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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 16 April 2014
One of the most baffling inscriptions has come down to us from the so-called ‘Passage of the Theôroi’ at Thasos. Situated at the north-eastern entrance of the ancient agora, and consisting originally of two walls on either side of a path paved by marble, the monumental passage way had a long list of names inscribed on the inside of its western wall; this is the so-called ‘great list of Thasian theôroi’. Two of its constituent lists bear the headings ἐπὶ τῆς πρώτης ἀπαρχῆς and ἐπὶ τῆς δευ[τέρη]ς ἀπαρχῆς| οἵδε ἐθεόρεον. The meaning of the word aparchê and the nature of the theôroi in question have been the subject of disagreement among historians. The aim of this article is to contribute further suggestions to existing discussions.
I am most grateful to Professor Robert Parker for discussing earlier versions of this paper with me, and to Classical Quarterly's anonymous referee for helpful suggestions. I thank also the Society of Scholars in the Humanities at the University of Hong Kong for making possible a period of research during which this article was written.
1 Works frequently cited are: Cole, S.G., Theoi Megaloi (Leiden, 1984)Google Scholar; Dimitrova, N.M., Theoroi and Initiates in Samothrace (Princeton, NJ, 2008)Google Scholar; Graham, A.J., ‘On the great list of theori at Thasos’, Ancient World 5 (1982), 103–21Google Scholar, reprinted in id., Collected Papers on Greek Colonization (Leiden, 2001), 231–56Google Scholar; Salviat, F., ‘Les colonnes initiales du catalogue des théores et les institutions thasiennes archaïques’, Thasiaca (BCH Suppl. 5, 1979), 107–27.Google Scholar
2 On the topography of the ancient city, see Daux, G. et al. , Guide de Thasos (Paris, 1967)Google Scholar, Graham, A.J., ‘Thasos: the topography of the ancient city’, BSA 95 (2000), 301–27.Google Scholar
3 For a reconstruction of the monument and its original placement, see Grandjean, Y. and Salviat, F., Guide de Thasos (Athens, 2000), 82–8Google Scholar, figs 37, 40–2.
4 Miller, E., Le Mont Athos, Valopédi, l'ile de Thasos (Paris, 1889).Google Scholar
5 Holzmann, B., La sculpture de Thasos: corpus des reliefs. 1, Reliefs à thème divin. Études thasiennes 15 (Athens, 1994), 53–9.Google Scholar
6 The block IG XII.8 273 occupies the top left corner of the western wall. Another block of the same height (Thasos inv. 1313 = Pouilloux, J. and Dunant, C., Recherches sur l'histoire et les cultes de Thasos (Paris, 1958), 2.231–3Google Scholar, no. 406) has a nu of the same size and at exactly the same distance from the top edge as the letters of Ἀγαθῆι Τύχη[ι]. It has been convincingly placed in the top course and the heading has been restored by Pouilloux and Dunant to read Ἀγαθῆι Τύχη[ι οἵδε ἐθεόρεο]ν, accepted by Salviat (n. 1), 108 and Graham (n. 1 [1982], 105 = [2001], 234).
7 In other words, if such estimates can be relied upon, the lists of theôroi in our texts were probably put up about two centuries after the theôriai had taken place in the late seventh and mid-sixth centuries. On the chronology of the theôroi, see Graham (n. 1 [1982], esp. 117–18 = [2001], 250–2) and id., ‘Thasian controversies’, (n. 1 [2001]), 365–401, at 400.
8 On the placement of the inscriptions on the wall, see Salviat (n. 1), 116 fig. 6. The lists were inscribed in vertical columns and were not restricted to the space of one wall block, with the result that the college under ἐπὶ τῆς πρώτης ἀπαρχῆς consists of twelve names cut across two wall blocks IG XII.8 273 and 275A.1–3; likewise the college under ἐπὶ τῆς δευ[τέρη]ς ἀπαρχῆς consists of twelve names on two blocks IG XII.8 274A and 276.1–3. Here I give the four prescripts without citing the lists of names that follow.
