SEG 50.168 The sacrificial calendar of the Marathonian Tetrapolis

The sacrificial calendar of the Marathonian Tetrapolis

SEG 50.168 Date: Ca. 375-350 BC?

Face A

col. 1

Unit A . . . ^[1] [fourth] quarter, 5 [Mounichion], for - Prakterios,^[3] a ram, 12 dr.; [Thargelion], . . . by the tower,^[2] a sheep, 12 dr.; [Skirophorion], 10 . . . in the agora,^[2] a ram, 12 dr., [on the eleventh or twelfth?], for Zeus Horios,^[2] a sheep, 12 dr., for . . . , a sheep, 11 dr. Unit B [...?] the following . . . . . . in the year of the - in (?) . . . each 15 . . . in order as is written . . . the one on the . . . by the Eleusinion^[7] . . . in Kynosoura . . . by the Herakleion^[11] Unit B1 20 [...?] fourth [quarter], Mounichion, . . . a sheep, 12 dr. Unit B2 [...?] first [quarter], Hekatombaion, 25 on the [date], [for Apollo?] Apotropaios,^[3] a goat, 12 dr.; [second] quarter, Pyanopsion, . . . a pregnant sheep, 17 dr.; [fourth] quarter, Mounichion, 30 . . . a goat, 12 dr., . . . 12 dr. Unit B3 [...?] fourth [quarter], Mounichion, . . . -aios, a goat, 12 dr., 35 . . . , a sheep, 12 dr., . . . , a sheep, 12 dr., . . . , a sheep, 12 dr. Unit C . . . [prior?] sequence, 40 [second] quarter, Pyanopsion, . . . , a bovine, 90 dr.; [third] quarter, Gamelion, . . . -idai, a pregnant sow, 70 (?) dr.; [fourth quarter], Mounichion, 45 . . . Nymphagetes, a goat, 12 dr.; [Thargelion?] . . . river (?),^[2] a ram, 12 dr., . . . a goat, 12 dr., . . . a ram, 12 dr., 50 . . . a goat, 12 dr., . . . a sheep, 12 dr., . . . a sheep, 11 dr.; [Skirophorion?], . . . a sheep, 12 dr., 55 for Athena Hellotis,^[2]^[10] a piglet, 3 dr., . . .

