OR 108 Decree about genos Praxiergidai

Decree about genos Praxiergidai

OR 108 Date: ca. 460-420 BC

The Council and People decided. [- was the prytany]. - was secretary. [- was chairman. - proposed]: concerning the request [of the Praxiergidai^[1] to write up the oracle] of the god and the [decrees] formerly [made about them] (5) on a stone stele [and set it down on the acropolis (polei)] behind the old temple;^[2] . . . . . . ; and the money . . . . . . of the goddess according to ancestral tradition . . . the payment officers (kolakretai) shall give them the money. (10) Apollo issued the following oracle: it is better [for the Praxiergidai] to put the peplos on [the goddess and make preliminary sacrifice] to the Fates, to Zeus Leader of the Fates, to Earth . . . Uninscribed space These are the ancestral traditions of the Praxiergidai . . . . . . Uncertain amount of text missing (15) . . . provide (?) (parechen) . . . [for the Praxiergi?]dai . . . the fleece (koidion)^[3] . . . according to [tradition] . . . provide (parechen) (20) . . . Thargelion^[4] . . . the archon^[5] shall give (?) . . . in accordance with ancestral tradition. The Praxiergidai shall put on [the peplos]. (25) The Praxiergidai shall pay for (apotinen?) (?) a medimnos of barley.^[6]

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Greek text

References:

OR 108 (Translated text) (AIO)

IG I³ 7 (IG Online) (PHI)

Sokolowski, LSCG 15

Immerwahr, Script, 108 no. 742

Meyer, Origins, 363-64

CGRN 24 (CGRN)

Translation by: Stephen Lambert, Robin Osborne

Images: Aleshire - (1)

Monument type: Stele

Inscription type: Decree (Council and People)

Original location: [Acropolis] (Behind the old temple)

Fragments a, b, c - Findspot: Acropolis (EM 6629)

Transliterations on Places on

[1] The Praxiergidai were the genos with responsibilities for the (old wooden) statue of Athena on the Acropolis and its vestments. On genē see RO 37. Plut. Alcibiades 34.1 attests the Praxiergidai (whose name connotes "Doers of Works") performing rituals at the Plynteria (festival of "Washing") on 25 Thargelion (removing the adornment, kosmos, of the statue and veiling the image, prior, it seems, to a procession to Phaleron at which it was ritually washed). The day was one of ill-omen, on which "no Athenian would undertake serious business" (Xen. Hell. 1.4.12). The Praxiergidai may also have played a role at the Kallynteria (festival of "Beautification"), associated in our sources with the Plynteria, and this inscription shows it also claimed responsibility for clothing the statue with the peplos (Athena's robe), perhaps in the context of the Plynteria/Kallynteria (cf. SEG 52.48A, at n. 7), perhaps of the presentation of a new peplos for Athena's statue at the Panathenaia (in Hekatombaion, two months after Thargelion, cf. AIUK 1, fr. b, l. 9 with n. 3). Though conventionally dated rather early (460-450 BC in IG), the writing on this inscription shows a mixture of archaic and later features (including dative plural in -ais, which became common only after 420). It is perhaps most comfortably located in the context of attention being paid to the monuments and rituals of the Acropolis as part of the "Periclean" building programme. Like the earlier IG I³ 4, however, its erection on the Acropolis is to be accounted for by the fact that it relates specifically to Acropolis rituals. On an early dating, it would be one of the earliest inscribed Assembly decrees to refer to itself as a "stele" (5, cf. Meyer, n. 147). The precise context of the decree is unclear. One possibility is that it arose from tension between genē as to their respective roles. Apart from the Eteoboutadai, who supplied the priestess of Athena Polias, the Euenoridai may also have had functions relating to the care of Athena's statue and its vestments (see SEG 58.145). It was common practice to refer issues affecting the gods to the Delphic oracle cf. e.g. SEG 47.232, ll. 15-16; IG II³ 1, 292. [2] Most likely the sixth-century temple of Athena Polias left in ruins after the Persian sack. [3] Possibly a perquisite from sacrifice, but fleeces could also play a role in purificatory rituals (Polemon of Ilium frs. 87, 88 [FHG iii. 143–5]) and a connection with the Plynteria/Kallynteria is possible. [4] The month of the Plynteria/(Kallynteria?). [5] Perhaps here the Athenian archon rather than archon of the genos. [6] Barley was used in sacrificial ritual. As commonly in inscriptions containing ritual provisions there is a concern with specifying sources of funding, and in the case of genē, which performed rituals on behalf of the polis as a whole, there is a particular concern to demarcate what costs are to be met from public funds (as here l. 9) and what they pay for from their own resources. See especially RO 37, e.g. l. 87. In the third century BC, when both public and genos funding for religious rituals was, it seems, increasingly being replaced by voluntary funding by individual priests and other office-holders, the priestess of Athena personally paid 100 dr. to the Praxiergidai for their "ancestral sacrifice" (IG II³ 1, 1026).

Added: 20 Jan 2016
Updated: 2 Nov 2019
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