9 These may be translated respectively as ‘in the time of the twelve archons, the following served as theôroi’ (IG XII.8 275A), and ‘at the time when the Three Hundred and Sixty held office, the following served as theôroi’ (IG XII.8 276). I shall return to the meaning of the remaining two prescripts below.
10 Pouilloux, J., Recherches sur l'histoire et les cultes de Thasos (Paris, 1954)Google Scholar, 1.285, with n. 6.
11 Jacobs, E., Thasiaca (Berlin, 1893)Google Scholar, 15, 48.
12 LSJ s.v. ἄπαρχος: ‘for ἔπαρχος, A. Pers. 327’; LSJ s.v. ἔπαρχος: ‘commander … governor of a country … 2. = Lat. praefectus … II. … the office of admiral’; in the LSJ Supplement ‘commander’ is deleted.
13 Aesch. Ag. 1227: editions differ between (1) ἔπαρχος (e.g. Kennedy, B.H., The Agamemnon of Asechylus [Cambridge, 1882Google Scholar2], 39; Sidgwick, A., Aeschylus. Agamemnon [Oxford, 1931]Google Scholar, Lawson, J.C., The Agamemnon of Aeschylus [Cambridge, 1932]Google Scholar, 149), (2) ἄπαρχος (e.g. Verrall, A.W., Aeschylou Agamemnon [London, 1904]Google Scholar, 146; Denniston, J.D. and Page, D., Aeschylus. Agamemnon [Oxford, 1957]Google Scholar, 47, 182; Fraenkel, E., Aeschylus. Agamemnon [Oxford, 1962], 3.565–6Google Scholar) and (3) τάγαρχος (Campbell, A.Y., The Agamemnon of Aeschylus [London, 1936]Google Scholar, 45).
Aesch. Pers. 327: most editions have (1) ἄπαρχος, translated as ‘commander, leader’ by most commentators (e.g. Broadhead, H.D., The Persae of Aeschylus [Cambridge, 1960]Google Scholar, 112; Hall, E., Aeschylus. Persians [Warminster, 1996]Google Scholar, 59; Sommerstein, A.H., Aeschylus, vol. 1. [Cambridge, MA and London, 2009]Google Scholar, 53), but some have (2) ἔπαρχος (e.g. MS Pyp, adopted in Jurenka, H., Aischylos Perser [Leipzig and Berlin, 1902]Google Scholar, 13; Sidgwick, A., Aeschylus. Persae [Oxford, 1903]Google Scholar) and (3) ὕπαρχος (Hermann ap. Broadhead [this note], 112).
14 LSJ s.v. ἀπαρχή. I. 6.
15 Pind. Nem. 4.46. See e.g. Bury, J.B., Pindarou Epinikoi Nemeonikais (London, 1890)Google Scholar, 73: ‘reigns at a distance’; Sandys, J., The Odes of Pindar including the Principal Fragments (London and New York, 1919 2)Google Scholar, 351: ‘reigneth afar’; Farnell, L.R., The Works of Pindar (London, 1930–2)Google Scholar, 1.175: ‘beareth rule far removed’; Puech, A., Pindare. Tome III. Néméennes (Paris, 1952)Google Scholar, 56: ‘loin de sa patrie, règne Teucer’; Nisetich, F.J., Pindar's Victory Songs (Baltimore and London, 1980)Google Scholar, 247: ‘rules far from home’; Willock, M.M., Pindar. Victory Odes (Cambridge, 1995)Google Scholar, 102: ‘Teukros … went into exile (ἀπάρχει) to found a new Salamis on Cyprus’; Race, W.H., Pindar, vol. 2 (Cambridge, MA and London, 1997)Google Scholar, 39: ‘rules in exile’; LSJ s.v. ἀπάρχω II: ‘prob. reign far away from home, of Teucer, Pi. N. 4.46’. Note that manuscripts B1D1 have ὑπάρχει. For a different but implausible view see Fennell, C.A.M., Pindar: The Nemean and Isthmian Odes (Cambridge, 1883)Google Scholar, 41: ‘the word [ἀπαρχει] may here mean “receive ἀπαρχαί,” i.e. offerings made to the dead hero-founder of the Aeakid colony in Cyprus, cf. Eur. Phoen. 1523’; there is no such usage of the word to my knowledge.
