coastal trittys of the tribe Kekropis (tribe 7 in the official order). "Aixonides" distinguishes this deme from another Halai, Araphenides, on the east coast. In iv BC Halai Aixonides sent perhaps 6 men every year to sit on the Council (IG II³ 4, 23, col. 2, and possibly Agora XV 31, 9-15, with notes), which suggests an adult male membership of around 300-400 in the mid-4th cent. BC. A number of settlement sites of the deme have been excavated (cf. Humphreys, 1083-97), including an agora (1085). These incorporate numerous small sanctuaries, built in and among the houses. The locations of two of these are attested by inscriptions: the Aphrodision, a temple of modest size (8.5 m x 5.75 m), in the north-west of the deme, built so close to contemporary housing that the whole has been seen as a single complex (R. Parker, Polytheism and Society at Athens, 2005, 69); and to the south the well-preserved (unroofed) temple of Apollo Zoster (10.8 m x 6 m), which can still be visited, on Cape Zoster in the grounds of a beach hotel (photograph in Parker, 71). There are also remains of fortifications on the coast (Kastraki and Cape Zoster). G. J. Oliver, War, Food and Politics in early Hellenistic Athens (2007), suggests that they were connected with the use of Vouliagmeni as a harbour free from Macedonian control in the 280s-260s BC (see also Humphreys, 1094). This was one of the ten main Attic regional harbours at the coastal end of a wagon road: M. C. McHugh, ABSA 114, 2019, 207-40 (map), and D. M. Lewis, Pnyx 1, 2022, 81-101, at 90-94 (map).

Other inscriptions from the temple of Apollo Zoster are: the fragmentary honorific decrees, Kourouniotes 1927 no. 3, Peek, AM 67 (1942) 8 no. 6a, no. 6b, the decree fragments, no. 6c, SEG 38.124; the dedications, IG I³ 1012, IG I³ 1013, IG II³ 4, 941; the accounts, IG I³ 249, also relate to this cult. Halai also erected inscriptions in its other main sanctuary, of Aphrodite: a statue of Aphrodite (erected either in the deme or in a sanctuary of Aphrodite in the city), IG II³ 4, 223, small decree fragments, SEG 49.141, 49.142, 49.143; and in its agora: a decree tightening up on audit procedures, IG II² 1174. The original locations of two other decrees, IG II² 1175, following financial irregularities in the deme, and the recently discovered, SEG 59.142, honouring the treasurers of the deme in 338/7 BC, are unknown. For a choregic dedication perhaps to be attributed to the Rural Dionysia of this deme see IG II³ 4, 498. Halai Aixonides also sold at least three estates in the deme in the Lykourgan public land sale programme, two of them to a buyer from Halai for the substantial sum of 4 talents, Rationes F9A, ll. 17-24, cf. Lambert, Rationes Centesimarum (1997), 189 no. 20. One of the two Halai demes lent money on the security of a house, IG II² 2761. Cf. also IG II² 1210. For a recent discussion of Halai Aixonides, its archaeology, inscriptions and prosopography, see Humphreys, Kinship, 1083-1097. [2] The sanctuary was held to mark the place where Leto loosed her girdle (zostēr) before giving birth to Apollo and Artemis (Paus. 1.31.1). According to FGrH Semos 396 F20 Apollo was born at Cape Zoster. Although the cult was evidently administered by the deme, Apollo Zoster was, on some criteria at least, an Athenian "state cult": he was one of the "Other Gods", whose treasuries were administered centrally (IG I³ 369, l. 67 [cf. Athena [sic] Zosteria, l. 92; for the association of Athena at Halai with Leto, Apollo and Artemis see also Paus. 1.31.1]. IG I³ 249 is a paradosis account relating to this cult, erected locally, but naming officials from outside the deme); and his priest had a seat in the theatre of Dionysos at Athens, IG II³ 4, 1938. It is not clear whether the priest was supplied by the deme itself or by a genos, see Lambert, Historia 59 (2010), 164-166 (on gene see RO 37, with notes). The fact that the deme appoints a committee of demesmen to "assist" the priest might suggest, but does not definitely imply, the latter. One also gets the impression that he held office for more than a year: he was still in office at the time this decree was passed (present tense, l. 2), but had not only completed the works for which he is praised in the decree, but had also accounted for them (on the processes of accounting in this deme cf. IG II² 1174). This might also suggest appointment from a genos, but we do not know enough about