IGII2 1177 Decree of deme Piraeus concerning the Thesmophorion

Decree of deme Piraeus concerning the Thesmophorion

IG II² 1177 Date: Mid-iv BC

. . . the demarch in office at any time shall take care of the Thesmophorion^[1] together with the priestess, that no-one releases anything or gathers a thiasos or installs sacred objects (5) or performs purification rites or approaches the altars or the pit (megaron) without the priestess except when it is the festival of the Thesmophoria or the Plerosia or the Kalamaia (10) or the Skira or another day on which the women come together according to ancestral tradition;^[2] that the Piraeans shall resolve: if anyone does any of these things in contravention of these provisions, the demarch (15) shall impose a penalty and bring him before a law court under the laws that are in place with respect to these things;^[3] and concerning the gathering of wood in the sanctuaries, if anyone gathers wood, may the old laws (archaious nomous) (20) be valid, those that are in place with respect to these matters;^[4] and the boundary officers (horistas)^[5] shall inscribe this decree together with the demarch and stand it by the way up to the Thesmophorion.^[6]

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References:

IG II² 1177 (Translated text) (PHI)

Sokolowski, LSCG 36

CGRN 78 (CGRN)

Russo, Ripartizioni, D71

Translation by: Stephen Lambert, Feyo Schuddeboom

Images: Krateros - (1)
Ohio - (1)

Monument type: Stele

Inscription type: Decree (Deme Piraeus)

Original location: By way up to Thesmophorion in Piraeus

Findspot: Piraeus (Piraeus Museum 1231)

Transliterations on Places on

[1] This decree of the deme Piraeus is one of two inscriptions of Attic demes which supply important evidence for the Greek women's festival, the Thesmophoria, as celebrated in Attica, the other being IG II² 1184, of Cholargos (see also NGSL 3, I Eleusis 175 and AIO 2841). The festival seems to have been largely, perhaps entirely, a diffused rite, celebrated locally in the demes (on this see AIO 2841, with notes, but see also IG I³ 232 for the possible involvement of the Eleusinian genē). The religious aspects of this inscription are discussed at CGRN 78. The following notes largely supplement rather than repeat points made there. The festival was celebrated over three days in Pyanopsion, "Going Up" (Anodos), "Fasting" (Nesteia) and "Fair Birth" (Kalligeneia) and the second day supplies the mise-en-scène of Aristophanes' Thesmophoriazousai. We are also informed about the festival by a lengthy scholium (ancient commentary) on Lucian, translated by R. Parker, Polytheism (2005), 273. The festival was one of a complex honouring the quintessential agricultural divinity Demeter, here in her aspect of "Thesmophoros", "because she established laws or thesmoi by which men were to acquire and work for their food" (schol. Lucian). A central feature of the festival involved the depositing of the remains of sacrificed piglets in a pit (megaron, l. 6) where they were left (for a year?) and then recovered, to be spread on the fields as ritual fertiliser. As with much of Athenian religion as documented in the epigraphic sources, its focus is on two central concerns of an agrarian community, the fertility and vigour of its human members, in this case its women, and of the plant and animal life which sustained it (cf. e.g. NGSL 1, Thorikos, with notes, IG I³ 250, Paiania). On the priestess mentioned here cf. AIO 2841, with notes. [2] Of the festivals mentioned here the best-known is the Thesmophoria. The Plerosia ("pre-ploughing") and Kalamaia (relating in some way to stalks of grain) and, it seems, the Skira, were also concerned with agricultural fertility and this text is important evidence that, at any rate in Piraeus, they involved gatherings of women in the Thesmophorion. [3] This capacity for the demarch of the Piraeus to impose summary fines and bring cases to court may reflect his special status as an official appointed not by the deme, but by the city as a whole (Ath. Pol. 54.8, with Whitehead, Demes of Attica, 1986, 394-96). On this aspect of the deme Piraeus see AIUK 4.3A, no. 1. [4] Cf. IG II² 1362. Like that edict the background to this decree might be supplied by IG II³ 1, 292 ll. 16-23 or the "previous decree of Philokrates about the sacred places" referred to at l. 55 of that inscription. [5] These seem to have been officials of the deme Piraeus (Whitehead, Demes, 396). Their duties may have had a ritual context (cf. Zeus Horios). [6] One "went up" to the Thesmophorion, both metaphorically (as in English, "go up to town") and often it seems literally, as the Thesmophoria would commonly be celebrated in a high place. This apparently is the significance of the name of the first day, Anodos, being the day on which the women "went up" to, i.e arrived for celebration of, the festival (Parker, Polytheism, 272, noting the frequent references to women going up to the festival in Ar. Thesm.).

This is one of five known inscribed decrees of the deme Piraeus, and the only one to have been found in the Piraeus itself. In general on the deme Piraeus and its inscriptions see AIUK 4.3A, no. 1. For the other three decrees see no. 2, and no. 3; Agora XVI 160.

Added: 3 Jan 2018
Updated: 6 Jan 2024
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ID: AIO_1316