IGI3 969bis(b) Dedication by a victorious gymnasiarch

Dedication by a victorious gymnasiarch

IG I³ 969bis(b) Date: Late 5th cent. BC

Kallias son of Telokles was gymnasiarch (egumnasiarche), Pandionis was victorious. Uninscribed lines Aristeides (5) . . . ^[1]

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References:

IG I³ 969bis(b) (Translated text) (IG Online) (PHI)

IG II² 3018 (PHI)

SEG 30.125b (PHI)

Agelidis, Weihgeschenke 36d

Translation by: Irene Vagionakis, Claudio Huayna Avila

Monument type: Base

Inscription type: Dedication (gymnasiarch)

Findspot: Acropolis (EM 8974)

Transliterations on Places on

[1] This monument is apparently a second a copy of IG I³ 969bis(a). There are two cavities in the top for the insertion of a bronze votive. It has been suggested (very speculatively) that Kallias’ original dedication was removed from Athens to Thebes when he was implicated in the mutilation of the Herms. After being proved innocent he erected this copy.

The significance of the name “Aristeides” below the main surviving text is unclear. A. N. Oikonomides, AncW 3, 1980, 17-9, suggested that it belonged to an entirely different dedication from the inscription above it and proposed that the monument was part of the choregic dedication copied by Cyriacus of Ancona during his Greek travels in 1436 (IG II² 3027). He would accordingly reconstruct the last lines to read: Ἀριστείδης ἐχορήγε, Ἀρχέστρατος ἐδίδασκε (“Aristeides was sponsor, Archestratos was director”). However, it would be puzzling in this case why two liturgists who share neither the same civic duty nor a common family background should have shared the same monument, and why Cyriacus did not copy the Kallias inscription along with that of Aristeides. More attractive is the view of J.-C. Poursat, BCH 91, 1967, 111-13, who suggests that the letter traces underneath Aristeides’ name should be reconstructed as the word ἐποίησεν (“Aristeides made [this]”), identifying Aristeides with the bronze sculptor, mentioned by Pliny N.H. 34.50, 72, as a pupil of Polykleitos who was celebrated for his chariot statues (cf. also Paus. 6.20.7; DNO 1295-1297).

Added: 9 May 2022
Updated: 9 May 2022
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ID: AIO_1358