priesthoods appointed by the demes to be certain that tenure was invariably for a year. For other priests of Apollo Zoster see Kourouniotes 1927 no. 2 and no. 3. [3] As noted above (n. 1) demes began inscribing decrees honouring members and sometimes others who had benefited the deme in the 350s BC. This is one of the earliest (on the timing of this development see also IG I³ 258bis; IG II² 1180; IG II² 1178; IG II² 1173). From the start such decrees commonly recognise the "honour-loving behaviour" (philotimia) of the honorand, though the characterisation of the priest's actions in this decree as "extremely honour-loving" (lian philotimōs) is striking and unique. For discussions of the dynamics of philotimia in the demes see D. Whitehead, Demes of Attica (1986), 241-52; and now also N. Futás, Von der Liturgie zur Euergesie (2024), 261-84. In decrees of the Athenian Council and People the introduction of praise for display of philotimia coincides with the beginning of the regular series of decrees honouring Athenian officials in the 340s BC (cf. IG II³ 1, 306, l. 11). [4] Laurel was used for crowns relating to cult of Apollo. [5] The dating of this decree to ca. 360-350 BC depends largely on other information about the persons mentioned in it, several of whom are also among those responsible for a statue of Aphrodite, IG II³ 4, 223, which is also not precisely datable independently of its prosopography. The proposer of the decree, Hagnotheos son of Ekphantides was probably father of Euphiletos and Diodoros sons of Hagnotheos, IG II³ 4, 223, ll. 13 and 16. The fact that he does not appear himself in that inscription might imply that it dates slightly later than this decree. His grandson, Hagnotheos son of Diodoros, proposed a decree from the Aphrodision in the deme in the early 3rd century, SEG 49.141. It is uncertain whether he is identifiable with the Hagnotheos of Halai commemorated with Nikodike of Halai (Halēthen, an unsual, uninflected, form of the demotic which is typically Halaieus, perhaps to be accounted for by its use here for a woman) on the mid-4th cent. BC funerary monument from the Athenian Agora, Agora XVII 52 = SEMA 56, since the name Hagnotheos is also attested in Halai Araphenides, IG II³ 1, 1256, l. 80. The honorand and priest of Apollo Zoster, Polystratos son of Charmantides of Halai may be the Polystratos of Halai for whom there is a bronze allotment plate dating to the 360s BC or later, J. Kroll, Athenian Bronze Allotment Plates (1972), no. 155, with pp. 66-68 (date), and the Polystratos of Halai commemorated with Polyaratos and Leukonides of Halai and Polystrate on the mid-4th cent. BC funerary monument now in the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas, USA, IG II² 5511a (p. 879) = Clairmont, CAT 4.384. (cf. Humphreys, p. 1091, who notes that we cannot be certain that these persons were not affiliated to Halai Araphenides. Note, however, that Leon of Halai commemorated on another funerary monument, a lekythos with relief, in the same Kansas collection, IG II² 5495a (p. 879) = Clairmont, CAT 3.322, is identifiable with the Leon of Halai Aixonides who was a councillor for Kekropis in IG II³ 4, 23, l. 6). Of the four members of the commission "assisting" the priest, Theodotos son of Theodotos is probably related to one or both of Theoboulos son of Theodotos, IG II³ 4, 223, l. 27, and Theodotos son of Theaitetos, IG II³ 4, 223, l. 23. Aischeas son of Phileriphos is identifiable with the Aischias (sic) son of Phileriphos, IG II³ 4, 223, l. 14, and as father of the Phi[leriphos?] son of Aischeas who represented Halai Aixonides as demarch in the public land sale programme of ca. 340-325 BC, Rationes F9A, ll. 17-18, with Lambert, Rationes, pp. 175-6. Pantakles son of Sokrates is perhaps brother of Diotheides son of Sokrates, IG II³ 4, 223, l. 11, and commemorated on SEMA 59 of ca. 350-325 BC, paternal uncle of Sokrates son of Diotheides, IG II³ 4, 223, l. 28, and also commemorated on SEMA 59, and ancestor of Pantakles son of Sokrates of Athens made proxenos of Oropos at I Orop. 165, l. 2, of ca. 240-215 BC. Hagnias son of Melesias was probably the son of [Mele]sias of Halai, chairman of the proedroi in 357/6 BC, IG II² 121, l. 8, and perhaps either himself as an elderly man the Melesias of Halai who was treasurer of Athena from Kekropis in 334/3 BC, IG II² 1493, l. 4, or more likely Melesias the treasurer was our Hagnias' son.