16 Pl. Leg. 751–5; ML 49 (Brea); Σ Ar. Nub. 332 (Thurii). The foundation of Brea and Thurii is discussed in Graham, A.J., Colony and Mother City in Ancient Greece (Manchester, 1964), 34–5Google Scholar, 37.
17 Salviat (n. 1), 120–1, reiterated in id., ‘Catalogues des théores à Thasos: objections et résponses’, BCH 107 (1983), 181–7CrossRefGoogle Scholar, at 185.
18 e.g. LSJ s.v. θεωρός II; G. Reger, ‘The Aegean’, in Hansen, M.H. and Nielsen, T.H., An Inventory of Archaic and Classical Poleis (Oxford, 2004), 732–93Google Scholar, at 780.
19 On the foundation of Thasos, see Graham, A.J., ‘The foundation of Thasos’, BSA 78 (1978), 61–101Google Scholar (= [2001], 165–229); Martin, R., ‘Relations entre métropoles et colonies: aspects institutionnels’, Φιλίας χάριν. Miscellanea di studi classici in onore di Eugenio Manni 4 (1980), 1435–45Google Scholar; J. Pouilloux (1982), ‘La fondation de Thasos: archéologie, littérature et critique historique’, in Hadermann-Misguich, L. and Raepsaet, G. (edd.), Rayonnement grec: hommages à Charles Delvoye (Brussels, 1982), 91–101Google Scholar; Martin, R., ‘Thasos colonie de Paros’, ASAA 61 (1983), 171–7.Google Scholar
20 e.g. Martin (n. 19 [1980]), at 1442–3.
21 Graham (n. 1[1982], 113–17 = [2001], 245–50), reiterated in id. (n. 7), 396–7.
22 Hdt. 3.57.2 (on the Siphnian offering), 6.46–47 (on Thasian mines). The word used of the Siphnian offering is dekate, not aparchê; I will return to this below.
23 Graham's arguments are based mainly on lexicographical grounds. He also mentions the general connection between theôroi and aparchai, but does not provide parallels.
24 For a survey of the religious applications of the words aparchê and aparcheshai, see Jim, T.S.F., ‘The vocabulary of ἀπάρχεσθαι, ἀπαρχή and related terms in Archaic and Classical Greece’, Kernos 24 (2011), 39–58.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
25 e.g. Eur. Meleager, fr. 516.
26 e.g. IG I3 828, Arr. Cyn. 33.
27 e.g. IG I3 628, 695.
28 e.g. Soph. Trach. 183, 761.
29 e.g. Hdt. 3.24.4, IG I3 730, IG II2 4320.
30 e.g. Hom. Od. 3.446, 14.422, Hdt. 4.188, LSAM 50.23–5. However, note that the noun aparchê was never used to denote a sacrificial portion in the Classical period.
