AIUK45 no. 10 Relief of Jason the Physician

Relief of Jason the Physician

AIUK 4.5 (BM, Dedications) no. 10 Date: mid-2nd cent. AD

Relief^[1] Jason, known also as Dekmos, of Acharnai, doctor.^[2] Dionysios son of Jason of Acharnai, by birth son of Theodoros of Athmonon. Theomnestos son of Dionysios of Acharnai and of Eirene daughter of Jason of Acharnai.^[3] Philostrate daughter of Aphrodisios son of Aphrodisios of Rhamnous and of Aristion daughter of Karpodoros (5) of Melite.^[4]

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Greek text

References:

AIUK 4.5 (BM, Dedications) no. 10 (Translated text) (AIUK) (AIO)

IG II² 4513 (PHI)

IG II³ 4 836 (IG Online)

GIBM I 81

Conze IV no. 1890

Samama, Médecins 19

Translation by: Stephen Lambert, Peter Liddel, Polly Low

AIO Images: 1

Images: Wikimedia Commons - (1)

Monument type: Plaque

Inscription type: Dedication (private, Asklepios?)

Findspot: Athens (BM 1865,0103.3)

Transliterations on Places on

[1] This relief was discovered at Athens by Louis Fauvel (1753-1838) at an unknown location and purchased by the British Museum in 1865. It depicts a seated, bearded, clothed male (doctor) handling a smaller, unclothed, male (patient, probably an adult, possibly an enslaved person) with enlarged stomach; an oversized cupping vessel at the lower right of the scene indicates the medical context of the depiction. Once thought to be a funerary monument, it is now generally interpreted as a dedication to Asklepios on the grounds of the discovery at the Asklepieion of a dedication to Asklepios and Hygieia of the second century AD by the same Dekmos son of Theomnestos of Acharnai as is named here (IG II³ 4, 808). [2] Jason of Acharnai is evidently known alternatively as “Dekmos”, equivalent to the Roman name Decimus. It had been fashionable since the first century BC for Athenians to give their children Roman praenomina as names (Kointos = Quintus, Maarkos = Marcus, Gaios = Gaius, and Leukios = Lucius are also quite common). Such names may, but do not necessarily, imply their bearers were Roman citizens. We cannot tell why Jason was also known by this Roman name (one possibility is that the two names were designed to secure inheritances via different routes, cf. AIUK 3 (Cambridge) no. 9). Another interpretation is that "Jason" was an assumed name which made reference to his medical profession (cf. the verb ἰάομαι, "I heal"). [3] It becomes clear from ll. 2-3 that Jason’s daughter, Eirene, married Dionysios of Athmonon, whom Jason then adopted as his son. This was common practice where a man’s only child was a daughter (an heiress, epikleros) and was designed to ensure that the man’s property remained in his household (oikos) after his death. [4] Though not made explicit, Philostrate was perhaps the wife of Jason’s grandson, Theomnestos. Philostrate was the daughter of Aphrodisios son of Aphrodisios of Rhamnous and of Aristion daughter of Karpodoros of Melite. It may be nothing more than coincidence that the demes of Acharnai and Melite are associated some five hundred years earlier in a funerary monument for the midwife-doctor, Phanostrate of Melite, which was discovered at Acharnai: see IG II² 6873.

The inscribed part of the monument tells us nothing more about the medical profession or Jason’s activities, but represents his family’s genealogy. It is an example of a "Familienweihung", that is a "family dedication" in which several generations of a family appear as co-dedicants. This practice commemorated a dedication made by, or on behalf of, several members of a family. The setting up of family portrait dedications emerged as a practice in the middle of the fourth century in Athens and Attica; such dedications tend to be set up by a relatively narrow range of kin: usually spouses, siblings, parents and offspring (compare, for example, AIUK 4.5 (BM, Dedications), no. 25, a fourth-century dedication of a statue of Polyllos son of Polyllides by his brother, Polystratos). For an extensive study of Greek dedications made by or on behalf of family members during the Archaic and Classical periods, see Löhr. Jason's dedication is not out of kilter with other monuments associated with medical professionals of this era. At Ostia, the tomb of Scribonia Attice of the mid second century AD bears an inscription accounting for a complex set of family relationships (see N. Kampen, Image and Status: Roman Working Women in Ostia (1981), 70).

For fuller discussion of this inscription, see AIUK 4.5 (BM, Dedications), no. 10.

Added: 15 Sep 2017
Updated: 15 Feb 2022
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