col. 2

Marathon, annual sequence First quarter, Hekatombaion or Metageitnion . . . [these the demarch] of Marathon sacrifices . . . within ten days, for the hero^[2] . . . a piglet, 3 dr., table for the hero,^[2] [1 dr.?] 5 Boedromion, before the Mysteries . . . a bovine, 90 dr., a sheep, 12 dr., for Kourotrophos^[4] [a sheep, 11 dr.?] second quarter, Posideon . . . a bovine, 150 dr.,^[5] a sheep, 12 dr., for the heroine^[2] [a sheep, 11 dr.?, priestly dues], 7 dr., for Earth in the fields,^[2]^[6] a pregnant bovine, 90 (?) dr., [priestly dues, 4 dr.?], 10 at the rite, baskets (?), 40 dr. third quarter, Gamelion . . . for Daira,^[7] a pregnant sheep, 16 dr., priestly dues, 1 dr., for Earth at the oracle,^[2]^[6] a sheep, 11 dr., for Zeus Hyp[atos?] . . . for Ioleus,^[2] a sheep, 12 dr., for Kourotrophos,^[4] a piglet, [3 dr., a table], 15 1 dr., priestly dues, 2 dr. 1½ ob., for the hero Pheraios^[2] [a sheep, 12 dr. ?], for the heroine,^[2] a sheep, 11 dr., priestly dues, 3 dr.; Elaphebolion, on the tenth, [for] [Earth at the] oracle,^[2]^[6] a completely black he-goat, 15 dr., priestly dues . . . fourth quarter, Mounichion, for Aristomachos,^[2] 20 a bovine, 90 dr., a sheep, 12 dr., for the heroine,^[2] a sheep, 11 dr., priestly dues, 7 dr., for the Youth,^[4] a bovine, 90 dr., a sheep, 12 dr., a piglet [3 dr.], for the heroine,^[2] a sheep, 11 dr., priestly dues, 7 dr. 1½ ob.; these the demarch of Marathon sacrifices, for the hero in [D]rasileia,^[2] a sheep, 12 dr., a table, 1 dr., for the heroine,^[2] a sheep, 11 dr., 25 for the hero by the marsh sanctuary,^[2] a sheep, 12 dr., a table, 1 dr., for the heroine,^[2] a sheep, 11 dr.; Thargelion, for Achaia,^[7] a ram, 12 dr., a female (i.e. a ewe), 11 dr., priestly dues, 3 dr., for the Fates,^[3] a piglet, 3 dr., priestly dues, 1½ ob.; 30 Skirophorion, before Skira, for Hyttenios,^[8] the annual offerings, a sheep, 12 dr., for Kourotrophos,^[4] a piglet, 3 dr., priestly dues, 2 dr. 1½ ob., for the Tritopatreis,^[8] a sheep, 12 dr.?, priestly dues, 2 dr., for the Akamantes,^[2] a sheep, 12 dr., priestly dues, 2 dr. Marathon, prior biennial sequence These every other year, prior sequence, 35 Hekatombaion, for Athena Hellotis,^[2]^[10] a bovine, 90 dr., three sheep, 33 dr., a piglet, 3 dr., priestly dues, 7 dr. 1½ ob., for Kourotrophos,^[4] a sheep, 11 dr., a piglet, 3 dr., priestly dues, 1 dr. 1½ ob., for the laurel-bearers, 7 dr. Marathon, posterior biennial sequence These are sacrificed every other year, after the archonship of Euboulos 40 for the Tetrapoleis, posterior sequence, Hekatombaion, for Athena Hellotis,^[2]^[10] a sheep, 11 dr., for Kourotrophos,^[4] a piglet, 3 dr., priestly dues, 1 dr. 1½ ob.; Metageitnion, for Eleusinia,^[7] a bovine, 90 dr., for the Girl,^[7] a ram, 12 dr., 3 piglets, 9 dr., priestly dues, 45 6 dr. 4½ ob., a sixth of barley, 4 ob., a chous of wine [1 dr.], for Kourotrophos,^[4] a sheep, 11 dr., priestly dues, 1 dr., for Zeus Anthaleus,^[4] a sheep, 12 dr., priestly dues, 2 dr.; Anthesterion, for Eleusinia,^[7] a pregnant sow, 70 (?) dr., priestly dues, 1 dr., for Chloe^[7] by the property of Meidylos,^[2] a pregnant sow, [70 dr.?], 50 priestly dues, 1 dr., a sixth of barley, 4 ob., a chous of wine [1 dr.]; Skirophorion, before Skira, for Galios,^[2] a ram, 12 dr., priestly dues, 2 dr., for the well (?),^[9] 6 dr., for the Tritopatreis,^[8] a table, 1 dr. Trikorynthos, annual sequence At Trikorynthos these every year, first quarter, 55 Metageitnion, for Hera,^[12] a bovine, 90 dr., a sheep, 11 dr. . . . for Kourotrophos^[4] . . .

Face B

. . . -sistratos of Marathon . . . of Marathon, 20 dr., Archenautes of Marathon, 22 (?) dr., . . . (≥) 10 dr., Hegesistratos of Marathon, . . . -doros . . . Isodikos of Oinoe, (≥) 10 dr., 5 . . . -gonos, Hagnostratos of Marathon, . . . , Patrokles of Oinoe, (≥) 10 dr., . . . 612 dr. 3 ob. (?), . . . of Marathon, . . . of Oinoe, . . . . . . -chos . . . of Marathon . . . . . . (≥) 30 dr. (?) . . . (≥) 20 dr. (?) 10 . . . (≥) 20 dr. (?) . . . . . . of Marathon . . . . . . (≥) 11 dr. (?) . . . 15 . . . (≥) 20 dr. (?) . . . . . . . . . (≥) 3 dr. (?) . . . of Marathon, 60 dr. (?) . . . of Marathon, 12 dr. (?) 20 . . . . . . About 28 lines illegible 50 . . . Hagetor of Probalinthos (?) . . . . . . (≥) 70 dr. . . . . . . . of Marathon, 11 dr. (?), . . . About 8 lines illegible 61 . . . (≥) 2 dr. (?) . . . . . .

