Stele with decrees for the Temple of Athena Nike

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Provision of image

Inventory number

ΕΜ 8116

Artist

Attic workshop

Category

Inscription

Period

Classical Period

Date

440-430 and 424/3 BC

Dimensions

Height: 0.31 m
Length: 0.39 m
Width: 0.105 m

Material

Marble from Penteli

Location

First Floor, West

Description
Bibliography

Part of a stele with decrees referring to the Temple of Athena Nike. It was found in 1896 on the north slope of the Acropolis. The top of the stone has a scarf-joint cutting at an oblique angle with anathyrosis and two rectangular dowel holes which indicate another joining inscribed block or decorative relief.

The decrees have been inscribed stoichedon on both sides of the stele at different times. On one side preserved are seventeen lines with twenty nine letters in the Attic alphabet. It is dated to 440-430 BC, was published when the chairing tribe was the Leontis tribe and refers to the reorganisation and scheduling of the construction work.

It refers to the selection of Athena Nike's priestess by lot. This method of appointment is of exceptional importance as it denotes the employment of democratic practices by the city even in cult affairs. The priestess’ annual payment was decided to be fifty drachms while she was given choice parts of the animals sacrificed by the people. The text then refers to the construction of doors to the sanctuary, according to the terms that the architect Kallikrates should have prepared, the auction for the work construction during the same prytaneia by the building contractors who were also in charge of the public property, as well as the construction of the temple and its altar by the same architect. Finally, the text includes a rider, following the suggestion made by someone called Hestiaios, according to which a three-member committee would work with Kallikrates on tasks that cannot be identified since the slab is broken here and the remaining text has been lost.

According to epigraphic and archeological information as well as criteria of history of art, the craftsman who carved this degree into stone had also made the financial accounts regarding the bronze statue of Athena Promachos.

From the other side the fragmentarily preserved decree has eleven lines the six first of which are written in the Attic alphabet and the remaining five in the Ionic alphabet. After the seventh line the lettering becomes smaller and the stoichedon arrangement is slightly askew to the right indicating that the text was inscribed by two different craftsmen.

The content of the decree dated to 424/3 BC was presented by Kallias when the Aigeis tribe presided, Neokleides served as the secretary and Agnodemos was epistates. According to it, kolakretai, a body of financial administrators, would give fifty drachms as an annual salary to the priestess of Athena Nike during the month Thargelion.

It is noteworthy that for the first time the democratic selection of a priestess among Athenian women by lot is commemorated as until that point both priests and priestesses were chosen among the members of particular families. The priestess of this decree seems to have held the office for quite some time, perhaps until the end of her life. It has been suggested that she was Myrrine mentioned on a 410 BC grave stele housed in the Epigraphic Museum (EM 13132). The same name is also attested on a marble lekythos that depicts a woman and is kept today in the National Archaeological Museum (ΕΑΜ 4485) and in Aristophanes’ comedy “Lysistrate”.

Attic Inscriptions Online, https://www.atticinscriptions.com, αρ. κατ. IG I3 35, IG I3 36
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