31 LSS 72A. This example is also noted by Graham (n. 1 [1982], 116 = [2001], 248). To have an enthumiston means that the transgressor could expect divine anger or evil as a result of infringement: see Parker, R., Miasma: Pollution and Purification in Early Greek Religion (Oxford, 1983), 252–4Google Scholar, Karila-Cohen, K., ‘L'étude du sentiment religieux à partir du lexique: l'exemple de ἐνθύμιος et ἐνθυμιστός’, in Carlier, P. and Lerouge-Cohen, C. (edd.), Paysage et religion en Grèce antique (Paris, 2012), 109–21Google Scholar. On the Thasian cult of Theogenes, see Martin, R., ‘Un nouveau règlement de culte Thasien’, BCH 64–5 (1940–1), 163–200CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Chamoux, P., ‘Le Monument ‘de Théogenès: autel ou statue?’, Thasiaca (Paris, 1979), 143–53.Google Scholar
32 For other examples of aparchesthai denoting the act of making a cult fee on the occasion of sacrifice, see LSCG 88 (third century b.c., Olbia), Parker, R. and Obbink, D., ‘Aus der Arbeit der “Inscriptiones Graecae” VI. Sales of Priesthoods on Cos I’, Chiron 30 (2000), 415–49Google Scholar, no. 1.10–12 (second century b.c., Cos).
33 FD III, 2 nos. 2–58.
34 Aparchai are mentioned in FD III.2 nos. 6.3 (= Syll. 3 728 B), 13.19 (= Syll. 3 711 D1), 46.1 (= Syll. 3 697 K), 48.11 (= Syll. 3 711 L), 54.4.
35 On the Athenian institution of Pythaïs, see Parker, R., Polytheism and Society at Athens (Oxford, 2005), 83–7.Google Scholar
36 As in IG II2 2336.
37 On the strategic placement of the Athenian treasury, see Scott, M., Delphi and Olympia (Cambridge, 2010), 77–81.Google Scholar
38 Dimitrova (n. 1), nos. 1–17, and probably no. 23. The identity of the building is disputed: Conze, A., Hauser, A. and Benndorf, O., Archäologische Untersuchungen auf Samothrake I (Vienna, 1880), 97–101Google Scholar, esp. at 101, attributed the wall blocks to the Temenos (also known as the Hall of Choral Dancers) in the sanctuary of the Great Gods. Cf. Lehmann, P.W. and Spittle, D., Samothrace. The Temenos (Princeton, NJ, 1982)Google Scholar, 17, 19, with nn. 45–6; Cole (n. 1), 55; Marconi, C., ‘Choroi, theoriai and international ambitions: the Hall of Choral Dancers and its frieze’, in Palagoa, P. and Wescoat, B.D. (edd.), Samothracian Connections (Oxford, 2010), 106–35Google ScholarPubMed, at 125 n. 36.
39 Collected in Rigsby, K.J., Asylia. Territorial Inviolability in the Hellenistic World (Berkeley and London, 1996).Google Scholar
40 Asylia 68.18, 79.21, 80.1, 81.35, 86.19–20, 97.26, 102.40, 107.35, 109.a.6, 110.24, 127.10–11, 128.12–13, 129.22, 27, 131.20.
41 On theôria and theôroi, see Daux et al. (n. 2), Dillon, M., Pilgrims and Pilgrimage in Ancient Greece (London, 1997)Google Scholar, Rutherford, I., ‘Theoria and Darśan: Pilgrimage and Vision in Greece and India’, CQ 50 (2000), 131–46CrossRefGoogle Scholar, at 136–8, Perlman, P.J., City and Sanctuary in Ancient Greece (Göttingen, 2002)Google Scholar, Elsner, J. and Rutherford, I. (edd.), Pilgrimage in the Graeco-Roman and Early Christian Antiquity (Oxford, 2005)Google Scholar, I. Rutherford, State-Pilgrims and Sacred Observers in Ancient Greece (Cambridge, 2013).
42 Thuc. 5.47 (Mantinea), Xen. Hell. 6.5.7 (Tegea), IG IX.12 638, 639, 640 (Naupactus); LSJ s.v. θεωρός, II: title of a magistrate at Mantinea, Naupactus, Thasos, etc.
