IGI3 515 Dedication by the prytany of Erechtheis

Dedication by the prytany of Erechtheis

IG I³ 515 Date: 408/407 BC

The prytany of Erechtheis dedicated (this) [to Athena], having been victorious in the archonship of Euktemon (408/7).^[1]

col. 1

from Upper Lamptrai: Timok[les] son of [Ti]mok(-) (5) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . (10) . . . Up to 9 lines abraded

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from Upper Agryle: Endios Thokleides; from Kedoi: (15) Thymoteles [P]antel[id]es; from Anagyrous: uninscribed space uninscribed space (20) uninscribed space from Euonymon: [E]lpines Chair- Up to 4 lines abraded

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from Lower Agryle: (25) Klearchos; from Kephisia: Eryxis Kephises uninscribed space (30) from Upper Pergase: uninscribed space from Lower Pergase: uninscribed space Up to 7 lines broken

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References:

IG I³ 515 (Translated text) (PHI) (IG Online)

Raubitschek, Dedications 167

Agora XV 1 (PHI)

AIO Papers 9 515 sects. 1-3 (AIO Paper)

Humphreys, Kinship, 1216b

Translation by: Stephen Lambert, Chris de Lisle, Salvatore Tufano

Monument type: Base

Inscription type: Dedication (prytany), Dedication (Athena)

Findspot: Acropolis (EM 6290)

Transliterations on Places on

[1] The prytany was the tribal contingent of 50 men who formed the Council’s executive committee for a tenth of the year in rotation, the order determined afresh by lot each year. This is the earliest in the long series of inscriptions commemorating honours awarded the prytanies by the Council and People, in this case as a result of a competition for “best prytany” (compare the competition for “best speaker” on the Council, IG II³ 1, 306). Before ca. 320 BC it seems to have been customary for the victorious prytany to make a dedication like this one, usually erected in the sanctuary of the relevant tribal hero. The earliest dated example from the fourth-century democracy is IG II³ 4, 43, of 393/2 BC. From 357/6 BC onwards the dedications tend to refer to the crowning of the prytany by the Council and People, but continue sometimes to refer to the prytany's "victory" (latest dated reference to "victory", IG II³ 4, 86, of 327/6 BC). In the Hellenistic period, starting perhaps in 307/6 BC, it became customary for the prytany's term of office to be commemorated by monuments inscribed with relevant decrees of the Council and People and set up in front of the Council chamber, or later the prytanikon (= the tholos). These decrees no longer refer to the prytany's "victory" in a competition and there are years in which more than one prytany seems to have been honoured. For more detail see AIO Papers 9. This inscription is on a round base which perhaps carried a statue of Athena. The prytaneis are listed by deme (but the demes are not arranged by trittys, the subdivision of the tribe used for some military and administrative purposes). The demes Themakos, Lower Lamptrai, Phegous, and Pambotadai/Sybridai are missing and presumably appeared on the lost parts of the stone. The inscription is one of our earliest references to the "split demes" (Lamptrai, Agryle, and Pergase), along with Aristophanes, Amphiaraos F27 of 414 BC. It has sometimes been suggested that these indicate that the deme system was flexible enough to be modified in response to demographic change after Cleisthenes. The fact that all six of Erechtheis’ split demes already exist at this early date suggests that, if any such modifications ever occurred, they had taken place before the end of the fifth century. Vacant spaces were left under some of the deme names, and in one case (Kephisia, ll. 27, 28) the names of the councillors have been filled in later. The Council may have not have been fully manned at this stage in the Peloponnesian War; and it may also be that only those councillors were listed who contributed to the cost of the dedication. 408/7 BC was the year of Alcibiades’ return to Athens, Xen. Hell. 1.4, and Assembly decrees of this year are extant which attest to his activity, see IG I³ 118 and 119. It is unclear, however, whether there is any connection between Alcibiades’ return and this monument (Bicknell, Studies in Athenian Politics and Genealogy, 1972, 13-14, suggested that the prytaneis who had opposed his return refused to allow their names to be included). At the end of the first century BC, the block that this inscription is on was recycled and reinscribed with IG II² 4136.

Added: 13 Mar 2018
Updated: 8 Jul 2021
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ID: AIO_1333