IGI3 833bis Verse dedication by a [poet] commemorating a victory with a men's chorus

Verse dedication by a [poet] commemorating a victory with a men's chorus

IG I³ 833bis Date: ca. 480-470 BC?

. . . in Athens with a men's chorus . . . of (his?) wisdom dedicated this marker (horos) having fulfilled a vow. With the most choruses elsewhere among the tribes of men he has been victorious, he says, (in competition) for a tripod.^[1]

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References:

IG I³ 833bis (Translated text) (IG Online) (PHI)

SEG 61.68

SEG 67.32

CEG 1, no. 270

Kaczko, Attic Dedicatory Epigrams, 87

Translation by: Stephen Lambert, Matthew Hewitt

Images: Ohio - (1)

Monument type: Base

Inscription type: Dedication (choregic)

Fragment a - Findspot: Between theatre of Herodes Atticus and theatre of Dionysos (EM 6694)
Fragment b - Findspot: Acropolis (EM 13254)
Fragment c - Findspot: Acropolis (EM 6395)

Transliterations on Places on

[1] This verse dedication from the Acropolis, discussed recently by Z. P. Biles, Mnemosyne 64, 2011, 183-205 (SEG 61.68), Kaczko, and M. Magnani, Paideia 72, 2017, 615-26 (SEG 67.32), was made in fulfilment of a vow by a man who has apparently just won a victory in an Athenian festival, "with a men's chorus", and who claims to have won more victories internationally ("among the tribes of men") than anyone. This international dimension seems to imply that he was not an Athenian, and that (as argued by Biles and Magnani) he was a poet rather than, as we are more familiar with from later dedications from Athens commemorating choral victories (on which cf. IG II³ 4, 460 with notes), a sponsor (choregos). The precise context of his recent victory is unclear. The Panathenaia has been suggested (first by A. Raubitschek, Dedications from the Athenian Acropolis, 1949, no. 323), but there is no known competition at that festival involving poets and choruses of men (cf. J. L. Shear, Serving Athena, 2021, 174-80), and the wording of the dedication is more suggestive of the competitions in dithyramb at the City Dionysia (IG II³ 4, 460) or Thargelia (IG II³ 4, 475) (M. Rausch, Nikephoros 11, 1998, 87 = SEG 48.27 and P. Wilson, The Athenian Institution of the Khoregia, 2001, 122 argue for the former). The reference to a tripod as prize of victory is generic, but is also consistent with those festivals. The date of the dedication can not be pinned down with certainty. Suggestions have ranged from before 500 BC (D. Peppas-Delmousou, MDAI(A) 86, 1971, 56 = SEG 26.43) to ca. 480-470 BC (W. Peek, ZPE 13, 1974, 199-200 = SEG 26.43, followed at IG I³ 833bis; cf. Rausch 86 n. 18). In any case it is the earliest epigraphically attested victory epigram for a chorus (an earlier epigram celebrating the dithyrambic victory of the poet Antigenes with the tribe Akamantis, is attested in the Palatine Anthology 13.28, on which see Wilson 120-3; 216). The identity of the poet can not be established (the issue is tied up with the interpretation of the surviving letters at the start of l. 1, . ας). Guesses have included Simonides of Keos (C. Gallavotti Quaderni urbinati di cultura classica 20, 1975, 165-71 = SEG 26.43), Bacchiadas of Sikyon (A. J. Podlecki in G. Shrimpton & D. J. McCargar eds., Classical Contributions: Studies ... McGregor, 1981, 100 = SEG 31.30), and Diagoras of Melos (IG). For further possibilities see Magnani. A "horos" usually marks a boundary (cf. IG II³ 4, 1877; Agora XIX, H84, an example of horos marking a mortgaged property), but here the term seems to be used poetically to signify a "marker" of victory. For another dedication commemorating a choral victory in fulfilment of a vow, see IG I³ 1027bis from Thorikos. Cf. also IG II³ 4, 971.

Added: 30 Sep 2022
Updated: 11 May 2023
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