IGI3 256 Inscription regulating use of water from the Halykos spring (Lamptrai)

Inscription regulating use of water from the Halykos spring (Lamptrai)

IG I³ 256 Date: ca. 440-400 BC

1 line erased . . . and shall sacrifice to the Nymphs in accordance with the oracle from Delphi; and those who drink 5 from the Halykos shall pay an obol each year for the rites to the Nymphs; and whoever does not deposit an obol shall not drink from the Halykos; and if anyone forcibly drinks, let him pay a fine 10 of five drachmas; and if anyone fetches or carries any of the water, without paying an obol, let him owe 50 drachmas for each amphora, sacred to the Nymphs.^[1]

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References:

IG I³ 256 (Translated text) (IG Online) (PHI)

SEG 65.48

SEG 54.59

Sokolowski, LSCG 178

Koerner, Gesetzestexte 19

Bultrighini, Demi della Paralia, 128-134

Russo, Ripartizioni, D63

Translation by: Stephen Lambert

Monument type: Stele

Inscription type: Cult regulation

Findspot: Close to Spring of Halykos, Loumparda or Porto Loumbardo (EM 13181)

Transliterations on Places on

[1] Textual Note. Bultrighini (= SEG 65.48) makes some minor adjustments to the text of IG (kindly confirmed by Kazuhiro Takeuchi from autopsy), which do not impact on the sense.

This inscription regulates the use of water from the Halykos (connoting "salty") spring at Loumparda/Porto Loumbardo, in the area of ancient Lower or Coastal Lamptrai. After providing for a sacrifice in accordance with an oracle, it requires payment of an obol a year to the Nymphs to whom the spring is sacred by those drinking (i.e. directly) from the spring and an obol per amphora for those conveying water from it (one should perhaps envisage a box for the deposit of the obols next to the spring and the inscription). A fine of 5 drachmas is payable by anyone who drinks "forcibly" (this seems to be aimed at anyone who drinks without having paid their obol, and does not necessarily imply the use of literal "force") and of 50 drachmas by anyone who conveys water from the spring without payment. Though it is not certainly implied by its wording that this was a regulation issued by the local deme, the deme Lamptrai is plausibly identifiable as the agent. Other demes are attested regulating cult of the Nymphs: cf. SEG 21.541, A12-16 (offering to the Nymphs on the hill at Erchia), E39-46 (offerings at Erchia to Apollo Nymphagetes and at the same altar to the Nymphs); SEG 50.168, A col. 1, l. 45 (offering in Tetrapolis to a deity designated Nymphagetes); cf. Paus. 1.31.4; and a measure of this kind is of a piece with the concern of demes in the late 5th century BC with religious regulation (cf. Whitehead, Demes of Attica, 358; RO 46, with notes). For Attic dedications to the Nymphs, Pan and river deities from after 403/2 BC see IG II³ 4, 1426-1429, 1430, 1431-1467, 1468, 1469 (for a dedication to the Nymphs in a fluvial context, cf. IG II³ 4, 635). These include (IG II³ 4, 1437-1442) dedications from the Vari cave, in the area of the ancient deme Anagyrous, adjacent to and in the same trittys as Lamptrai (on which see also IG I³ 974-982, II² 4655 + SEG 54.77, I² 790-800). For consultation of the Delphic oracle by a deme cf. SEG 21.519 (Acharnai). For more detail on the procedures that might be involved in such a consultation, IG II³ 1, 292. For a charge levied for use of a well (phrear) in a religious context at Marathon cf. SEG 50.168, A col. 2, l. 52. For water in a religious context more broadly see briefly D. K. Rogers, in P. Klingborg ed., Going Against the Flow. Wells, Cisterns and Water in Ancient Greece, 2023, 214. The Halykos spring/well is still in use and it has been suggested that ancient masonry close to the findspot of the inscription might be from a sanctuary of the Nymphs (Bultrighini, 129 n. 354, 131).

The regulation, which is inscribed in the Ionic alphabet, but displays features consistent with a fifth century date (e.g. the "archaic" dative plural in -ησι, ll. 6-7, but the later form in -αις also occurs, l. 13) has been variously ascribed to 440-430 BC, ca. 420 BC, or to around the end of the 5th century/beginning of the 4th century BC (see Bultrighini, 130-31, n. 357).

This is one of three substantial inscriptions attributable to the deme Lamptrai. For the others see IG II² 1204 (decree); IG II³ 4, 233 (dedication to Apollo).

Added: 27 Apr 2023
Updated: 14 Sep 2024
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ID: AIO_2617