IGI3 969 Choregic dedication from Anagyrous

Choregic dedication from Anagyrous

IG I³ 969 Date: After ca. 440 BC

Sokrates dedicated (this),^[1] Euripides was director.^[2]

Members of the tragic chorus:^[3] Python 5 Echekles Menalkes Philokrates Echyllos Meletos 10 Emporion

Amphidemos Euthydikos Lysias Son Kritodemos Charias Phaidon

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References:

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

SEG 23.102 (PHI)

Bultrighini, Demi della Paralia, 42-48

Csapo and Wilson II, 76-9

Translation by: Irene Vagionakis, Claudio Huayna Avila

Monument type: Base

Inscription type: Dedication (choregic)

Findspot: Varkiza (= ancient Anagyrous) (EM 13180)

Transliterations on No places

[1] This choregic dedication was found in the coastal area of Varkiza, probably identifiable as the ancient deme Anagyrous. It records the local celebration of a tragic victory that took place either at the City Dionysia (surviving choregic dedications from which, however, usually commemorate victories in dithyramb, not tragedy, see IG II³ 4, 460, with notes); or more likely the local Anagyrasian “Rural” Dionysia (on this festival in general see IG II³ 4, 498, with notes; for another dedication most likely relating to the Anagyrasian Rural Dionysia see IG II³ 4, 507; the inscribed theatre seat IG II³ 4, 1714 also most likely belonged to Anagyrous). The stone has two holes on the top for the attachment of a bronze statue. Sokrates, dedicator and most likely victorious choregos (for a victorious sponsor/dedicator cf. IG I³ 964), can be identified with the prominent Anagyrasian general of that name in the Samian war of 441/0 BC (Androtion FGrH 324 F38), who was also a candidate for ostracism in 443 BC, alongside Pericles and Thucydides son of Melesias (H. A. Thompson, Hesperia 19, 1950, 337), or with his homonymous grandson (cf. Davies, APF 13102). [2] This is Euripides the famous tragedian. His first entry at the City Dionysia is reported in 455 BC, his first victory in 442/1 (cf. TrGF T 55-6); he last competed at Athens in 408 BC and died in 406 BC. This is one of several pieces of evidence that the plays of major Athenian playwrights were staged in Attic local Dionysia, as well as the great dramatic festivals of the city. Cf. Aelian VH 2.13, who records an anecdote that Socrates would go down to the Piraeus theatre when a play of Euripides was performed there; for Sophocles and Aristophanes directing plays at Eleusis see I Eleusis 53; and see also IG II³ 4, 498 (Kratinos, Sophocles etc. at the Rural Dionysia most likely of Halai Aixonides). [3] It is uncertain whether tragoidoi here refers to the whole cast of a tragic play, or, as Csapo and Wilson argue is more likely, specifically the members of the tragic chorus (their number, fourteen, would be consistent with either interpretation. Sophocles is said to have enlarged the tragic chorus to fifteen, Suda s.v. Sophokles 4, Poll. 4.108, but we do not know the usual size of the chorus in local performances; for the possibility that 15 tragoidoi were required in Ikarion see IG I³ 254). The listing of them by personal name only, without patronymics or demotics, may imply that all were demesmen of Anagyrous. The rare name Son (l. 6) is attested in that deme (cf. SEG 41.191; A. P. Matthaiou, Horos 8-9, 1990-1991, 179-182); Euthydikos (l. 4) may be Euth[y. . .]os of Anagyrous who appears on an early fourth-century tribal list (IG I³ 1048 = I Eleusis 49 = IG II² 2366, l. 31); and Philokrates (l. 7) may be -krates of Anagyrous at l. 29 of the same list.

Added: 9 May 2022
Updated: 22 Feb 2023
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ID: AIO_1355