AIUK11 no. 2 Sacrificial calendar of a private association (?)

Sacrificial calendar of a private association (?)

AIUK 11 (Ashmolean Museum, Oxford) no. 2 Date: ca. ii AD

. . . [with twelve bosses?]^[1] Metageitnion: for the goddesses on the [2nd or 12th] . . . . . . of the Panteleia, a twelve- bossed round cake (popanon dōdekomphalon), containing a choinix (of flour), on the 15th, wineless libation (nēphalion).^[2] (5) Boedromion: On the 13th for Nephthys and Osiris you will burn (karpōseis) a rooster, sprinkling wheat and barley, pouring a libation of honey-mixture (melikraton). On the 17th, for Demeter and Kore, (sacrifice) an adult pig (delphaka) without delay. On the 18th, (sacrifice) the vintage (trugēton) to Dionysos and the other gods, immediately^[3] (10) Pyanopsion: for Apollo and Artemis, on the 7th, a straight-bossed (orthonphalon) round cake containing a choinix and a flattened one with twelve bosses.^[4] Maimakterion: for Zeus Georgos on the 20th, a round cake containing a choinix, straight-bossed, with twelve bosses, (15) and a kneaded-cake (naston) containing a choinix, moulded on top, an offering of all kinds of harvest produce (pankarpian), a wineless libation.^[5] Posideon: On the 8th from the beginning of the month, a round cake containing a choinix, with twelve bosses, flattened, for Poseidon Chamaizelos, wineless libation.^[6] On the 19th, (20) for the Winds, a round cake containing a choinix, straight- bossed, with twelve bosses, a wineless libation. Gamelion: you will garland (kittōseis) (statues of) Dionysos with ivy on the 19th. Anthesterion: priests from the cleansing water (ek loutrōn).^[7] Elaphebolion: On the 15th, for Kronos, a round cake (25) with twelve bosses, flattened – you will mould a a bull on top (?) – containing a choinix, (sacrifice) immediately. Mounichion: On the 2nd to last day of the month, for Herakles and his Uncle (theiō), 2 roosters, round cakes containing a choinix with twelve bosses, straight-bossed, (sacrifice) immediately.^[8]

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Greek text

References:

AIUK 11 (Ashmolean Museum, Oxford) no. 2 (Translated text) (AIO) (AIUK)

IG II² 1367 (PHI)

SEG 51.138

SEG 58.44

Sokolowski, LSCG 52

Bricault 101/0225

Translation by: Chris de Lisle

AIO Images: 1

Images: Aleshire - (1)
Krateros - (1)

Monument type: Stele

Inscription type: Calendar

Findspot: Athens, Church of the Pantanassa in Monastiraki (Ashmolean Museum, Oxford ANChandler 2.21)

Transliterations on Places on

[1] This is one of five inscriptions acquired by James Dawkins on a visit to Athens in 1751 and donated to the University of Oxford on his death in 1757 (cf. AIUK 11 (Ashmolean), no. 1). Dawkins found it in the Church of the Pantanassa in Monastiraki Square, where it was also seen by Anthony Askew in 1747.

