IGII2 6288 Funerary stele of Chairestrate, attendant of the Mother

Funerary stele of Chairestrate, attendant of the Mother

IG II² 6288 Date: 360-340 BC

[Chairestrate] [wife of Men]ekr[ates] of Ikarion. Two rosettes An attendant (propolos) of the Mother Begetter-of-all (Pantoteknou) (5)and awesome reverend woman (geraira) lies in this tomb, Chairestrate, whom her husband loved while she was alive and mourned when she died. But she left the light fortunate, having lived to see her children’s children.^[1] Relief

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References:

IG II² 6288 (Translated text) (PHI)

CEG 2, 566

Clairmont, CAT 1.934

Scholl, Bildfeldstelen 295

Translation by: Emma Buhrman

Monument type: Stele

Inscription type: Funerary, Metrical (elegaic couplets)

Findspot: Piraeus (Piraeus Museum 1030)

Transliterations on Places on

[1] Chairestrate is depicted on this relief stele seated in a chair and holding a temple key, a symbol of her office as priestess. In front of her stands a young girl with a large, round object in her hand, a tympanon, which was a type of drum used in religious rituals. The epigram above the relief, in elegiac couplets (ll. 4-8), emphasises the age of the deceased Chairestrate by mentioning that she lived to see her own grandchildren. She is called a propolos (literally ‘one who goes before’ the goddess), a temple attendant or servant. For other propoloi at Athens, some of whom are priests and some of whom are subordinate religious officials, see IG I³ 953, 1017; IG II³ 4, 1092; I Eleusis 516; SEG 12.193. The goddess served by Chairestrate here termed the Mother Begetter-of-all is Kybele, the Phrygian mother goddess often associated with music, particularly the sound of drums and castanets, on whom see IG II³ 4, 1313 with notes. Cults to the goddess seem to have flourished particularly in Piraeus (where this stele was discovered) from at least the fourth century BC (cf. IG II³ 4, 1319-1329). Chairestrate is also called a gerara ("reverend woman"), one of the group of fourteen women who accompanied the Basilinna (wife of the archon basileus) to her ritual wedding with Dionysos during the Anthesteria festival and celebrated the Iobaccheia and Theoina festivals (cf. [Demosthenes] 58.73-79, which includes the oath that they swore, and R. Parker, Polytheism and Society, 2007, 169, 304). The monument is dated on the basis of the relief around 360-340 BC (see Scholl, Bildfeldstelen no. 295). For other funerary inscriptions for priestesses, see IG II² 5271 with notes.

Added: 24 Sep 2026
Updated: 24 Sep 2026
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