AIO 1304 Decree concerning the festival (of Hephaistos?)

Decree concerning the festival (of Hephaistos?)

AIO 1304 Date: 421/0 BC

Gods.^[1] Prokles son of Atarbos of Euonymon was secretary, in the archonship of Aristion (421/0).^[2] The Council and the People decided, Hippothontis was the prytany, Prokles was secretary, (5) . . . was chairman, Aristion was archon (421/0), Hype[rbolos?]^[3] proposed: . . . quadrennial festival (pentet-) (?)^[4] . . . . . . . . . . . . (10) . . . . . . in the agora . . . . . . to the demesmen (demotesi) . . . . . . one hundred and [fif?]ty . . . . . . of the music just as . . . (15) . . . of Hephaistos and Athena . . . . . . for the Athenians, from where they must take the money^[5] . . . . . . religious officials who hold office . . . shall be chosen by lot . . . from the -^[6] one from each tribe, from the . . . (?) the -archs (-choi) shall choose them by lot with those from the Council; and they shall choose by lot . . . (20) . . . of the Council; and those chosen by lot shall receive a salary just as . . . they manage these things; and the payment officers (kolakretai) shall pay them the money; and the Council shall choose by lot among themselves ten men as religious officials, one from each tribe; and they shall give three oxen to the metics; of these three the religious officials shall distribute the meat to them raw; and the religious officials shall take care of the procession, (25) so that it is conducted in the most beautiful way possible, and if anyone behaves at all disorderly, they shall have the authority to impose fines of up to fifty drachmas and communicate it in writing to the -; and if anyone deserves a higher punishment, they shall set the fine as high as they think right and introduce the case to the law court of the archon; and the oxen . . . shall be lead to the altar to the sound of the trumpet; and the religious officials (30) shall - two hundred Athenians to lift them . . . ; and the torch- . . . at the quadrennial festival . . . the Hephaistia; and the religious officials . . . shall make the . . . lay on the torch-race and the rest of the competitions just as the . . . [gymnasiarchs?] make the spectacle (?); and for the future, if it seems good . . . to Poseidon . . . the religious officials, and to Apollo . . . (35) . . . ; and the [gymnasiarchs] that were chosen for the Promethia . . . . . . they shall choose . . . ; and the altar for Hephaistos . . . . . . the Council shall make it as seems to it best . . . . . . and . . . daily on the last day (?) . . . . . . and announce the results of each competition; (40) and the religious officials and the competitors . . . ; and those selected . . . . . . and the [religious officials shall take care of?] the writing up of the prizes . . . proposed: in other respects as proposed by the Council; but to write up this decree on a stone stele and set it down in the sanctuary; and [the secretary of the Council] [shall take care of the writing up; and the payment officers shall pay?] the money . . . (45) . . .

Next - Wijma, Embracing the Immigrant, 104
Greek text

References:

AIO 1304 (Translated text) (AIO)

IG I³ 82 (IG Online) (PHI)

SEG 47.60

Sokolowski, LSCG 13

Koerner, Gesetzestexte 10 (on ll. 24-28)

Traill, PAA 902050

Makres, IG I³ 82 Revisited, 185-188

Wijma, Embracing the Immigrant, 86-94

CGRN 43 (CGRN)

Translation by: Stephen Lambert, Feyo Schuddeboom

Images: Aleshire - (1, 2, 3)

Monument type: Stele

Inscription type: Decree (Council and People), Decree (People) (ll. 42-44)

Fragment a - Findspot: Athens (Church of St. Demetrios Katephores) (EM 6597)
Fragments b-d - Findspot: Athens (Kapnikarea Church) (EM 6597)

