AIUK11 no. 15 Herm of Polydeukion dedicated by Herodes Atticus

Herm of Polydeukion dedicated by Herodes Atticus

AIUK 11 (Ashmolean Museum, Oxford) no. 15 Date: ca. 157/8 AD

Face A (front)

Hero Polydeukion, at this crossroads, once, I used to wander with you.^[1]

Phallus

(5) In the name of the gods and heroes,^[2] whoever you are who owns this land, never remove any of these things. And anyone who pulls down or removes (10) these statues’ images and honours, for them the land shall not bear fruit, and the sea shall not be navigable, and they and their family (15) shall die terribly. uninscribed space But whoever protects them on the land, and honours the customary things, and continues to augment them, for him there will be many good things, (20) for himself and his descendants. Do not wreck, nor mistreat in any way, nor knock over, nor break up, nor obscure the shape and (25) form. And if anyone acts thus, the same curse (ara) upon them too.

Face B (right)

But let the upper parts of the statues (30) be undamaged, uncorrupted, and the lower parts, (and) the bases, as they were made. And in addition to the the primary actor or actors (i.e. who move or destroy), (35) whoever commands another, or initiates a proposal, or supports a proposal about moving or destroying (40) any of these (will be under this curse).

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Greek text

References:

AIUK 11 (Ashmolean Museum, Oxford) no. 15 (Translated text) (AIO) (AIUK)

IG II² 13194 (PHI)

Translation by: Chris de Lisle

AIO Images: 1 2 3 4

Monument type: Herm

Inscription type: Herm (private)

Findspot: A church or mosque at Kephisia (Ashmolean Museum, Oxford ANChandler 2.60)

Transliterations on Places on

[1] This is one of five inscriptions acquired by James Dawkins on a visit to Athens in 1751 and donated to the University of Oxford on his death in 1757 (cf. AIUK 11 (Ashmolean), no. 1). He found it in a ruined church or mosque near Kephisia.

This herm is one of a large group of commemorative monuments set up by Herodes Atticus, the most powerful and wealthy man in Athens in the second century AD and archetype of the sophists who dominated the Greek aristocracy under Rome. It was erected for one of his young "wards" (trophimoi), Vibullius Polydeukion, who died young shortly before the archonship of Dionysios – probably 157/8 or 159/60 AD (Byrne) or perhaps 173/4 or 174/5 AD (Follet). Although the bust of this herm is lost, numerous depictions of Polydeukion survive (images on Wikimedia commons). His death prompted awards of posthumous honours at Athens (IG II² 3968) and Delphi (FD III 3, 74), including funeral games and cult worship as a hero. Herodes’ extreme grief at Polydeukion’s death is commented on critically by a number of contemporary authors (Philostr. Vit. Soph. 2.1, 557-61; Luc. Demon. 24, 33; Fronto, Epist. Graec. 3, Ad M Caes. i.6.7). He erected a number of commemorative monuments like this on his estates “in glades, by fields, next to springs, and in the shade of plane trees, not secretly, but with curses against anyone demolishing or removing them” (Philostr. Vit. Soph. 2.1, 559). Twenty-six monuments for Polydeukion, Herodes’ wife Regilla, and other wards have been found, mostly around Herodes’ estates at Marathon and Kephisia (IG II² 13188-13208, SEG 35.209-10) but also at Rhamnous (I Rhamnous 160), on Euboea (IG XII 9, 134 and Eretria Museum no. 20211), and at Herodes’ villa at Eva-Loukou in the Peloponnese (SEG 36.349). Beyond expressing his grief, these monuments were also part of Herodes’ self-representation as sophist and aristocrat. His relationship with Polydeukion is modelled on the bond between man and male youth idealised in Plato’s Symposion, which had recently been exemplified by the Emperor Hadrian and his youthful lover, Antinoos. The epigram in the Aeolic metre in ll. 1-4 demonstrated Herodes’ education and culture (paideia) through his mastery of Greek literary forms. The “crossroads” was associated with death and misfortune, but also the allegory of the young Herakles at the crossroads deciding between virtue and vice with the help of philosophy (Xen. Mem. 2.1.21-34), a decision that Polydeukion had been on the verge of making, under the Herodes’ mentorship. [2] The monument was protected by a long curse text, which also appears on the other monuments erected by Herodes and was composed in three stages. Curse A (ll. 5-27), on Face A (the front), was part of the original inscription and appears on all the monuments. Curse B (ll. 28-33), which prevented people from damaging parts of the monument, and Curse C (ll. 33-40), which forbade anyone from undertaking legal action against the monument, were added at a later date on Face B (the right side). The hand is different from that of ll. 1-27 and appears to be the same as that which added the same text to other herms. Curses were frequently incorporated into funerary inscriptions in Roman Asia Minor and Thrace (J. H. M. Strubbe, Arai Epitymbioi, 1997), but they are rare in Mainland Greece (cf. IG II² 10385). In Roman Athens, honorific monuments were usually protected by a note that they were erected with the permission from a public body, usually the Areopagos Council (cf. AIUK 11 (Ashmolean), no. 16). Apparently, Herodes was unwilling or unable to get this permission and chose to protect these monuments with curses instead. Philostratos reports that Herodes was criticised for these monuments (Vit. Soph. 2.1, 559). This criticism was part of the increasingly hostile relationship between Herodes and Athens, which originated with his decision in 138 AD to cancel a disbursement of money promised to the Athenian People in his father’s will (Philostr. Vit. Soph. 2.1, 549) and culminated in a trial on charges of tyranny before Emperor Marcus Aurelius at Sirmium in 174/5 AD, at which Herodes was ultimately acquitted (IG II² 3606, Philostr. Vit. Soph. 2.1, 559-61, cf. SEG 29.127). The curses seem to have been effective in protecting this monument, unlike Herodes’ own tomb inscription (IG II² 6791), from which his name was ultimately erased.

For more detailed discussion of the inscription see AIUK 11 (Ashmolean), no. 15.

Added: 14 Jan 2021
Updated: 27 Jun 2024
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