AIUK42 no. 1 Regulations concerning the Eleusinian Mysteries

Regulations concerning the Eleusinian Mysteries

AIUK 4.2 (BM, Decrees of Council and Assembly) no. 1 Date: Ca. 475-450 BC

Face A

^[1] . . . . . . drachmas . . . . . . (5) . . . of the cities . . . decides, dedicate . . . if anyone of the . . . either whoever (?) . . . or . . . (10) . . . in order that (?) 6 lines traces (17) but if not, each 6 lines traces (24) . . . and . . . (25) . . . and not newer or younger (?) (neoter-) let him use the sanctuary; but if . . . let him not use it; and if . . . these things (are to apply) in the same way; and if . . . most according to his (?) power; . . . (30) and shall carry out the exaction; but if he does not turn in the debtor, let him not use the sanctuary; if they dispute (?) (amphisbetosi) that they have been summoned on the Acropolis (?) (em polei) . . . having come (fem. sing.) . . . injustice (?) (35) . . . later the Council . . . of the Athenians not . . . of these cities . . . unless he has lost a case in a local court or (40) been captured among the enemy; and any city that is not willing shall give and receive court cases with the Athenians according to the existing conventions (apo chsumbolon).^[2]

Face B

Traces (5) for involuntary acts, a simple penalty, for voluntary acts a double penalty; and there shall be a truce for the initiates (mustesin)^[3] (10) and for the epoptai,^[3] and for the companions or servants (akolouthoisin) and property of the (15) foreigners (othneion) and for all Athenians; and the time of the truce is to begin (20) in the month Metageitnion, from the full moon (dichomenias), and to continue through Boedromion and (25) Pyanopsion until the tenth;^[4] and the truce is to apply in the (30) cities that use the sanctuary and to the Athenians there in the (35) same cities; and for the Lesser (oleizosi) Mysteries^[5] the truce is to be (40) in the month Gamelion from the full moon (dichomenias) and through Anthesterion and in (45) Elaphebolion until the tenth.^[4]

Face C

Traces (5) . . . an obol from each [initiate (musto)]; and the - shall take half an obol [each] from each initiate; and the priestess of Demeter^[6] (10) shall take at the Lesser Mysteries from each initiate an obol, and at the Greater Mysteries an obol from each initiate; [all the?] obols (15) shall belong to the two Goddesses except for one thousand six hundred drachmas; and from the one thousand six hundred drachmas the priestess shall pay the expenses just (20) as they have been paid until now;^[7] and the Eumolpidai and the Kerykes^[8] are to take from each initiate five obols from the men, three obols from the women; an initiate who has not paid shall not embark on (25) initiation, except for the hearth-initiate;^[9] and the Kerykes shall initiate the initiates -, each one, and the Eumolpidai in the same way; [but if?] . . . more (pleios), they shall be fined [a hundred?] (30) drachmas at their scrutiny; and those of the Kerykes and Eumolpidai who have reached adulthood (hebosi) may initiate; and the Athenians may - the sacred money (hiero argurio) . . . whatever they wish, just like (35) the money of Athena on the Acropolis; and the hieropoioi shall look after (tamieuesthai) the money [of the Two Goddesses?] on the Acropolis . . . . . . in the . . . (40) of the orphans . . . the orphan children and the initiates each . . . the initiates who are [initiated?] at Eleusis in the courtyard (aulei) within the (45) sanctuary, and those who are [initiated?] in the city in the Eleusinion. Added a little later: The altar-priest and the [-] of the two Goddesses and the priest who (ton ierea ton -) . . . are to take, each of these [an obol from?] (50) each initiate, [sacred to the two Goddesses?]

Face D

Traces

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Greek text

References:

AIUK 4.2 (BM, Decrees of Council and Assembly) no. 1 (Translated text) (AIUK) (AIO)

IG I³ 6 (PHI) (IG Online)

SEG 61.44 (C33)

SEG 66.22a

GIBM I 2

Syll.³ 42

Sokolowski, LSS 3

Fornara, Translated documents 75

Immerwahr, Script, 95 no. 629

I Eleusis 19 (PHI)

Meyer, Origins, 353-63

OR 106

Translation by: Stephen Lambert, Robin Osborne

AIO Images: 1 2 3

Images: Agora Excavations - (1, 2)
Aleshire - (1)
Cornell - (1, 2, 3)
Ohio - (1)