Transliterations on Places on

[1] This inscription makes new arrangements for a festival, usually taken to be the Hephaistia on the basis of ll. 15, 31 and 36, and circumstantial indications noted below (see also the notes to CGRN 43 and Parker, Polytheism, 471-72). Our text largely follows that of Makres, who has carried out a fresh autopsy and removed the more speculative restorations included in IG I³. She suggests that the festival might have been the Theseia, mainly on the basis of the reference to "demesmen" in l. 12 and the references connecting demesmen with electoral processes in the Theseion at I Eleusis 85, ll. 27-28 and Ath. Pol. 62.1. There are, however, other possible explanations for the reference to "demesmen" here (compare for example the distribution of meat by deme at the Little Panathenaia provided for at IG II³ 1, 447, ll. 52-53), there is no reference to Theseus or the Theseia in the surviving text and while, as Makres shows, the indications that this inscription concerns the Hephaistia are not absolutely conclusive, they remain persuasive (e.g. link between Hephaistos and torch races, l. 32, noted by Hdt. 8.98.2; bull-lifting, ll. 29-30, connected with Hephaistos on a red figure kylix of ca. 500 BC, F. T. van Straten, Hiera kala (1995), 111-12 [Florence, Museo Archeologico Etrusco 70999 - see Beazley archive]; this decree dated to same year as work started on statues for Hephaisteion, IG I³ 472, l. 5). Makres notes that, apart from this inscription, two others relating to Hephaistos were found in the area of the church of St. Demetrios Katephores (north slope of Acropolis, "on west side of Kyrrhestou St., where Erechtheos St. is located", Makres n. 22), IG I³ 472 (accounts for statues of Hephaistos and Athena for the Hephaisteion) and IG II³ 1, 306. She suggests that this may have been the location of the Theseion, for which there are other indications that it might have been in this area (Makres n. 25), and in which she speculates that Hephaistos was also worshipped. There is no reference to Theseus in either of these two inscriptions, however, and alternative explanations for the common findspot might be considered, e.g. that they were originally located in the Hephaisteion by the Agora and removed together the relatively short distance to the area of St. Demetrios' church in the context of later building works (cf. my remarks, ZPE 154, 2005, 127-28 = IALD, 52-53). [2] From this year Athenian decrees begin regularly to name the eponymous archon, which makes them easier to date than is typically the case with earlier decrees. The measure should perhaps be connected, more or less closely, with the completion (which cannot be precisely dated) of the Hephaisteion, the temple above the agora which stands to this day (on the statues for it see n. 1), and perhaps represents a deliberate effort at relaxation and diversion, a celebration of the beginning of the period of the Peace of Nikias which followed the Archidamian War, in the tribulations of which citizens and metics alike had shared. The extent to which international participation was envisaged is unclear from the surviving text. The other major decree making provisions for a festival in classical Athens, IG II³ 1, 447, also belongs to a period of peace following conflict, viz. the war with Philip II of Macedon that had culminated in defeat at the battle of Chaironeia, the focus there being the Little Panathenaia, a more domestic celebration than the quadrennial Great Panathenaia. [3] The proposer of this decree is usually taken to be Hyperbolos the leading Athenian politician of the years following the death of Kleon, who was extensively satirised by the comic poets and described dismissively by Thucydides 8.73 on the occasion of his ostracism (see Davies, APF, 13910; Traill, PAA, 902050). There is nothing otherwise to make the famous Hyperbolos an especially likely proposer of this measure, however, and Makres correctly points out that five other names in Hype- are attested in Attica. [4] This reference and the similar reference to the penteteris (quadrennial celebration) at l. 31 unfortunately lack context, but they may suggest that the measures provided for in this decree were to apply specifically to (perhaps they introduced) a quadrennial celebration of the Hephaistia, a "Great Hephaistia" (though no such quadrennial festival is apparently mentioned by Ath. Pol. 54.7; it is possible that arrangements made now, i.e. in this decree, did not endure). Compare the Panathenaia, in which the core elements of the festival, sacrifices and procession, took place annually (the "Little Panathenaia" which is the subject of IG II³ 1, 447), enhanced every four years by international competitions, the "Great Panathenaia". The intelligible sections of the decree relate to funding (ll. 15-16), appointment of apparently two sets of hieropoioi to manage the festival (ll. 17-23), arrangements for distribution of some of the sacrificial meat to metics (ll. 23-24), for the orderly conduct of the procession (ll. 24-28), for the sacrifices themselves, including the rite of bull-lifting (ll. 29-30), provisions for the torch-race and the rest of the competitions (ll. 30-32). There follow mysterious references to Poseidon and Apollo (perhaps some future expansion of rites is envisaged), to the Promethia (l. 35), an obscure festival otherwise known only for its torch-races organised by tribe (Lys. 21.3, Isai. 7.36), then after some further very fragmentary text, the festival is wrapped up with the arrangements for announcing results and prizes (ll. 39-41). Finally, in a rider to the original decree, proposed in the Assembly, provision is made for inscribing the decree itself "in the sanctuary", i.e. the sanctuary of the relevant deity, in this case probably the Hephaisteion. While most Athenian decrees were set up on the acropolis at this period, those relating to specific cults were commonly set up in the sanctuary of the relevant cult. [5] Makres, 190-91, is attracted by the suggestion of H. B. Mattingly, AJP 95 (1974), 280-85, that the reference here is to a fund of Athena and Hephaistos connected with coinage into which surplus silver is to paid at OR 155, clause 6, and which, she notes, is also a focus of attention in the unpublished law of 354/3 relating to coinage, SEG 54.114; 56.26. [This law has now been published, see M. Richardson, Hesperia 90 (2021), 685-746]. [6] Conventionally restored as "jurors" (d[ika]ston), Makres notes that such a reference would be unexpected in this context and supports rather a suggestion of A. P. Matthaiou, d[ido]nton, "donors".

Added: 3 Jan 2018
Updated: 29 Mar 2024
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ID: AIO_1304