IGII31 551 About a festival (Dipolieia)

About a festival (Dipolieia)

IG II³ 1 551 Date: Ca. 330 BC

. . . ^[1] . . . make . . . . . . wineless offerings . . . . . . of Thargelion . . . . . . fourteenth of [Skirophor]ion . . . (5) the . . . shall despatch the procession . . . religious officials (hieropoious), whenever . . . may be, the sanctuary . . . the sanctuary . . . . . . drive round (?) . . . (10) the knife . . . . . .

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References:

IG II³ 1 551 (Translated text) (PHI) (IG Online)

SEG 25.82

Sokolowski, LSCG 179

Agora XVI 67 (PHI)

IALD 82 no. 10, 402

Translation by: Stephen Lambert

Images: Agora Excavations - (1)
Ohio - (1)

Monument type: Stele

Inscription type: Decree?

Findspot: Agora (Ag. I 6421)

Transliterations on Places on

[1] This is another fragmentary inscription relating to a festival (cf. IG II³ 1, 447), cut by a mason who worked between 337 and 324 BC (S. V. Tracy, Athenian Democracy in Transition, 107). The references to the “fourteenth”, to “driving round” and to the “knife”, suggest that the festival was the Dipolieia, the ancient festival of Zeus on the acropolis (Zeus Polieus), which took place on 14 Skirophorion (month after Thargelion, l. 3), involved the driving of oxen around a bronze table, and at which the sacrificial knife played an important part in the ritual (the Bouphonia). Cf. Lambert, "Connecting with the Past", in L. Foxhall ed al. eds., Intentional History (2010), 233; ABSA 97, 2002, 386.

Added: 10 Dec 2012
Updated: 21 Apr 2016
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ID: AIO_264