ChoixDelphes 258 Statue base for Elpinike at Delphi

Statue base for Elpinike at Delphi

Choix de Delphes 258 Date: 143-177 AD (around 153 AD?)

[ψηφισαμένης τῆς πόλε]ως τῆς Δελφῶ[ν] [Ἀνν?]ίαν Κλαυδίαν [Ἀτει]λίαν ‘Ρήγιλλαν Ἀγριππ[εῖ]- ναν Ἐλπινίκην Ἀπ[πίαν?] Πῶλλαν Ἡρώδου καὶ ‘Ρη[γίλ]- λης θυγατέρα vac. [ὁ π]ατήρ.

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Translated text

References:

Choix de Delphes 258 (Translated text) (AIO)

Syll.³ 860b

F.Delphes III 3 68 (PHI)

Ameling, Herodes Atticus II 105

Translation by: Hannes Freitag

Images: Archimage - (1)

Monument type: Base

Inscription type: Statue base (private)

Original location: Delphi

Findspot: Delphi, on the site of the Athenian Treasury (Delphi Museum 206 + 1029)

Transliterations on Places on

[1] This is a statue base for Elpinike set up by her father Herodes Atticus in the sanctuary of Apollo Pythios at Delphi. It is inscribed on a grey limestone cornice consisting of two joining fragments. The right side is intact and trimmed, the left is broken. The same cornice also supported a statue of her father Herodes Atticus dedicated by the City of the Delphians (Choix de Delphes 256 = F.Delphes III 3 66) and of her mother Regilla (Choix de Delphes 257). This formed the nucleus of a family monument to which statues of her younger (?) siblings Athenais and Regillus (Choix de Delphes 259-260) were added separately (later?); their brother Bradua is absent. The precise nature and original location of the monument are unknown but it was probably located near the Athenian Treasury. On this monument and other inscriptions for the family of Herodes at Delphi, see Choix de Delphes 257 with notes; on Herodes Atticus, see AIUK 11 (Ashmolean) no. 15 with notes; on Regilla, see I Eleusis 476 with notes; on Attic inscriptions at Delphi, see IG II³ 4, 17 with notes. [2] Elpinike (PIR² A 706) was perhaps the oldest surviving child of Herodes and Regilla (an older sibling died in infancy). She was most likely named after the half-sister and wife of Kimon son of Miltiades from whom Herodes claimed descent (Philostr. Vit. Soph. 546). She was probably born in the early 140s, around the time when her family moved from Rome to Athens, and died in the mid-160s. As a child, she was hearth-initiate at Eleusis (I Eleusis 475). She was portrayed alongside her family in the exedra at Olympia finished in 153 AD (IvO 624). She may have married a kinsman, Lucius Vibullius Hipparchos, with whom she had a daughter called Athenais; later, statues of the three probably replaced the statues of Herodes, Regilla, and her mother in the centre of the exedra at Olympia, see J. Tobin, Herodes Attikos, 1997, 85 and 321-22,contra Byrne, RCA , 2003, pp. 123-24. Herodes mourned her death excessively (Philostr. Vit. Soph. 558) and set up a double statue base of Elpinike and her mother in his villa at Kephisia with a gloomy poem about his pain at their passing (IG II² 12568-12569). At an unknown time, possibly posthumously, she was honoured with a statue by the People of Akraiphia in Boeotia (Ameling, Herodes Atticus II 135). See T. D. Barnes, Latomus 27, 1968, 581-86; Tobin, 83-85.

Elpinike's names reflect her genealogical links. Appia, Annia, Atilia, and Regilla echoed the names of her mother Regilla (see e.g. Choix de Delphes 257); Claudia came from her father (see e.g. Choix de Delphes 256 = F.Delphes III 3 66); Elpinike recalled her father’s supposed ancestry; Agrippina her maternal grandmother (see IvO 621); Atria and Polla seem to refer to other Roman kin (cf. G. Di Vita-Évrard, MEFRA 93, 1981, 183-226).

Added: 6 Mar 2026
Updated: 6 Mar 2026
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ID: AIO_3636