IGII2 1182 Decree of Myrrhinous honouring Pheidippos

Decree of Myrrhinous honouring Pheidippos

IG II² 1182 Date: ca. 330-320 BC (?)

. . . ^[1] . . . seat of honour (proedrian) at all the performances (theais) that the Myrrhinousians put on;^[2] and he shall be permitted, (5) on taking care of the payment (apodoseōs) of the remaining money on behalf of the demesmen, to seek some good from the demesmen by which he will be honoured (10) worthily of his benefactions,^[3] so that everyone else may show love of honour (philotimōntai) towards the demesmen, knowing that they will receive thanks from (15) the demesmen worthy of their benefactions; and the demarch shall inscribe this decree on a stone stele and stand it in the sanctuary of (20) Artemis Kolainis;^[4] and for inscribing the stele Pheidippos or the treasurer, Pheidippos^[5] and the copy secretary (antigraphea) Meixias^[6] shall allocate 30 drachmas or expenditure of 30 drachmas (25) from the revenue. The demesmen.

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References:

IG II² 1182 (Translated text) (PHI)

Bultrighini, Demi della Paralia, 229-235

Csapo and Wilson II, 195-196

Russo, Ripartizioni, D67

Translation by: Stephen Lambert

Monument type: Stele

Inscription type: Decree (Deme Myrrhinous)

Original location: Myrrhinous (sanctuary of Artemis Kolainis)

Findspot: Merenda (= ancient Myrrhinous), built into Agia Thekla (At findspot)

Transliterations on Places on

[1] Textual Note. The current text depends on early transcripts (of the Abbé Fourmont in the 18th century and S. A. Koumanoudes in 1871). Angelos Matthaiou kindly informs me that a few years ago in the course of restoration works the stone was rediscovered in the same church where Fourmont and Koumanoudes had seen it, and a revised edition is expected shortly. 22-23 There has been a difference of view as to whether the correct reading is τὸ ἀ[ν]ά[λωμ|α] ("expenditure", Koumanoudes, IG, and following them, Vivliodetis) or τὸν [τ]α<μ>ί[α|ν] ("the treasurer", i.e. describing Pheidippos, Boeckh after Fourmont, cf. Humphreys, Kinship, 908 n. 45).

This is one of two inscribed decrees of Myrrhinous, a medium-sized deme (bouleutic quota 6, IG II³ 4, 21, IG II³ 4, 83, Agora XV 42, 174-180, but 7 in IG II³ 4, 48) of the coastal trittys of Pandionis (which was named after it), located in the south-east of the Mesogaia, a little inland from the east coast of Attica, south of Halai Araphenides and Philaidai, and north of Kephale and Thorikos, ca. 4 km SE of modern Markopoulo. Long known from discoveries at the church of Ag. Panagia in Merenda, understanding of the deme's archaeology was enhanced more recently by excavations in the course of construction of the Equestrian Centre for the 2004 Olympic Games ca. 500 m. north of that church, which identified roads, public buildings, farms, cemeteries, and sanctuaries, including the foundations of a temple identified as that of the deme's principal cult, Artemis Kolainis, the original location of this decree (l. 20, see further below). On these excavations see O. Kakavogianni ed., Αρχαιολογικές έρευνες στην Μερέντα Μαρκοπούλου ... (2003); in V. Vassilopoulou and S. Katsarou-Tzeveleki, eds., Από τα Μεσόγεια στον Αργοσαρωνικό ... Proceedings of the Symposium ... December 2003 (2009), 47-78; and O. Kakavogianni et al. in the same volume, 103-26 (for the deme agora, Kakavogianni and M. Anetakis, in V. Chankowski and P. Karvonis eds., Tout vendre, tout acheter, 2012, 185-188); for full studies of the deme, E. Vivliodetis, Ο Δήμος του Μυρρινούντος, Arch. Eph. 144 (2005) and Bultrighini, Demi della Paralia, 207-93; for briefer recent discussions, Humphreys, Kinship, 907-12; Csapo and Wilson II, 195-201. For the other decree of this deme see IG II² 1183. On demes in general see RO 46, with notes.

In addition to Artemis Kolainis, there is epigraphical evidence for the worship in Myrrhinous of Dionysos (see note on l. 4) and Athena (IG II³ 4, 1413) and Myrrhinous was also the (or a) base of the phratry, Dyaleis (lease, IG II² 1241 = Lambert, Phratries, T5; dedication to Zeus Phratrios, IG II³ 4, 1297; and by the same man to Apollo Pythios, IG II³ 4, 580). Among numerous other cult sites is a sanctuary the remains of which are datable mainly to iv BC, but include late Mycenean and Protogeometric pottery, identified by the excavators as a sanctuary of Aphrodite (Bultrighini, 285-9, who discusses two objects found there inscribed with names, SEG 53.223; 53.224, with 57.291), and another including artefacts of Geometric date, Bultrighini, 289-90 (Demeter?); 291-3 (unidentifiable deities). Myrrhinous is unusual among Attic demes in showing evidence for cult activity from the Mycenean through to the Roman imperial period.

Myrrhinous may also be identifiable with the group which sold at least five estates in the Lykourgan public land sale programme, Rationes F5, cf. Lambert, Rationes Centesimarum (1997), 185-6 no. 11.