Monument type: Pillar

Inscription type: Decree [(Council and People)]

Original location: Agora (City Eleusinion)

fr. a - Findspot: Agora (City Eleusinion) (Ag. I 3322b)
fr. b - Findspot: Agora (City Eleusinion) (Ag. I 3322a)
fr. c - Findspot: Agora (City Eleusinion) (Ag. I 2907a)
fr. d - Findspot: Agora (City Eleusinion) (Ag. I 2907b)
fr. e - Findspot: Agora (City Eleusinion) (Lost)
fr. f - Findspot: Agora (City Eleusinion) (EM 576)
fr. g - Findspot: House close to "Theseion" [= Hephaisteion] (BM 1816,0610.291)

Transliterations on Places on

[1] The main fragment of this decree, fragment g, contains Face A except left side of ll. 37-43, Face B except the right ends of ll. 16-20, Face C ll. 8-50 except right side of ll. 8-12, the initial letters of ll. 15-23 and the right side of ll. 16-21. It was found by Richard Chandler in 1765-6 in Athens in a house close to what was then thought to be the "Theseion", but is now known to be the Hephaisteion. It was later among the inscriptions acquired by Lord Elgin (cf. AIUK 4.1, no. 1 and no. 2). Its findspot is not far from the City Eleusinion on the north slope of the Acropolis, in the area of which most of the smaller fragments were later found, and which will have been the original location of the inscription. The inscription can be dated only approximately by letter-forms. It is inscribed stoichedon on all four faces of a "pillar" or "post", a format characteristic of the period before the stele established itself as the standard format for Assembly decrees ca. 450 BC, though the closest parallels are not to be found in other Assembly decrees, but religious regulations of other bodies, e.g. the deme Skambonidai, IG I³ 244 (for other comparanda see Meyer = SEG 66.22, table 1). Like most of the handful of inscribed Assembly decrees from before ca. 454 BC the text is of a religious character and was set up in a sanctuary relevant to the content (see the notes to IG I³ 1 - IG I³ 8). The inscription contains the core regulations of the Eleusinian Mysteries, celebrated in honour of the "Two Goddesses", Demeter, the goddess of grain, and her daughter Persephone, called in Attica, Korē ("the Girl"), who were worshipped principally at Eleusis, but also in the City Eleusinion on the north slope of the acropolis and in many Attic demes. Earlier fragmentary regulations from the City Eleusinion are IG I³ 231 and IG I³ 232. Later supplemented e.g. by IG I³ 32 = I Eleusis 30, of 432 or later, establishing officials (epistatai) to supervise the finances of the Two Goddesses, it was eventually superseded ca. 360 by I Eleusis 138. Andokides, a member of the Kerykes who had carried out initiations (1.132), quotes from a stele in the Eleusinion prohibiting the placement of a suppliant branch in the Eleusinion (1.116). It is unclear whether this was the stele in question. This, the earliest Assembly decree in the British Museum's collection, is one of the earliest of all surviving inscribed Assembly decrees. The BM also has a fragment of one of the latest, AIUK 4.2, no. 17, of ca. 220 AD, which also relates to the Eleusinian Mysteries. For more detailed discussion of this important inscription see AIUK 4.2 (BM, Decrees of Council and Assembly), no. 1 and the commentaries to I Eleusis 19 and OR 106 [SDL]. [2] Face A was apparently concerned wholly or partly with regulating access to the sanctuary by foreigners and with consequent international legal arrangements. Cities can opt in, or leave matters to be dealt with by the more general inter-state agreement (symbola) between the relevant city and Athens that regulated jurisdiction in one city in relation to citizens of the other (A40-43). The implication is that the Mysteries have an international status comparable with other Panhellenic festivals such as the Olympic Games. A35 may allude to the meeting of the Council that took place in the City Eleusinion on the day after the Mysteries. Cf. IG II³ 1, 1168. [3] Those introduced into the Mysteries as "initiates" (mystai) would return in subsequent years as "spectators" (epoptai). The details of the central rituals are not securely attested, being described explicitly mainly by late-antique Christian authors, who are unreliable witnesses. For a vivid attempt at reconstructing the sequence of events see J. N. Bremmer, "Initiation into the Eleusinian Mysteries: a 'Thin' Description", chapter 1 of his Initiation into the Mysteries of the Ancient World (2014), 1-20. [4] The Greater Mysteries took place 13-22 Boedromion (= ca. September), the Lesser Mysteries ca. 20 Anthesterion (ca. February). The truces allowed about 3 weeks for travel to and from Attica before and after the festivals, a total of four months a year when travel was possible under truce. Notably both the Lesser and Greater Mysteries are made the occasion of a truce not only for all participants, but for Athenians anywhere, and it is laid out systematically to whom the truce applies (B8-17), when (B17-27) and where (B27-36). The origins of this truce already lay deep in the past by this time. The genos Kerykes (literally, "heralds") were apparently named for the task of announcing it, and are mentioned in this context in a law of Solon (Athen. 