AIUK2 no. 6 Dedication to Eileithyia on behalf of Julia Rufina

Dedication to Eileithyia on behalf of Julia Rufina

AIUK 2 (BSA) no. 6 Date: ca. 150 AD

Gaius Julius Optatus (scil. dedicated a statue of) his own daughter, Ju- lia Rufina to Eileithyia, a thank-offering (5) in the priestess-ship of Isidora daughter of - of Ai[xone] or Ai[thalidai] or Ai[gilia].^[1]

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Greek text

References:

AIUK 2 (BSA) no. 6 (Translated text) (AIUK) (AIO)

IG II² 4066 (PHI)

IG II³ 4 1151 (IG Online)

SEG 50.200

Pingiatoglou, Eileithyia E41

Lambert, BSA Inscriptions E13

Translation by: Stephen Lambert

AIO Images: 1

Monument type: Base

Inscription type: Dedication (private, Eileithyia)

Findspot: Unknown (BSA E13)

Transliterations on Places on

[1] This dedication to Eileithyia, goddess of childbirth, was made by a father on behalf of his daughter, Julia Rufina. From another dedication cut in the same hand and under the same priestess, datable to ca. 150 AD, IG II³ 4, 1150, and from the prosopography of this prominent family, it can be established that Julia Rufina was the new-born daughter, not the baby’s mother. Dedications to Eileithyia (who is sometimes referred to in the plural, "(the) Eileithyiai", cf. IG II³ 4, 1141 and IG II³ 4, 1149, with notes) commonly took the form of a statue of the infant. A number of the original statues survive, but in no case can a particular statue be associated with a particular base (see Svoronos, Nationalmuseum II, 308-13; S. Pingiatoglou, Eileithyia, 1981, 61-65. Images: 1, 2).

At the other end of her life, in ca. 220 AD, Julia Rufina was honoured with a statue at Eleusis erected by her husband, C. Julius Musonius of Steiria, I Eleusis 633. The family belonged to the Athenian elite of this period (cf. Byrne, RCA 325 no. 113; the statue attests Musonius holding the leading civic posts of herald of the Areopagos and hoplite general, as well as agonothetes of the Olympieia, priest of Olympian Zeus at Athens and phaidyntes at Olympia, while their son was Hierokeryx, a priestly office in the Eleusinian Mysteries). It seems that the text was first drafted using the baby’s cognomen only, the name by which she would have been known in the family, but on second thoughts Optatus decided that, for form’s sake, her nomen, Julia, should also be included, and this was squeezed in as an afterthought running over from the end of l. 2 to the beginning of l. 3. For more detail on this monument see AIUK 2 (BSA) no. 6.

The number and precise location of sanctuaries of Eileithyia in Athens is uncertain. IG II³ 4 represents the view that there were two: (1) between the sanctuary of Sarapis and the Olympieion, visited by Paus. 1.18.5, and from which derives IG II³ 4, 79; 1142; 1143; 1145; 1146; 1148; Agora XXI G8 and Ag. I 7576; (2) in Agrai, FGrH 323 Kleidemos F1, from which derives IG II³ 4, 1144; 1147; 1149?; 1150?; 1151; and that one of these is identifiable with the Eileithyeion in the deme Kollytos mentioned at Agora XIX L6 II, ll. 97-98.

The extant inscribed dedications to Eileithyia, dating from iv BC - ca. iii AD, are now conveniently collected at IG II³ 4, 1141- 1152. 1141 is a striking newly discovered relief of ca. 400-350 BC dedicated to Eileithyia by a woman from Thespiai, where cult of Eileithyia was well established, and depicting three female herms which apparently allude to the three ancient wooden cult statues of Eileithyia which Pausanias recorded in the sanctuary he visited. Note also the equally striking IG II³ 4, 79, of 339/8 BC, from the Agora, brilliantly identified by Curbera (IG II³) as a private dedication to Eileithyia by members of the Council prytany of Aiantis commemorating the birth of a child, Sokles, presumably to one of their number. IG II³ 4, p. 423 notes also the graffito Agora XXI G 8, "Of Eileithyia", and the unpublished Ag. I 7576.

Added: 30 Apr 2018
Updated: 5 Apr 2022
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