BMCR 2021.09.06

Inscriptiones Graecae Voluminis 2 et 3 editio tertia. Inscriptiones Atticae Euclidis anno posteriores. Pars 4: Dedicationes et tituli sacri; Fasciculus 3: Tituli sacri. Tituli theatri Bacchi. Indices

, Inscriptiones Graecae Voluminis 2 et 3 editio tertia. Inscriptiones Atticae Euclidis anno posteriores. Pars 4: Dedicationes et tituli sacri; Fasciculus 3: Tituli sacri. Tituli theatri Bacchi. Indices. Berlin; Boston: De Gruyter, 2019. Pp. 601-814; clxxxv p. of plates. ISBN 9783110656565.

The fascicle under review continues the third edition of the venerable corpus Inscriptiones Graecae (henceforth IG) for post-Euclidean Athens and Attica. Originally two separate volumes were produced for this portion of IG, II for Attica between Euclid and Augustus and III for Roman Attica, when both were in fact part of the Corpus Inscriptionum Atticarum: these appeared between 1877 and 1895. The entirety was then revised and supplemented as a single volume IGII(/III)2 (1913–1940) by Johann Kirchner with the exception of the fifth part, all inscriptions between the Herulian invasion and the sixth century CE, which awaited the labors of Erkki Sironen (2008). The continual progress of excavations in turning up new texts, and the study of already-published inscriptions, has given ample scope for the re-edition of Kirchner’s re-edition. Within the program of the third edition, the present fascicle completes Pars IV (IG II/III34), which is devoted to dedications and other inscriptions bearing broadly on cult; they had been contained with a single, first fascicle of Pars III in the previous edition. Of the new Pars IV, fascicle 1 on public and choregic dedications appeared in 2015, and fascicle 2 on private dedications in 2017; the present is the third and final fascicle, concerning miscellaneous tituli sacri and the full set of inscriptions from the Theater of Dionysos. The bulk of the fascicle is in fact devoted to the back-matter for IG II/III3 4 as a whole: comparationes with numeration of previous publications and the customary, highly detailed indices (in collaboration with Klaus Hallof), under the headings people; kings, dynasts, and their families; geography; political institutions and offices (including sculptors); an especially rich section on religion; Greek words (with lemmata) in prose texts and separately those in poetic texts, the latter supplied also with a register of incipits by metrical form. The 13 plates, continuously numbered from the rest of the Pars, concern only this fascicle.

Of the 291 numbered inscriptions in the fascicle, just over three quarters (220) were already in IG II/III2 in some form. Three more appeared in IG III but not the re-edition of Kirchner (an inscribed sundial, no. 1746 [IG III 3857]; two miscellanea from the Asclepieum, nos. 1752–1753 [IG III 4019, 4014]), and two boundary-stones of a sanctuary of Artemis Amarysia (nos. 1876–1877) have been re-assigned from IG I2 (865 A–B). The following, subjective selection of notabilia occurred to this reviewer: a verse oracle of the second half of the fourth century BCE, warning of peril from an anonymous foe compared to a “sea-roaming viper” (ἔχις ἁλίπλανκτος, no. 1740 [IG II/III2 4968]), a copy of a verse oracle of Delphian Apollo concerning the temple of Demeter Chloe and Kore, set up in the Roman period (1741 [IG II/III2 5006]), and a pseudo-archaic oracle of Harmodius and Aristogeiton from the same time (1792 [IG II/III2 5007]); an oracular response in favor of a donor’s demand, after dedicating his home and garden to Asklepios, to be made a priest of that god (1768 [IG II/III2 4969]); a “sacred law” in verse resulting from an oracular response of Hygieia and Asklepios (1751 [IG II/III2 4997]); a building inscription for a sacred treasury of Aphrodite Ourania connected with the “preliminary offering” (proteleia) to be made before marriage (1757 [SEG XLI 182]); a catalogue of deities, probably in the order to which sacrifices should be made to them, including the enigmatic Ῥαψώ (1784 [IG II/III2 4547]); a verse inscription accompanying a Roman-period monument to the Horai (1793 [IG II/III2 4797]), adapting Hesiod and Homer (Op. 197–200; Il. 5.749); and boundary-stones of the “Garden of the Muses” (Μουσῶν κῆπος, 1840–1841 [IG II/III2 2613–2614]).

