IGII34 1297 Dedication to Zeus Phratrios (Myrrhinous)

Dedication to Zeus Phratrios (Myrrhinous)

IG II³ 4 1297 Date: ca. 400-350 BC

Xenophon the priest, child of Philoxenos, dedicated me too as a memorial of himself to Zeus Phratrios.^[1]

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References:

IG II³ 4 1297 (Translated text) (IG Online)

SEG 53.210

SEG 57.201

SEG 61.176

Bultrighini, Demi della Paralia, 270-275

Translation by: Stephen Lambert

Monument type: Base

Inscription type: Dedication (priest), Dedication (Zeus Phratrios)

Findspot: Merenda (= Myrrhinous), in a well (Brauron Museum BE 1236)

Transliterations on Places on

[1] This dedication base, inscribed in verse, and with a cutting in the top to receive a votive, was discovered at Merenda (ancient Myrrhinous), where the phratry Dyaleis was based, and where it leased out a sizeable agricultural estate in 300/299 BC (IG II² 1241= Lambert, Phratries, T5 = Pernin, Baux ruraux, 14, cf. Bultrighini, 276-83). Zeus Phratrios was the principal deity (with Athena Phratria) of the Attic phratries (Lambert, 208-11) and we may probably infer that Xenophon was priest of Zeus Phratrios in the Dyaleis, and add this dedication to our very limited evidence for priests in Attic phratries (cf. RO 5; Lambert, 233-5). As recognised by C. Feyel, in Philologos Dionysos. Mélanges ... Knoepfler (2011), 27-37 (= SEG 61.176) and I. Bultrighini, ZPE 186, 2013, 141-51, the same man dedicated IG II³ 4, 580 at Myrrhinous to Apollo Pythios. Apollo Pythios was associated with Apollo Patroos (e.g. Dem. 18.141, cf. Lambert, 212), a deity also linked to the phratries (Lambert, 211-3), and, as the wording of the two dedications implies, was apparently worshipped alongside Zeus Phratrios in Myrrhinous. A Philoxenos son of Xenophon was councillor for Alopeke in 334/3 BC (?), IG II³ 4, 81, l. 47. Dyaleis members were not ipso facto demesmen of Myrrhinous, and he might be father or son of our priest, but the association of the Dyaleis with Myrrhinous does seem to have been quite close (e.g. both phratriarchs and the lessee of Lambert, Phratries, T5 were Myrrhinousians), neither name is unusual, and it is possible that this is a case of the same father-son name pair occurring in different demes, a not unusual phenomenon (cf. C. Habicht, Hesp. 59, 1990, 459-62 and ZPE 103, 1994, 117-27).

Added: 27 Apr 2023
Updated: 19 May 2023
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