SEG 18.208 Athenian dedication at Delphi for Melanopos of Delphi

Athenian dedication at Delphi for Melanopos of Delphi

SEG 18.208 Date: 300-275 BC

[The People of the Athenians] dedicated [to Apollo] (this statue of) Melanopos son of Hieros of Delphi.^[1] (5)Ergophilos made it.^[2]

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Greek text

References:

SEG 18.208 (Translated text) (AIO)

F.Delphes III 4 224.2 (PHI)

DNO 2597

Translation by: Jonas Osnabrügge

Monument type: Base

Inscription type: Dedication (public), Dedication (Apollo)

Fr. a - Findspot: Delphi (Great Polygonal Wall) (Delphi Museum 808)
Fr. b - Findspot: Delphi (Great Polygonal Wall) (Delphi Museum 1775)
Fr. c - Findspot: Delphi (on the slope below Agios Nikolaos) (Lost)

Transliterations on Places on

[1] Textual Note: AIO follows the text as restored in SEG 18.208 (= J. Bousquet, BCH 84, 1960, 167).

The inscription consists of three fragments of a statue base erected at Delphi, made of local limestone from Profitis Ilias (on Attic inscriptions at Delphi, see IG II³ 4, 17 with notes). There are two cavities on the top for a statue, probably of the honorand Melanopos. A Delphian proxeny decree for a Tenian (F.Delphes III 4, 225) was engraved to the left of this text on the same stone in the last third of the third century BC. There may have been a third inscription to the left of that (Bousquet, 164), on fragment c, which is preserved only in drawings by Nicolaus Ulrich (E. Preuner, Aus Heinrich Nicolaus Ulrich’s Nachlass, 1920-1924, 280, no. 16). F.Delphes III 4, 225 was not engraved over an erasure, showing that the base only ever supported a single statue and that Melanopos was the only honorand. The base was probably located on the terrace of the Temple of Apollo, above the Athenian Stoa (on which, see IG I³ 1464). This position, together with the size of the base, underlines the importance of this honorific dedication. The reason why Athens honoured Melanopos with such a considerable monument is unknown, but it may relate to services Melanopos performed for Athens either as a private man or as an official (on honorific inscriptions and statues from other cities at Delphi, see D. Grzesik, Honorific Culture at Delphi in the Hellenistic and Roman Periods, 2021, 43f.).

Melanopos may be identical with a Delphian councillor mentioned in another inscription from Delphi (BCH 64-65, 1940-1941, 89, l. 9), dated to the first quarter of the third century BC (cf. G. Daux, Chron. Delph. F 10), which has the same style of lettering as this inscription. Another Melanopos (possibly the same person) also appears as a councillor in a proxeny decree for an Athenian (F.Delphes III 2, 206, l. 12), dated on palaeographic grounds to the end of the fourth or the first quarter of the third century BC. A Hieros son of Melanopos appears as an Athenian councillor ca. 334/3 BC (IG II³ 4, 81, ll. 63-64). The rarity of the name Hieros suggests that he is a relative who had been granted Athenian citizenship. For naturalization decrees of this period see Osborne, Naturalization D12-D41 and the list in S. D. Lambert, IALD I, 2018, 101-5). [2] Ergophilos (DNO 2597-2599) was a bronzeworker (toreutes) active during the last quarter of the fourth century in Delphi, well attested by epigraphic evidence (e.g. F.Delphes III 4, 222, l. 4; 226, l. 3). He may have been the father of the Athenian sculptor, bronzeworker, and art historian Xenokrates (DNO 2511-2519; cf. IG IX 1, 131, l. 7), who is also well attested by literary (Plin. NH 1.34, 34.83, 35.68; Diog. Laert. 4.15, 7.187-88) and epigraphic evidence (I Oropos 389-390; IG IX 1, 131; IvP 138+135).

Added: 5 Jun 2023
Updated: 18 Aug 2023
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