43 LSJ s.v. θεωρός, II.
44 Dimitrova (n. 1), 11 n. 14. See also Reger (n. 18), 780.
45 Hdt. 4.33, Callim. Hymn 4.275–99, Paus. 1.31.2.
46 e.g. Inscr. Délos nos. 298.A.14, 313.AB.11, 313.AB.75, 314.B.83, 320.B.42, 58, 338.C.48 (supplemented), 372.B.21–22, 379.12 (supplemented), 442.B.114, 443.B.38; IG XI.2 161.B.74–75, 184.6 (supplemented), 199.B.7, 244.10 (supplemented), 287.B.42. See also Bruneau, P., Recherches sur les cultes de Délos à l'époque hellénistique et à l'époque impériale (Paris, 1970), 97–114Google Scholar; Sherwin-White, S., Ancient Cos (Göttingen, 1978)CrossRefGoogle Scholar, 91 n. 50.
47 Bruneau (n. 46), 111–12.
48 Asylia 102.39–41.
49 Asylia 101.31–5. The word ἐναρχὰν, as Rigsby (n. 39), 242 notes, is an error for ἐπαρχή, a variant of ἀπαρχή. See also Asylia 49.30–3.
50 IG I3 259–90 (Athenian tribute lists); IG I3 78 (Eleusinian first-fruits decree).
51 Inscr. Prien. 5 (326/5 b.c.).
52 Graham (n. 1 [1982], 117 = [2001], 250). On the Siphnian treasury, see Hdt. 3.57.2, Paus. 10.11.2. On the mines on Thasos, see Hdt. 6.46–7; Holzmann, B., ‘Des mines d'or à Thasos?’, Thasiaca (Paris, 1979), 345–9Google Scholar. The words aparchê and dekatê are closely related as religious offerings: both constituted the offering of a portion from a greater whole, but differed mainly in their proportion. On the relationship between aparchê and dekatê, see R. Parker, ‘Dedications. Greek Dedications. I.’, in ThesCRA 1.269–81, at 275.
53 On the oracle, see Oenomaeus ap. Euseb. Praep. evang. 6.256b; Parke, H.W. and Wormell, D.E.W., The Delphic Oracle (Oxford, 1956)Google Scholar, 1.66, 2 no. 230.
54 Excavations of the city rampart in this area have unearthed a late sixth-century Attic cup inscribed with ΑΠΟΛΛΩΝ in Parian alphabets: see Grandjean, Y., Salviat, F. et al. , ‘Thasos’, BCH 119 (1995), 661–96Google Scholar, at 661–7, fig. 6. On the sanctuary of Apollo Pythios at Thasos, see Daux et al. (n. 2), 54–6, Wynne-Thomas, R.J.L., The Legacy of Thasos (London, 1978), 45–6Google Scholar, Grandjean and Salviat (n. 3), 109–13.
55 e.g. IG XII, Supp. 350, 355, 358, 362, SEG XLII 785.9 (the so-called ‘Stele from the Harbour’). On the cult of Apollo at Thasos, see Pouilloux (n. 10), 47, 336–7, 341–2, 380.
56 C. Fredrich in IG XII.8, p. 89; Grace, V., ‘Early Thasian stamped amphoras’, AJA 50 (1946), 31–8CrossRefGoogle Scholar, at 35: ‘… a semi-dependent state of which the presiding officers were theôroi, with their record office apparently an adjunct of the sanctuary of Apollo Pythios’.
57 Graham (n. 2) argues that there was probably a cult of the Charites in the Passage, but not of the Charites alone.
58 Pouilloux (n. 10), 240.
59 e.g. IG XII.8. 267.10, 268.5–6. On the relationship between the cult of Apollo Pythios and Athena, see Pouilloux (n. 10), 40, 380.
60 On Theogenes, see Paus. 6.11.2–9; Pouilloux (n. 10), 62–105; id., ‘Théogénès de Thasos … quarante ans après’, BCH 118 (1994), 199–206.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
61 Graham (n. 19) dates the foundation to c. 650 b.c., reiterated in id. (n. 7), but others – e.g. Salviat (n. 1), Martin (n. 19, [1980]), Pouilloux (n. 19), Martin (n. 19 [1983]) – argue for a date slightly earlier in the seventh century b.c.
