CGRN 25 Deme decree relating to cult at Paiania

Deme decree relating to cult at Paiania

CGRN 25 Date: 450-430 BC

Face A

. . . ^[1] . . . if anyone does [any of these things], let him pay . . . to the deme (5) . . . the priestess shall provide for the - meat for boiling and for roasting; for the Antheia and Proerosia: spits, a bronze pot; the religious officials (10) and whoever they require shall carry rods.^[2] It is not permitted to put these stipulations to the vote again unless one hundred demesmen are present.^[3] (15) Here (?) (teide),^[4] a piglet; to the Eleusinion, for Daira, a female lamb, leader of the Proerosia (preroarchos); to the Eleusinion, for the Proerosia, a full-grown female animal, a male piglet; priestly (20) perquisites (apometra), a quart (tetarteus);^[5] here, half a quart of barley for the Proerosia, two pigs, one male and one female; priestly perquisites, a quart; here, (25) half a quart; to the Eleusinion, for the Chloia, two piglets, one male and one female; priestly perquisites, 3 (drachmas), 3 obols.^[6] For the Antheia, a select sow, (30) pregnant, a piglet, male; priestly perquisites, a quart; here, half a quart. . . . . . . (35) [[female]] . . . . . .

Face B

. . . priestly perquisites, [a quart]; here, half a quart; for the Proerosia, barley, (5) two pigs, one female and one male; priestly perquisites, a quart; here, half a quart; . . . to the Eleusinion . . . (10) . . . . . . . . . two -, one female and one male; priestly perquisites, three (drachmas)^[6] of Hekate (?) . . . (15) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . (20) priestly perquisites . . . . . . full-grown; for Zeus Herkeios -; for the two goddesses - a full-grown female animal, [a piglet?]; priestly perquisites, (25) a quart; here, half a quart . . . sow . . . piglet . . . [priestly perquisites], a quart; here, half a quart; (30) to the Eleusinion, for the Chloia, two piglets, one female, one male; priestly perquisites, 3 (drachmas), 3 obols.^[6] For the priestess of Hekate, from whatever sacrifices are made to Hekate shall be given (35) a thigh, a flank; whoever (the priestess) nominates to be temple attendant shall leave behind pea soup and cup(s?) of gruel (?) . . . . . .

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References:

CGRN 25 (Translated text) (CGRN)

IG I³ 250 (IG Online) (PHI)

SEG 63.40

SEG 65.45

Sokolowski, LSS 18

Koerner, Gesetzestexte 18

Humphreys, Strangeness, 154-55

Takeuchi, Ten Notes, 97-101 no. 8 (B35-37)

Matthaiou, Grammateion 2015 a, 24-26 no. 2 (B35-37) (Grammateion)

Takeuchi, IG I³ 250, 53-70

Russo, Ripartizioni, D69

Translation by: Stephen Lambert, Feyo Schuddeboom

Monument type: Stele

Inscription type: Decree (Deme Paiania)

Findspot: Liopesi (ancient Paiania) (EM 13263)

Transliterations on Places on

[1] Textual Note. Except for B35-37 AIO's translation of this inscription is based on CGRN's text, which is in turn based on Takeuchi's thorough revision of this inscription (Takeuchi 2021). At B35-37 we adopt the new reading proposed by Takeuchi (Ten Notes = SEG 63.40): ζακορε[ύεν] | [h]ὸς ἂν φέρει καταλείπεν̣ [κα]|[ὶ ἔτ]ν̣ος κα̣ὶ̣ ἀθάρες κο̣τ̣[ύλεν or -ας]. As an alternative to Takeuchi's ζακορε[ύεν], "to be temple attendant", Matthaiou proposes ζακορε[ῖα], cf. Hesych. ζ 26 s.v. ζακόρια· θυσία Ἀφροδίτης ("sacrifice for Aphrodite") (= SEG 65.45). In that case the translation might run, "whoever offers the zakoreia shall leave behind ...". At B22 we read, following Takeuchi, Διὶ hε̣ρκ[εί]οι̣ Ι̣[-ca. 5- το]|ῖ̣ν θε̣οῖ̣ν̣, where CGRN has Διὶ hε̣ρκ[εί]οι̣ Ι̣ [το]|ῖ̣ν θε̣οῖ̣ν̣. There are significant numbers of erasures. Text inscribed into the erasures is translated without further comment. Lines A33-36 were erased and not reinscribed; some traces of the original text, including one complete word, remain legible. The letters following the vertical lines marked in CGRN's text at the end of B13 (etra from apometra, "priestly perquisites") and B14 (tres, "three") and B21 (leon from teleon, "full-grown offering") are inscribed on the right side of the stele. For a fuller discussion of the text of this inscription see Takeuchi 2021.