Previous - SEG 49.136 Next - SEG 51.75
Greek text

References:

SEG 50.168 (Translated text) (AIO)

IG II² 1358 (PHI)

SEG 66.132

SEG 68.67

Sokolowski, LSCG 20

AIO Papers 1 no. 2 (AIO Paper)

Pirenne-Delforge, Telete, 35-48 (A col. 2, l. 10) (SEG 66.132)

CGRN 56 (CGRN)

Lambert, Individual and Collective, 149-80

Takeuchi and Wilson, New Attic Dionysia, 33-44

Translation by: Stephen Lambert

Images: Aleshire - (1)
Krateros - (1)

Monument type: Stele? (Inscribed on both sides)

Inscription type: Sacrificial Calendar

Findspot: Attica (Kukunari) (EM 13038)

Transliterations on Places on

[1] Textual note. AIO follows Lambert's text, ZPE 130, 2000, 43-70, with the minor modifications to A2, 45 and 50 noted at ABSA 97, 2000, 398 (summarised SEG 50.168), and following Pirenne-Delforge, Telete, in articulating Α2, 10 τελετῆι, "at the rite", rather than Τελετῆι, "to (the personification of) the rite". Discussion of bibliography between 2000 and 2014 can be found at AIO Papers 1, no. 2 (P. Ismard, in C. Taylor and K. Vlassopoulos eds, Communities and Networks, 2015, 80-97, is historical rather than textual in focus). At A1, 15-19, Lambert 2000 suggested: ὡς γέγραπται ... ἐν τα̣ῖ̣ς | [στήλαις ? π]αρὰ τὸ ᾿Ελευσίνιον | [ἐν τῶι βωμ?]ῶι ἐν Κυνοσούραι | [καὶ τῶι ? παρ]ὰ̣ τὸ Ἡρακλεῖον, "as is written ... on the [stelai?] by the Eleusinion, on the [altar?] on Kynosoura, and [the one?] by the Herakleion". At A2, 8 the price of the bovine, 150 dr., has been inscribed over an erasure (see further below, note 5). This also applies to the legible text at the end of B6, α̣ numerals, and all of the legible text in B50-52 except for ο̣ς in 52.

Like OR 146 (Thorikos) and SEG 21.541 (Erchia, and note also IG I³ 244, Skambonidai), this is the sacrificial calendar of a local Attic community, the Marathonian Tetrapolis, an association of four “cities” of north-eastern Attica, comprising the demes Marathon, Probalinthos, Oinoe, and Trikorynthos. As well as its similarities to other local calendars, the Tetrapolis calendar has a structure comparable to the calendar of the polis as a whole as revised at the end of the 5th century BC, SEG 52.48A and B. For links to other examples of this genre of inscription see IG I³ 232 with notes; for another inscription making sacrificial provisions apparently in the same area of Attica see IG I³ 255. The group that issued that inscription was or stood in some relation to an old Attic trittys; a group of this type, the Epakreis, is now known to have been a neighbour of the Tetrapolis to the west, and both the Epakreis (or rather Epakria) and the Tetrapolis were thought to be one of the 12 original cities of Attica (see further below). Some have accordingly thought that the Tetrapolis was also an old Attic trittys. Like Thorikos, Erchia and Skambonidai, the Tetrapolis was an area of ancient settlement (for early remains of cult, cf. Lambert, Individual and Collective, 152-53, n. 12), and like Thorikos it was reputed to be one of the original 12 cities which pre-dated the unification of Attica (Strabo 397 C, 9.1.20 = FGrH 328 Philochoros F 94). On the Tetrapolis in general see AIO 2618 (a decree), with notes. IG II² 1243 is another decree of the Tetrapolis, and IG II³ 4, 224 is a dedication by the Tetrapolis to Dionysos.

Face A of our inscription consists of a wider right column, containing mostly provisions for Marathon, but also the first lines of those for Trikorynthos, and a narrower left column, which patently contained provisions in a different category from those in the deme-by-deme section of the calendar. Face B, which was inscribed at the same time as Face A in the same distinctive style, contains a list of names followed by financial amounts, apparently representing contributions (to a capital sum?) for the funding of the sacrifices (for more detail on this "democratic" funding mechanism, involving a wide range of contributors, see Lambert, Individual and Collective, 156-69, summarised SEG 68.67). The calendar was found at Kukunari, at an ancient site (with sherds, other stelai etc.) in the hills west of the Marathon plain, perhaps one of the Tetrapolis cult locations (Eleusinion?, A1, 17; cf. Lambert, Individual and Collective, n. 17; and my remarks, AIO 2618, n. 6. It has also been suggested as a site of the deme Hekale, cf. SEG 57.159).