This sacrificial calendar is dated to the second century AD by letter forms, linguistic features, and the use of alphabetic numerals. Inscribed sacrificial calendars are common at Athens (cf. AIUK 4.1 (BM), no. 1), but all other examples belong to the fifth or fourth centuries BC, several centuries before this inscription. It probably belonged to a “private” association, a self-regulating group who gathered together for regular ritual meals at a sanctuary that served as their club-house, in which this inscription presumably stood (for other associations from the second and third centuries AD, see IG II³ 4, 662, IG II² 1365-1368, 2361, 2963, SEG 31.122). While this group worshipped a wide range of deities, there is a focus on gods associated with Eleusis (see n. 2). The group apparently chose to arrange and record their activities in the form of a Classical-period calendar. This sort of archaism is a common feature of the religion of Athens in the Roman period (cf. AIUK 4.2 (BM), no. 17, also regulating the Eleusinian cult). Like the classical calendars, the types of offering in this inscription, their dates, and the deities to whom they were offered were bound up in two interlinked annual cycles: the agricultural year and the Athenian festival year. Unlike the Classical calendars, the offerings in this inscription are not “grounded” in a specific locality and there is no emphasis on financial accountability. Any prescript, which might have clarified the nature of the group, is lost, as are the entries for the months Thargelion, Skirophorion, and Hekatombaion. The first month to appear on the calendar, Metageitnion, was the second month of the Athenian year, coinciding with midsummer (for the Attic months, see IG II³ 1, 316 with notes). [2] “The goddesses” are probably the Eleusinian goddesses Demeter and Kore; the offering to them may coincide with the Eleusinia festival. The meaning of Panteleia (“total completion”) is uncertain, but the term is associated elsewhere with Demeter, Kore, and the Earth. The majority of the offerings mentioned in this calendar take the form of wineless libations (nephalia) and cakes, rather than wine and meat. Most of the cakes were popana (also known as plakountes), which consisted of many layers of filo pastry with a honey or cheese filling. As puff pastry, they yielded the largest possible cake from a given amount of flour. Most of the cakes contained a choinix of flour, i.e. 1/48 of a medimnos (1.08 litres = ca. 800 g). Popana usually had a single large boss on top. Some had more, but the twelve bosses on the cakes in this inscription are unparalleled. The cakes of this inscription were intended to be particularly spectacular. The group’s preference for wineless and meatless offerings may indicate that they subscribed to contemporary ethical and mystical ideas that associated the consumption of meat and wine with excess, irrationality, and mortality (see D. A. Dombrowski in G. L. Campbell, ed., Handbook of Animals in Classical Thought and Life [2014], 535-54) or it might be intended to avoid the charge of drunkenness, disorder, and dissidence which was often levelled against private associations in this period (W. Colter in J. S. Kloppenborg and S. G. Wilson eds., Voluntary Associations in the Graeco-Roman World, 1996, 74-89). [3] The offerings in Boedromion, the most spectacular of the year, were arranged to coincide with the Eleusinian Mysteries, supplementing the civic festivities without clashing with them. The offering on the 13^th coincides with the start of the festival and is typical of preliminary sacrifices for festivals (cf. CGRN 86 A, ll. 33-39). Major offerings were scheduled for the 17^th and 18^th, when no civic events connected to the Mysteries occurred. The adult pig (delphax) offered to Demeter and Kore on the 17^th was the largest offering made by the association and their only blood sacrifice. By contrast, the calendar schedules no events for the 16^th and 19^th, when the main civic processions associated with the Mysteries took place (see AIUK 4.2 (BM), no. 17 with notes; R. Parker, Polytheism [2005], 346-47). Nephthys and Osiris, who receive the offerings on the 13^th were Egyptian gods. Worship of Egyptian deities had begun in Athens in the fourth century BC (IG II³ 1, 337, ll.43-45) and was an established part of the religious scene in Athens and throughout the Mediterranean in the Imperial period (see AIUK 2 (BSA), no. 13, AIUK 8 (Broomhall), no. 4 with notes; cf. IG II³ 4, 1113, with notes). However, these particular deities are very rarely encountered outside Egypt. They are marked out as distinct in the calendar by the offering of a rooster (which Greeks associated with Egyptian gods). However, they are also an integral part of the Eleusinian focus of the calendar; Greek accounts of the myth of Osiris’ death and revival associate it closely with the Eleusinian Mysteries (Diod. Sic. 1.29; Plut. Isid. 12-19). Osiris and Nephthys were not paired in Egypt, but in Graeco-Roman sources they were the parents of Anubis, the god of mummification, whose intervention enabled life after death (Plut. Isid. 14, 38, 44, 59). It was thus particularly appropriate to commemorate the pair at the start of the Eleusinian Mysteries, which were also associated with life after death. [4] The 7th of Pyanopsion was the date of the Pyanopsia festival, in which a sacred bough with wool and fruits wrapped around it, called an eiresione, was carried in procession for Apollo (Harp. sv. Pyanopsia; Plut. Thes. 22.4; R. Parker, Polytheism [2005], 204-6; AIO Papers 6, 10-11). [5] The large offering to Zeus Georgos (“the Farmer”) in Maimakterion, the beginning of winter, is an example of the focus of this calendar on key milestones of the agricultural year. The harvest had ended in the previous month and in Maimakterion the sowing was completed and late ploughing took place. By making a large offering of “all the fruits” from the previous harvest, the worshippers sought to maintain a cycle of reciprocity, repaying the gods for the past harvest so that they would make the next one successful. Other examples include the offering of the recently picked grape vintage in Boedromion (l. 8-9) and the large offering of two cakes at the beginning of the ploughing and sowing in Pyanopsion (ll. 10-12). A similar emphasis on agriculture is seen in the Classical calendars (cf. OR 146). The “kneaded-cake” (nastos) was a cone-shaped cake stuffed with honey, raisin juice, or almond milk. [6] Poseidon Chamaizelos is not otherwise attested. His epithet (“down-on-the-ground”) suggests an association with agricultural fertility. The offering might coincide with the Posidea festival (AIO 505, with note on CGRN). [7] This cryptic instruction is probably associated with the Anthesteria festival, when the fermentation of the year’s vintage was completed and the new wine was first drunk (see R. Parker, Polytheism [2005], 290-316). During the festival, all temples except for that of Dionysos in the Marshes were closed and cleaned. If this applied to the sanctuary which this group used as their club-house, this may explain the reference to “cleansing water.” It would not be unusual for a private association to have its own priests. [8] Herakles receives offerings along with "θείῳ", which might be interpreted as theion or theios. Theion was an abstract “divine force” connected with monotheistic trends in Greek religion, but only attested in Asia Minor and only in combination with Zeus/Theos Hypsistos (see Mitchell Pagan Monotheism [1999]). Theios is Greek for “Uncle”. In Greek myth, Herakles has no notable uncles, but the Egyptian god Harpokrates (Horus as a child, who could be identified with Herakles) was regularly opposed to his uncle Set/Typhon. The rooster-offering which the calendar assigns to the pair was particularly associated with Egyptian deities (see n. 3).

For more detailed discussion of the inscription see AIUK 11 (Ashmolean), no. 2.

Added: 14 Jan 2021
Updated: 15 Mar 2022
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