This decree, which perhaps dates to ca. 330-320 BC (see further below), honours a man (probably the Pheidippos named in l. 22) for financial services to the deme and holds out the prospect of further honours for defraying future deme expenses. The decree is "Lykourgan" in atmosphere, with its focus on the financial well-being of the deme apparent also in incidental details, e.g. in the unusual provision (21-25) that the cost of the inscription should be paid from the deme's revenues jointly by the honorand and the "copy secretary" (antigrapheus, here uniquely in a deme decree). The other extant decree of Myrrhinous, IG II² 1183, which is not perhaps very distant in date, displays a comparable engagement with detailed financial management. [2] Proedria is a very common award in honorific decrees of the demes. The wording perhaps implies the existence of a theatre in Myrrhinous, in which performances were staged in the context of the deme's Rural Dionysia (for fuller discussion see Csapo and Wilson, who note that "performances", e.g. processions with the xoanon, might also have taken place in the context of worship of Artemis Kolainis). For the Rural Dionysia in Myrrhinous, cf. IG II² 1183, ll. 36-37, in Attica more broadly, IG II³ 4, 498; for cult of Dionysos there, IG II² 2767; note also the cult of Dionysos Anthios attested by Paus. 1.31.4. [3] The honorand (who is most likely named, l. 22) appears to have shouldered a financial obligation on behalf of his deme, and is promised further benefits if he defrays the remaining payments for which the deme is liable. The detail is obscure, but at issue here might have been e.g. the deme's liability for payment of taxes (eisphora) on its landed property (Humphreys, Kinship, 908). The wording about permission to seek future benefits is fairly common in Assembly decrees (e.g. IG II³ 1, 306, ll. 37-38; 327, ll. 45-46; 469, ll. 30-31), less so in deme decrees. It confirms that, in demes as at city level, benefactors might take the initiative in seeking honours. [4] Artemis Kolainis was the principal divinity of Myrrhinous (Ar. Birds 873 with schol.; Paus. 1.31.4, mentioning a xoanon, an ancient wooden image, of the goddess; Bultrighini, 237-65). IG II³ 4, 1099 and 1103 derive from her sanctuary there, remains of which were identified in the recent excavations (see above). It is the most southerly of three major local sanctuaries of Artemis in the centre of the eastern coastal zone of Attica (the others being Artemis Tauropolos at Halai Araphenides, SEG 46.153, and Artemis Brauronia at Philaidai; cf. also Artemis Amarysia, a little to the north and further inland at Athmonon, IG II² 1203, and on the possible association between Kolainis and Amarysia, I. Bultrighini, in G. Woolf et al. eds., Sanctuaries and Experience, 2024, 193-218, at 196-7). For a recently discovered horos marking property used as security for a loan from the deme's fund for Artemis Kolainis see SEG 63.156. There was also a sanctuary of Artemis Kolainis in the city, see IG II³ 4, 1069, 1744 and probably IG II³ 4, 1104; and two seats for her priest(s) in the theatre of Dionysos in the city are extant, IG II³ 4, 1907, 1976. [5] Pheidippos, who might, on one possible reading (see Textual Note), have been referred to here as the "treasurer" (a common office in demes, e.g. SEG 43.26, IG II² 1206 (Acharnai); SEG 49.141, 49.142, 42.112 (Halai Aixonides), etc.), had most likely been mentioned earlier in the decree, probably as the honorand. His father, Apemon son of Pheidippos, was victorious choregos at the Thargelia in the early 4th cent., IG II² 1138, ll. 17-19, and he himself was listed seventh in a select group of ten non-Councillors, headed by Phanodemos, Demades and Polyeuktos of Sphettos, who contributed to a Council dedication at the Amphiaraion in 328/7 BC, IG II³ 1, 360, l. 37 (on the possibility that the ten were listed in order of age, see Lambert, ZPE 150, 2004, 99-101 = IALD, 28-9). There is nothing to contradict the date of ca. 320s BC for our inscription, implicit in this identification. Explicit praise for financial services suits a Lykourgan or post-Lykourgan date. W. T. Loomis, Wages, Wefare Costs and Inflation (1998), 128-9, infers from the expenditure of 30 dr. on the stele (24) a relatively late date of ca. 330-318 BC (20 dr. is more common in deme decrees, and 10 dr. is occasionally attested, Whitehead, Demes, 161-2). This is probably about right, though Assembly decrees might cost 30 dr. in the 340s-330s: IG II³ 1, 298, ll. 48-49 (347/6 BC), IG II³ 1, 305, l. 7 (344/3 BC), etc.. IG II² 1183 evinces a similar detailed concern with financial management and probably dates to about the same period. [6] This is a unique attestation of an antigrapheus ("copy secretary") in a deme. He was doubtless modelled on the city official of this name, who seems to have had accounting functions (according to Aischines 3.25, he previously accounted to the People for the revenue (apelogizeto tas prosodous) every prytany, but in the time of Euboulos the controllers of the theoric fund filled the office; cf. Agora XV 43, with notes). Meixias is not attested in person, but a possible relative is Meixidemos of M. whose synoikia in Piraeus was denounced by a fellow demesman ca. 342/1 BC as a result of debts to the city, Agora XIX P26, ll. 468, 493.

Added: 27 Apr 2023
Updated: 18 Oct 2024
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