Like the polis calendar, SEG 52.48A and B, this one was divided into annual offerings, and two alternate sequences (dramosynai) of biennial ones. A col. 2 begins (probably not far from the original top of the stele) with the annual sequence at Marathon (ll. 1-33), followed by the prior biennial sequence (consisting of a single set of offerings in Hekatombaion, ll. 34-38) and the larger posterior biennial sequence (ll. 39-53). At the bottom of the preserved text follows the beginning of the annual sequence at Trikorynthos (ll. 53-55). Biennial sequences at Trikorynthos will presumably have followed, and entries for Oinoe and Probalinthos. The officiant is twice named as the demarch of Marathon (ll. 1-2, 23). This rubric seems to relate to the offerings specified immediately after it (ll. 1-4, 23-26), which, unlike most of the other provisions in this column, lack hierosyna ("priestly dues"). The provision in ll. 5-6 also lacks hierosyna, and may also be the demarch's responsibility (for a possible explanation of the lack of hierosyna at 13, see Lambert 2000, p. 60 note on A2, 15). Most likely, as the inclusion of hierosyna would suggest, the other offerings in this column were the responsibility of individual priests of the specified deities and heroes (on hierosyna for priests and priestesses, see now above all IG II² 1356). Unlike the priests, the demarch was expected to perform his sacrificial duties without receiving perquisites (though they might have been provided for separately).

A col. 1 is very poorly preserved and its interpretation is inevitably somewhat speculative. It has long been suspected that it included sacrifices which were in some sense for the Tetrapolis as a whole, rather than its individual demes, and this has recently received some indirect support with the publication of a new Tetrapolis decree, dating it seems a little later than this calendar, which honours the archon (chief official) of the Tetrapolis because he "made all the sacrifices to the gods and heroes on the specified days and at the appropriate times" (AIO 2618, ll. 5-8). The sacrifices in this column lack hierosyna (at least in preserved parts of the text) and it is a plausible explanation for this that some or all of them were the responsibility not of priests, but of the Tetrapolis archon, a public official analogous to the demarch whose sacrifices in col. 2 also lack hierosyna. The preserved portion of the text in this column appears to make three distinct sets of provisions: Unit A (ll. 1-12), a set of offerings from the fourth quarter of the year; Unit B (ll. 13-37), three sets of offerings (B1, B2, and B3) all of which begin with a quarter specification set in from the left edge of the column of text (ll. 20, 23, 32), preceded by a passage of prose (ll. 13-19). Lambert 2000 interprets the prose as introducing Units B1, B2 and B3, and specifying that they should take place at times specified "on the [stelai?] by the Eleusinion" (B1), on the [altar?] on Kynosoura (B2, which duly includes an offering to [Apollo] Apotropaios, 26, whom Lambert would identify as the [Apollo] Apotropaios in Kynosoura who receives an offering at IG I³ 255, A11), and [the one?] by the Herakleion (B3)." This interpretation of ll. 13-37 is inevitably somewhat speculative, but no other plausible interpretation of these lines has yet been proposed (for further discussion see AIO Papers 1, no. 2). The column finishes with Unit C, which may have been introduced by a line of text that is completely lost (l. 38), but which, as preserved, begins with a "sequence" specification (dramosyne, l. 39), possibly, but not certainly, to be restored as the "prior" of two biennial sequences.

