AIO 1284 Decree concerning sacrifices at Eleusis

Decree concerning sacrifices at Eleusis

AIO 1284 Date: ca. 500-470 BC

The Council and the People decided, when Paraibates [was secretary]:^[1] the religious officials (hieropoios) shall make the [preliminary] sacrifices^[2] of the Eleusinia^[3] (?) and . . . . . . Eleusi-^[4] . . . for Hermes Enagonios and the Graces a goat . . . [for Poseidon a ram], for Artemis a goat, for Telesidromos and Triptolemos . . . ^[5] (5) [for Plouton], for D[oli]chos (?),^[6] for the Two Goddesses three victims led by a bull at the festival.

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Greek text

References:

AIO 1284 (Translated text) (AIO)

IG I³ 5 (IG Online) (PHI)

Sokolowski, LSCG 4

Immerwahr, Script, 95 no. 627

I Eleusis 13 (PHI)

Tracy, Athenian Lettering, 22

Meyer, Origins, 360 n. 142

CGRN 8 (CGRN)

Translation by: Stephen Lambert

Monument type: Base

Inscription type: Decree (Council and People)

Findspot: Eleusis (Eleusis Museum E 553)

Transliterations on Places on

[1] This monument is in the form of a quadrangular base, in the top of which are a rectangular cutting in the centre and two circular cuttings to the sides. Earlier editors suggested that it carried a table for offerings ("mensa sacra", IG), but Clinton in I Eleusis argues that it supported columns which perhaps carried statues of Demeter and Kore. We follow Clinton's date range (cf. Tracy). It can only be approximated from the forms of the letters, which are not inscribed stoichedon. Like most other inscribed Assembly decrees from before the late 450s BC (see the notes to IG I³ 1 - IG I³ 8), the format is not a stele, though this is the only example inscribed on a base. The decree is also characteristic of this early group in being erected at a cult location to which the provisions of the decree relate. It is the earliest decree preserving a heading in the form "The Council and the People decided" (edoxen tei boulei kai toi demoi; cf. IG I³ 1 with notes). The formula reflects the rule that the Assembly could only pass decrees on the basis of a resolution (probouleuma) of the Council (Ath. Pol. 45.4), which might be "open" (in effect simply placing a matter on the agenda of the Assembly), or "closed" (i.e. containing a specific proposal) and which the Assembly was at liberty to amend. This was the standard formula for the rest of the 5th century. From 403/2 BC onwards a distinction was usually made between Assembly decrees which enacted the Council's resolution ("probouleumatic"), for which the formula was edoxen tei boulei kai toi demoi and decrees which had been reworked in the Assembly ("non-probouleumatic"), for which the formula was edoxen toi demoi. Cf. P. J. Rhodes, The Athenian Boule (1972), 64, 66; IALD II, 257 note 69. [2] I take the text to be distinguishing between "preliminary sacrifices" (proteleia) and, in the last line, those to be offered at the festival itself (en tei heortei). [3] This inscription is taken by most scholars, probably correctly in my view, to relate to the Eleusinia, an agonistic festival which took place at Eleusis for which provision was probably made in a surviving section of the city's sacrificial calendar as revised at the end of the 5th cent. BC, SEG 52.48A (at note 9). Several of the gods to which offerings are made, Hermes Enagonios ("Competitive"), Telesidromos ("Race Finisher") and probably Dolichos ("Of the Long Course"), suggest this. Clinton argues that it relates rather to the Mysteries, taking Ἐλευσινίον here to mean (religious officials) "of the Eleusinians", i.e. the deme Eleusis, rather than "of the Eleusinia". Our other evidence, however, would not suggest close involvement of the deme Eleusis with the organisation of the Mysteries. Moreover, it seems likely that at the beginning of this text there would be an explicit reference to the festival to which it relates. [4] The restoration of the text at the end of l. 2 and the beginning of l. 3 is uncertain and we do not repeat the supplements suggested by Clinton and others. [5] The restoration of the end of this line is uncertain, and we do not repeat Clinton's supplement, cf. the note in CGRN. [6] Left unrestored by Clinton, enough survives of this name to suggest that, as von Prott saw, we have here a reference to Dolichos, an Eleusinian prince mentioned in the Hom. Hymn to Demeter 155. His name means "Long Course", of which there was one at Eleusis (I Eleusis 177 l. 25).

Added: 3 Jan 2018
Updated: 27 Jan 2024
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ID: AIO_1284