IGII34 594 Dedication commemorating victories by the kitharode, Nikokles, in Panhellenic festivals

Dedication commemorating victories by the kitharode, Nikokles, in Panhellenic festivals

IG II³ 4 594 Date: ca. 300-250 BC

Face A (front)

Nikokles son of Aristokles^[1]

In laurel crown (II) At the Pythia

In laurel crown (III) At the Pythia

In laurel crown (IV) At the Pythia

In olive crown (I) (5) At the Great Panathenaia

In ivy crown (VIII) At the Lenaia (8) in the dithyramb^[2]

In laurel crown (V) (10) At the Pythia

In laurel crown (VI) At the Pythia

In laurel crown (VII) At the Pythia

Face B (left)

In crown (IX) (13) At the -ieia

In crown (X) At the Hekatomboia^[3]

In pine crown (XI) (15) At the Isthmia the first^[4]

In crown (XII) At the Basileia in Macedonia^[5]

Face C (right)

In oak(?) crown (XIII) At the Basileia (20) in Alexandria^[6]

In crown (XIV) At the Helieia^[7]

In crown (XV) At the Basileia^[8]

In crown (XVI) At the Asklepieia^[9]

Previous - IG II³ 4 593 Next - IG II³ 4 595

References:

IG II³ 4 594 (Translated text) (IG Online)

IG II² 3779 (PHI)

Translation by: David Weidgenannt

Monument type: Plinth or Base

Inscription type: Dedication (kitharode)

Findspot: Athens (Theatre of Dionysos) (Athens Ephoria NK 287)

Transliterations on Places on

[1] This is a dedication by Nikokles son of Aristokles (of Taras), the famous kitharode (lyre-player). His funerary monument, on the Sacred Way, is described by Paus. 1.37.2 (“greatest reputation of all kitharodes”). There is probably also a connection with the kitharode Aristokles, favoured ca. 290 BC by Antigonos Gonatas (Athen. 13.80 p. 603E; D. L. 7.13). This inscription has been dated variously to the end of the 4th cent. BC to the mid-3rd cent. BC (cf. n. 4). Panathenaia (crown I): cf. IG II³ 4, 578. [2] A competition in dithyramb seems to have been added to the Lenaia by the early third century BC. It is likely that Nikokles performed not with a chorus but as a soloist (see P. Ceccarelli, in B. Kowalzig and P. Wilson, Dithyramb in Context, 2013, 153-70, esp. 156-57). [3] The Hekatomboia was an Argive festival that is referred to as the Heraia from the early 2nd century, and “the shield from Argos” (hē ex Argous aspis) from the early 1st cent. BC (cf. P. Amandry, BCH Suppl. 6, 1980, 220-26, 244-47). [4] Nikokles appears to have been the first victor at the newly introduced contest for kitharodes at the Isthmian Games (cf. E. Gebhardt, The Theatre at Isthmia, 1973, 140, and see now A. Farrington, Isthmionikai, 2012, 51, no. 1, 82, who argues (n. 320) for a date of this inscription in the earlier third century BC). [5] Basileia in Macedonia: cf. P. Gauthier and M. Hatzopoulos, La loi gymnasiarchique de Beroia, 146; S. Le Bohec-Bouhet, in The Hellenistic World. New Perspectives (2002), 45 (SEG 52.586). [6] This is the Basileia founded by Alexander the Great, held first in Memphis (cf. Arrian, Anab. 3.1, 4 and 5, 2) and later in Alexandria (see L. Koenen, Eine agonistische Inschrift aus Ägypten und frühptolemäische Königsfeste, 1977, 29-32). [7] This is the Halieia in Rhodes where crowns made of poplar were awarded (cf. schol. Pind. Ol. 7.146). [8] This is the Basileia in Boeotian Lebadeia (cf. A. Schachter, Cults of Boeotia III, 1994, 111-18). [9] For the Asklepieia in Epidauros see M. Sève, Revue des Études Grecques 106, 1993, 303-28.

Added: 21 Oct 2019
Updated: 12 Jul 2021
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