[AIO has complete sets of decrees and other key inscriptions documenting activity of the demes listed below. Each deme name is followed by a link to the key inscription for that deme, via which other inscriptions can be traced. Where a deme produced no extant public inscription or inscribed record of public action, the reference is to a summary description of the deme included in the notes on a relevant inscription:
Acharnai: SEG 21.519
Aigilia: IG II³ 4, 502
Aixone: Ackermann no. 1
Anagyrous: IG II² 1210
Anakaia: SEG 57.159
Athmonon: IG II² 1203
Cholargos: IG II² 1184
Cholleidai: Rationes F6B
Eitea (Antiochid): SEG 28.102
Eleusis: I Eleusis 68
Epieikidai: IG II³ 4, 85
Epikephisia: IG II² 1205
Euonymon: AIO 2551
Erchia: AIO 593
Erikeia?: IG II² 1215
Eupyridai: IG II² 1362
Gargettos: SEG 46.155
Halai Aixonides: [this entry]
Halai Araphenides: SEG 46.153
Halimous: SEG 2.7
Hekale: SEG 57.159
Ikarion: IG I³ 1015
Ionidai: SEG 39.148
Kephale: IG II³ 4, 498
Kephisia: AIO 2696
Kerameis: Agora XIX H92
Kollytos: SEG 58.108
Kropidai: IG II² 1362
Kydantidai: SEG 39.148
Kydathenaion: Agora XVI 68
Kytherros: IG II² 2496
Lamptrai: IG II² 1204
Marathon (Tetrapolis): AIO 2618
Melite: AIO 2841
Myrrhinous: IG II² 1182
Oa: IG II² 2394
Oe: IG II² 2394
Oinoe (Tetrapolis): AIO 2618
Paiania: IG I³ 250
Pallene: SEG 63.155
Pelekes: IG II² 1362
Phaleron: IG II³ 4, 227
Piraeus: AIUK 4.3A no. 1
Phegaia: Agora XIX H99
Phlya: IG II² 2670
Phrearrhioi: CGRN 103
Phyle: IG II³ 4, 342
Plotheia: IG I³ 258
Prasiai: AIO 2880
Probalinthos (Tetrapolis): AIO 2618
Rhamnous: to follow
Semachidai: SEG 57.159
Skambonidai: AIUK 4.1 no. 3
Sounion: IG II² 1180
Sphettos: SEG 36.187
Sypalettos: to follow
[Teithras: SEG 21.542 - not yet complete]
Thorikos: AIO 847
Thymaitadai: IG II³ 4, 225
Trikorynthos (Tetrapolis): AIO 2618
Xypete: IG II³ 4, 228.

AIO also has a complete set of decrees of the following tribe:
Hippothontis: I Eleusis 63
SDL October 2024]

Added: 12 Sep 2015
Updated: 28 Oct 2024
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ID: AIO_953