IGII34 561 Victory dedication by a sponsor and director

Victory dedication by a sponsor and director

IG II³ 4 561 Date: i AD

. . . . . . having competed in the men's circular choruses for the tribe of Kekropis, serving as sponsor (chorēgōn) and as director (didaskōn) himself,^[1] and having directed (5) a new tragedy at the Great Panathenaia, and having won all three, (he dedicated this) to Athena.^[2]

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References:

IG II³ 4 561 (Translated text) (IG Online)

IG II² 3157 (PHI)

Follet and Peppas Delmousou, Dedicaces chorégiques 2

Schmalz 101

Translation by: Chris de Lisle

Monument type: Base

Inscription type: Dedication (victor), Dedication (Athena)

Findspot: Unknown (EM 4553)

Transliterations on Places on

[1] This rectangular statue base was dedicated to Athena by a man from the tribe of Kekropis, whose name is lost, to commemorate his victories in dramatic and musical contests. The letter forms indicate a first century AD date. The dedicator had won three different competitions. The first must have appeared in the lost section of the inscription. The second victory was a dithyrambic contest at the Dionysia (the “circular choruses”), for which he served as chorus member, sponsor (choregos) and director (didaskalos). The sponsor funded the chorus, while the director trained it and often also wrote its lyrics. The combination of these three roles is not otherwise attested in the Roman period. Victorious sponsors in the Roman period erected choregic dedications (see IG II³ 4, 558 with notes), but this monument differs from them in shape and textual formulae, refers to victories in other contests, and lacks a tripod. It is thus probably a private victory dedication, not a choregic dedication. There are several holes in the upper surface of the base for inserting statues. [2] The dedicator’s third victory was as the director of a tragedy at the Panathenaia festival in honour of Athena, which is probably why the base was dedicated to her. Theatrical contests are attested at the Panathenaia from the mid-second century BC (SEG 41.115 iii, ll. 39-43; Diog. Laert. 3.56; J. L. Shear, Serving Athena, 2021, 178). A “new tragedy” was one that had been written specially for the performance, as opposed to a revival of a play by a classic playwright like Aischylos, Sophokles, or Euripides. On the production of new plays in the Roman period, see F. Graf in C. W. Marshall and T. Hawkins, Athenian Comedy in the Roman Empire, 2015, 117-130.

Added: 30 Sep 2022
Updated: 30 Sep 2022
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