62 Collected in Dimitrova (n. 1), nos. 1–171.
63 These are Dimitrova (n. 1), nos. 8 (= IG XII.8, 161), 24 (= IG XII.8 172), 41 (= IG XII.8 220), 48 (= Fraser, P.M., Samothrace. The Inscriptions on Stone [London, 1960]Google Scholar, no. 59), 51 (= IG XII.8 184), 53 (= IG XII.8 206), 62; their dates range from the second century b.c. to the second/third century a.d.
64 To avoid confusion and to follow Dimitrova's classification, I differentiate ‘mystai’ (by which I mean initiates at the Mysteria) from ‘theôroi’ (by which I mean official delegations visiting Samothrace) in the Samothracian inscriptions as Cole (n. 1) and Dimitrova (n. 1) do, though individuals who journeyed to Samothrace for initiation may also be regarded as theôroi, given the broad meanings of the word as noted earlier (with bibliography in n. 41 above).
65 Inscr. Iasos 72; Habicht, C., ‘Iasos und Samothrake in der Mitte des 3. Jahrhunderts v. Chr.’, Chiron 24 (1994), 69–74Google Scholar; SEG XLIII, 715; Dimitrova (n. 1), 253, appendix I.3, no. 3.
66 Dimitrova (n. 1), 72–4.
67 Cole (n. 1), 48, 53–4.
68 On the Samothracian mystery cult, see Cole (n. 1), passim, Clinton, K., ‘Stages of initiation in the Eleusinian and Samothracian Mysteries’, in Cosmopoulos, M.B. (ed.), Greek Mysteries (London, 2003), 50–78Google Scholar, at 61–70, Dimitrova (n. 1), 77–8, Bowden, H., Mystery Cults in the Ancient World (London, 2010), 49–67.Google Scholar
69 Protection at sea: Ar. Pax 277–8, and probably Theophr. Char. 25.2; Burkert, W., Greek Religion, tr. Raffan, J. (Oxford, 1985)Google Scholar, 284; Parker (n. 35), 411. Blessed afterlife: see Karadima-Matsa, C. and Dimitrova, N., ‘Epitaph for an initiate at Samothrace and Eleusis’, Chiron 33 (2003), 335–45Google Scholar, also in Dimitrova (n. 1), no. 29; discussed in Parker, R., On Greek Religion (Cornell, 2011), 253–4Google Scholar with n. 81.
70 On the geographical representation of states sending theôroi to Samothrace, see Cole (n. 1), 48–53, Dimitrova (n. 1), 71–2.
71 Initiation in groups: Cole (n. 1), 40–4.
72 Plut. Luc. 13.2 says that Voconius fell behind owing to initiation and attendance at a public festival at Samothrace (ἀλλα Βοκώνιος μὲν ἐν Σαμοθρᾴκῃ μυούμενος καὶ πανηγυρίζων καθυστέρησε), implying that there was a panêgyris during which initiation might take place. But the evidence is late and the public festival alluded to might or might not date back to the Archaic period. Cf. also the combination of a panêgyris in honour of the ‘Great Gods’ with initiation in Andania in Messenia (LSCG 65, first century b.c.), with commentary in Deshours, N., Les mystères d'Andania (Bordeaux, 2006)Google Scholar, Gawlinski, L., The Sacred Law of Andania (Berlin and Boston, 2012).Google Scholar
73 Lehmann and Spittle (n. 38), 267–71.
74 Dimitrova (n. 1), nos. 21, 26, 27, 28.
75 Cf. IG II2 2336: the aparchê presented by the Pythaïs to Apollo at Delphi in 98/7 b.c. was jointly contributed by Athenian and Delian officials.
76 Cf. e.g. Lindos II, no. 88A: in c. 265–260 b.c., a group of Lindian naval officials and crew dedicated an aparchê of their booty won at sea to Athena at Lindos.