234e-f = Solon Nomoi F88 Ruschenbusch, with Parker, Athenian Religion 300-301). In practice the announcement of the truce did not always go smoothly, see RO 35. [5] Otherwise known as the Mysteries at Agrai (by the Ilissos, just outside the city). Cf. e.g. IG II³ 1, 915, 9. [6] Tenure of responsible public office at Athens was normally limited to adult male citizens, but there is one significant exception, namely priestesses, whose gender normally corresponded to that of the deity they served. The priestess of Demeter at Eleusis, who was apparently member of an otherwise little-known genos, the Philleidai (Blok and Lambert, ZPE 169, 2009, 119-22), was the senior priestess of the Eleusinian cult. She is included on Face C in a list of officiants who are to receive payments, an obol from each initiate at the Lesser Mysteries, and an obol from each initiate at the Greater Mysteries (C9-14). This is not especially remarkable. More so is the role ascribed to the priestess in the following clauses (C14-20), for it is the priestess, and not one of the male priests or the genē Eumolpidai and Kerykes, who is charged with paying the “expenses” (analomata) for which the considerable sum of 1,600 drachmas is to be set aside from the obols paid by the initiates, “just as they have been paid until now”. Given that they had this kind of financial reponsibility it is unsurprising that priestesses were publicly accountable and were required (as were priests and genē) to undergo euthynai on the same basis as other public officials (Aischin. 3.18; see also Lykourgos 6 On the Priestess). Like other officials, both priests and priestesses could also be honoured with crowns in inscribed decrees of the Council and Assembly. Those which survive are Hellenistic in date (IG II³ 1, 1002, 1026, 1056, 1189, 1373, 1455, Priests and Priestesses no. 25), but there is possible indirect evidence for a fifth-century decree, or decrees, honouring the priestess of Demeter in IG I³ 953, a dedicatory base from the City Eleusinion, dating perhaps to 450-425 BC. If the poetic language of the epigram inscribed on it is correctly interpreted in this sense, it was apparently mounted by two crowns (stephanō). In language which recalls that often used in later honorific decrees, the epigram emphasises that the priestess had not spared her possessions, “but to the gods she is unstinting to the extent of her ability”. The name of that priestess was Lysistrate, and she, along with her similarly named colleague Lysimache, long-serving priestess of Athena Polias (IG II² 3453), may be alluded to in the feisty eponymous heroine of Aristophanes’ play, Lysistrata. For a Hellenistic case of honours being awarded a priestess by a deme, see AIO 2841. In general on the competences of women in ancient Athens see J. Blok, EuGeStA 8, 2018, 1-48. [SDL]. [7] From the figures given here (and below, 47-50) it can be calculated that to cover the 1,600 dr. expenses of the festival would require 1372 initiates every year, paying 7 obols each. Assuming that new initiates were on average 30 years old at initiation, and constituted therefore 1.5% of all living initiates, this implies a total of over 80,000 living initiates at any one time at this period, a notable indication of the popularity of these rites. C25-26 exempts the "hearth-initiate" from fees. This was a child (perhaps the only one initiated) who seems in some way to have been a representative of the city, the "hearth" perhaps being that of the city hall (prytaneion). Cf. I Eleusis 621. [8] The two main Eleusinian genē. In addition to the right to initiate, they supplied the two major male priesthoods of Eleusis, the hierophant (Eumolpidai) and the "torchbearer" (dadouch, Kerykes). Cf. IG II³ 1, 292, SEG 47.232 n. 5, I Eleusis 513, AIUK 4.2, no. 17. [9] On the (child) hearth-initiates at the Mysteries see I. Bruit Zaidman, Archimède 5, 2018, 113-23 (SEG 68.25).

Added: 20 Jan 2016
Updated: 30 Jan 2024
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