Paiania was a large deme of the tribe Pandionis located in the Mesogaia in the area of modern Liopesi, to the east of the northern end of Mt. Hymettos (the deme also gave its name to its trittys). For some purposes/at some periods the deme was divided into two parts, the very small Upper Paiania sending just one representative to the Council of 500, and the much larger Lower Paiania sending eleven before 307/6 BC and twenty-two thereafter. For the division see IG II³ 4, 29 and IG II³ 4, 48. For Upper Paiania see also IG II³ 4, 55, 14-15, Agora XV 43, 75-77; two parts undifferentiated in Agora XV 42, 135-147. Cf. also IG II³ 4, 26, 4-15, incomplete? list of 11 names, heading not preserved, Lower Paiania or undifferentiated; IG II³ 4, 83, 2-12, undifferentiated heading, but only 10 names listed. Humphreys, Kinship, 898 n. 18, observes that it is not clear how far the division was relevant other than for the administrative purposes of the Council. This is the only extant decree of the deme, which is epigraphically documented also by the choregic dedication, IG II³ 4, 503, which probably implies that the deme had a theatre. Paiania is also a possible attribution for the choregic dedication IG II³ 4, 516; and it is among the candidates for the deme catalogue, AIO 2840 from Koropi. Also from the Liopesi area are the phratry decree, SEG 3.121 = Phratries T17, and the list of phratry members, IG II² 2344 = Phratries T18 (on phratries cf. RO 5). The deme's best-known member was the orator Demosthenes. For recent discussion of Paiania and its prosopography see Humphreys, Kinship, 898-905. On demes in general RO 46.

A1-14 are the concluding lines of a deme decree, found at an unknown location in Liopesi, and datable by letter forms and orthography to ca. 450-430 BC (Takeuchi). There follow sacrificial provisions of a type that is well-represented in the Attic epigraphical record of the fifth century BC, cf. IG I³ 232, n. 1. The quorum of 100 demesmen stipulated at A13-14 (cf. n. 3 below) implies that the deme responsible for the decree was either Lower Paiania, or perhaps more likely the division of the deme into two parts did not apply for these purposes/at this time. Most of the provisions relate to the sequence of three festivals of Demeter linked to the agricultural cycle, the Proerosia (Pre-Ploughing), Chloia (Green Shoots), Antheia (Flowering) (see for comparanda and greater detail, Takeuchi, 61), but, as now read by Takeuchi, at B22 there are also provisions for Zeus Herkeios ("of the Hearth"), who also appears along with Demeter at Thorikos, AIO 847, A21-22, and elsewhere (see Takeuchi 2021, 63-67); and at B33-37 for Hekate. The decree distinguishes between offerings "teide" (perhaps meaning "here", cf. below n. 4) and those "to the Eleusinion", which might refer to a local Eleusinion or perhaps the City Eleusinion. An unresolved puzzle with this inscription is that many of the provisions on Face B appear to repeat those on Face A (as e.g. for the Chloia, A26-28 and B30-32). Takeuchi, 62, notes a suggestion of L. Jeffery, Hesp. 17, 1948, 103-4, that this results from a combining "onto one stele a series of different instructions, without any editing, to form a whole". Or perhaps the provisions, though appearing to duplicate eachother, in fact complement eachother; in other words e.g. that two sets of piglets were provided to the Eleusinion for the Chloia, from different financial sources, from different parts of this divided deme, or for different officiants. [2] As symbols (and perhaps as practical implements) of authority. It was part of the function of hieropoioi to be responsible for good order and discipline at festivals. Cf. e.g. IG II³ 1, 447, ll. 57-61. [3] To judge by their total (4th cent. BC) bouleutic quota of 12 the two Paianias will have had ca. 700 members in the 4th cent. BC and (assuming the quotas were the same in the 5th cent. BC) this will have been higher, i.e. over a thousand adult male members before the Peloponnesian War. Accordingly a quorum of 100 in this inscription would have represented less than 10%. This is broadly the same percentage as is implied for the 4th cent. BC for the deme Myrrhinous (bouleutic quota 6), which will then have had ca. 350 adult male members, and which provided for a quorum of 30 in RO 63 = IG II² 1183, l. 22 (ascribed in RO to Hagnous, but the earlier attribution to Myrrhinous has since been confirmed by new evidence, see SEG 63.156 with Csapo and Wilson II, 196). This compares with the relatively larger quorum for the Athenian Assembly of 6000 (= 20% of adult male citizens in the 4th cent. BC). On attendance at a deme meeting in Halimous in 346/5 BC see SEG 2.7, with notes. [4] Following most commentators we take "teide" to mean "here", though it cannot be ruled out that it means "for her", i.e. for a priestess (cf. l. 5) or divinity. For fuller discussion of this point see the notes to CGRN 25. [5] A tetarteus ("quart") is one quarter of a medimnos. On dry quantitative measures see SEG 54.214, note 2. [6] AIO follows Takeuchi and earlier editors in interpreting tres at B13 as "3 drachmas", and tres III at A28 and B32 as "3 drachmas, 3 obols".

Added: 3 Jan 2018
Updated: 26 Oct 2024
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