A series of inscribed altars is informative on gods and their epithets (1797–1817): Zeus Ἑρκεῖος; Zeus Ὄμβριος; Zeus Καταιβάτης; Zeus Φράτριος and Athena Φρατρία; Apollo Πατρῶιος; the hero Akamas; the “Child-rearer” (Κουροτρόφος) whose altar stood, according to the inscription, in close proximity to one of Artemis, who appears in turn as Artemis Ἔρειθος; Aphrodite Ἐναγώνιος; Demeter; Selene. Sharing a single altar in the first century BCE, we find Hermes, Aphrodite, Pan, the Nymphs, and Isis (1804 [IG II/III2 4994]). Inscriptions on seats in the Theater of Dionysos (nos. 1881–2029) allow the careers and family relations of priests, priestesses, and other notables to be traced, with particular detail for Roman Athens. Among previously unpublished inscriptions, deserving of individual mention are nos. 1772, closely related to 1771 (IG II/III2 4876) as an invocation of Paian to bring a “true oracle” (μαντεῖον ἀληθές); 1774, regulations for sacrifice to the Moirai at a “sober” (νηφάλιος) altar from Peiraeus; 1837–1838, two boundary-stones possibly belonging to a sanctuary of Dionysos; and among the seat-inscriptions from the Theater of Dionysos, a reference to personified Concord (Ὁμόνοια, no. 2023, but one could also think of a personal name, on record once in Athens in LGPN II).

Besides supplementing the canonical presentation of the previous IG edition, some new interpretations are offered for the inscriptions reprised here: no. 1946 (IG II/III2 5164 IV), the possibility of the woman’s name Λαοδάμεια in this much-damaged seat-inscription; no. 1865 (IG II/III2 2616), ΝΗΦΑΛ̣Ι̣ΟΥ is left in majuscules but νηφαλίο⟨ς⟩ and νηφάλιο⟨ν⟩ are considered in the commentary, as a type of “sober” offering, against a previous interpretation (SEG LIX 185) as an epithet of Zeus. A final section collects addenda to the previously published fascicles of IG II/III3 IV: corrections to the texts of and additions to the commentary on 25 inscriptions already included (nos. 23, 31, 47, 73, 75, 82, 112, 122, 174, 181, 245, 436, 477, 478, 491, 599, 603, 616, 618, 624, 636, 696, 1060, 1397), including unpublished notes communicated directly to the IG editors, and seven addenda, among which a dedication to Ἥλιος Μίθρας Ἀνίκητος deserves special mention (1159 bis).

Consistent with the style of the series, commentary is minimal, and its expression in Latin, of course continuing a long tradition of a scholarly lingua franca, will inevitably present an obstacle to an increasing number of readers. Notes on some interesting divine epithets include Demeter Φρεαρόος in 1964 (IG II/III2 5155), a patroness of cisterns, it is argued, and nothing to do with the demotic Φρεάρριος; and on cult personnel, ὀληφόρος as bearer of grain scattered before a sacrifice in 2003 (IG II/III2 5103), ὑμνήτριαι as “hymn-singers” in 1967 (IG II/III2 5127), and the genitive δαιρίτιδιος, perhaps to be taken in 1982 (IG II/III2 5112) as a priestess of the “Knower,” the goddess Δά(ε)ιρα.

The typesetting is careful and elegant, in the familiar style of the recent IG volumes. This reviewer noticed only one error: no. 1935, θεσμοθέατου should have been θεσμοθεάτου, but in fact the photograph (Tab. CLXXXV) shows simply θεσμοθέτου. The plates are generally clear, but in a few cases the reproduction is too small—or the stone too damaged—for the inscription to be legible (nos. 1802 [Tab. CLXXVII], 1811 [Tab. CLXXVIII], 1924 [Tab. CLXXXIV).

The fascicle, and IG II/III3 IV, which it completes, are welcome as an unsurprisingly essential reference for the history of ancient Attica. The progress represented by the fascicle under review in particular—in the form of new and updated texts and interpretations—is incremental rather than revolutionary, which in no way detracts from the utility of the effort. The accessibility of the inscriptions already gains from a presentation of Greek texts (in simplified form) and German translations in a digital version of the corpus, and a smaller selection in English translation in Attic Inscriptions Online.