The following select notes on individual entries are designed to supplement those at CGRN 56, and focus mainly on the divine recipients (for a fuller sketch of the calendar see Lambert, Individual and Collective, 150-56; for discussion of possible provision for the Tetrapolis Dionysia in this calendar, see Takeuchi and Wilson, New Attic Dionysia, 33-44, with AIO 2618). [2] The divine recipients in this calendar exude a strong sense of rootedness in the agricultural landscape. Note, for example, the heroes “in Drasileia” (A2, 24), and “by the marsh sanctuary” (Hellotion, A2, 25); Chloe “by the property of Meidylos” (A2, 49, probably a real person rather than a mythical hero); Athena Hellotis (“in-the-Marsh”, A1, 55, A2, 35 and 41; for the perceived connection between "Hellotis" and the Marathonian helos, "marsh" cf. the scholia to Pind. Ol. 13.56, Et. Mag. 332 s.v. Hellotis, who report worship of Athena Hellotis also in Corinth; S. Solders, Die Ausserstädtischen Kulte, 1931, 15); Earth “in the Fields” (A2, l. 9) and “at the oracle” (A2, ll. 13, 17; given her appearance in l. 13, and despite the male offering, the restoration of the same deity at l. 17 seems preferable to the possibility, raised by the editors of CGRN, that manteios in l. 17 is an epithet of Dionysos). The hero Aristomachos (A2, l. 19) was a “hero doctor”, “called a hero because of the size of his tomb” by the Dionysion at Marathon (Bekker, Anecd. 262, schol. Dem. 19.249; on Aristomachos see now Takeuchi and Wilson, New Attic Dionysia, 27-8). This is suggestive as to the character of other hero cults in the calendar (and the invariably anonymous heroines linked to them), about which we have no other information (Pheraios A2,15, Galios A2, 51, Akamantes A2, 32); for hero cults linked to tholos tombs cf. OR 146 with notes. Ioleus (A2, 14) was Herakles’ charioteer, who features in the myth of Eurystheus’ expedition against the Herakleidai at Marathon (cf. Lambert, Individual and Collective, n. 6). Hyttenios (A2, 30) was, in one version, the founding hero of the Tetrapolis, eponym of “Hyttenia”, the “old name” for the Tetrapolis (St. Byz. s.v. Hyttenia, see also n. 8). The concern with place is also manifest in the offering to Zeus Horios (“of Boundaries”, A1, l. 11). None of the specific cult locations mentioned in the calendar is identifiable today (except Kynosoura, A1, 18, which is the promontory at the north end of Marathon bay, cf. ZPE 130, 2000, 72 n. 10). [3] The offerings in this calendar seek to reconcile and harness for good the divine forces that determine the future, both in an agricultural context and more broadly: e.g. offerings to a deity with the epithet Prakterios (“Efficacious”, A1, 6); to [Apollo] Apotropaios (A1, 26; on this deity see now C. di Nicuolo, ASAA 89, III 11 I, 2011, 25-49); to the Fates (Moirai, A2, l. 28). [4] The calendar displays a concern with generation and nurture of vigorous young, both in the context of the Eleusinian religion, with offerings to Demeter’s daughter, “the Girl” (Kore = Persephone, A2, l. 46, cf. n. 7), and more broadly, with cult of “The Youth” (Neanias, A2, l. 21), Zeus “Promoter of Vigour” (Anthaleus, A2, l. 47) and above all to “Nurturer of the Young” (Kourotrophos), who usually receives offerings with other deities, serving to orient the influence of the sacrificial ensemble towards nurture (numerous references, discussed Lambert, Individual and Collective, 155 with n. 23). [5] 90 dr. was originally inscribed and corrected to 150 dr. Perhaps the cutter should rather have corrected the price for the pregnant bovine in the next line. [6] The central concern of this community with agricultural productivity is reflected in the probability (see previous note) that the most costly single offering in the calendar, a pregnant bovine at 150 dr., was for Earth in the Fields (Ge en gyais). Note also the two offerings to “Earth at the oracle” (A2, ll. 13, 17). [7] As to be expected in a calendar whose rites are concerned to bind the life of nature with human life in its succeeding generations, the Eleusinian religion is vividly prominent: an Eleusinion is one of the Tetrapolis’ major sanctuaries (A1, l. 17, see also above n. 1), and sacrifices are dated “before the Mysteries” (A2, l. 5) and “before the Skira” (A2, l. 30), both festivals of Demeter. Demeter herself is never named, but appears five times under the guise of epithets or descriptors or alternative manifestations: Achaia (A2, l. 27, “The Achaian One”), Eleusinia (“The Eleusinian One”, A2, ll. 43 and 48), Chloe (“Verdant”, A2, l. 49), Daira (A2, l. 12). See also n. 4 and for more detail, Lambert, Individual and Collective, 154 with n. 19. [8] An important aspect of the religion of Attic localities was the binding of present to past generations. This was achieved via the cult of heroes linked to tombs, above all the founder-hero Hyttenios (see n. 2), and also the cult of the ancestral divinities, the Tritopatreis (A2, ll. 32 and 52). [9] The fact that “well” is in the genitive rather than the dative suggests that the 6 dr. provided are a levy for use of a sacred well, rather than an offering to the spirit of a well. [10] Athena Hellotis seems to have been the major deity of the Tetrapolis. Her cult perhaps underlies the Homeric reference to Athena coming first to Marathon and then to Athens (Od. 7.80) and may be referenced by a fifth-cent. marker (horos) of a temenos of Athena found in the region, IG I³ 1082. She is worshipped at the end of the year in A col. 1, and in col. 2, like the Panathenaia, in the first month of the year, with a “Greater” (A2, ll. 34-38) and a “Lesser” (A2, ll. 39-42) festival celebrated in alternate years. [11] This is probably the Herakleion at which the Athenians camped before the battle of Marathon, Hdt. 6.108.1, cf. 116.1. The Herakleia was a major polis festival attracting international competitors, cf. IG I³ 3 and IG I³ 1015 bis; Parker, Polytheism, 473; Lambert, Individual and Collective, 152 with n. 11. [12] The association with Kourotrophos (next line) serves to emphasise the nurturing aspect of Hera as wife and mother. Cf. n. 4.

Added: 17 Mar 2014
Updated: 29 Sep 2024
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