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Small marble
Letters:
Encoded for EpiDoc schema 8.17 on 01-01-2014 by JM Carbon.
Edition here based on Pugliese Carratelli
Cf. also: Sokolowski
Further bibliography:
On the 1st of the month Dalios, a sheep for the Muses.
On the 9th of Sminthios, a heifer (for the Muses); (5) a sheep for Mnemosyne.
The priest of Dionysus makes the sacrifices.
Le 1er du mois de Dalios, un mouton pour les Muses.
Le 9 Sminthios, une génisse (pour les Muses); (5) un mouton pour Mnémosyne.
Le prêtre de Dionysos accomplit les sacrifices.
The inscription is one of a large number of extracts from a sacrificial calendar inscribed or recodified in the late Classical or early Hellenistic period and disseminated at various local sanctuaries, presumably as punctual reminders and short regulations in and of themselves (for the early beginning of such excerpts, cf. here CGRN 62 and CGRN 63, both from Lindos). The excerpts perhaps come from the general sacrificial calendar of the unified city of Rhodes or perhaps equally probably from that of Kamiros itself. See e.g. CGRN 110 for further examples from Kamiros; e.g. CGRN 115 for others from Lindos. For a general discussion of these excerpts, see Segre and Carbon forthc.
The excerpt here concerns rites for the Muses and Mnemosyne (Memory). In mythology, Mnemosyne and Zeus were the parents of the Muses (e.g. Hes.
Lines 1-3: The new moon of the month of Dalios was apparently an important festival at Kamiros, as we infer from sacrifices to Helios (CGRN 110) and Athena Polias (CGRN 109) respectively on the same day. Perhaps the festival is to be identified as the Dalia. In the reconstruction of the Rhodian calendar refined by Badoud and generally adopted here (for a different view, see Iversen), Dalios was the first month of the year (ca. August/September).
Lines 3-5: The sacrifice performed on the 9th of the month Sminthios appears to have had a considerable importance as far as these cults is concerned. The offering of a heifer to the Muses was significant (cp. the one given to Athena Polias during the important festival of Dalios, CGRN 109, lines 1-3) and is complemented by a further sacrifice to Mnemosyne. It is possible that we have here the date of the Sminthia, at least at Kamiros. This was a festival which involved the cult of Dionysus, but in which also Apollo was honoured, both called Smintheus (i.e. from Sminthe, a town near Hamaxitos in the Troad); on Rhodes, cf.