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Two faces, A and B, of a lead
Taking the bronze bar as the middle of the flat tablet, A and B are inscribed on two opposite sides, and furthermore, recto verso from each other, each beginning its left margin near the bronze bar (see Lupu or Jameson et al., with illustrations, for further details). Each side had a prepared surface with guidelines for inscribing. The principal text in face A has overrun the guidelines and become more uneven and imprecise starting from line A19. In current editions, A1-6 are substantially but not completely erased; we do not include these lines here. The hands that inscribed A and B are different. The letters on face B have a tendency to fill the available inscribed guidelines, which are
Encoded for EpiDoc schema 8.17 on 06-06-2015 by J.M. Carbon and S. Peels
Edition here based on Lupu
Original edition:
Cf. also:
Dubois
Further bibliography:
See also the nearly exhaustive bibliographical lists in Lupu. Add now the articles and references cited in
Face A
The sacrifice of offerings before the Kotytia and the truce on the fifth year (i.e. every four years) when the Olympiad also takes place; to Zeus Eumenes an animal and to the Eumenides an adult animal and to Zeus Meilichios in (the sanctuary?) of Myskos an adult animal; to the (10) Polluted Tritopatres as to the heroes, having poured wine through the roof, of the nine portions burn one; those to whom it is religiously permitted are to sacrifice an animal and perform the consecration (burning); having sprinkled around (with water?), let them anoint (the altar?), and immediately sacrifice an adult animal to the Pure Tritopatres; pouring down honey-and-milk-mixture, a table is set out and a couch and let them throw over a pure cloth and wreaths (15) and honey-and-milk-mixture in new cups and cakes and meat. Having made first-offerings, they are to burn them and perform an anointment, having put the cups on (the altar?). The ancestral sacrifices are performed as to the gods. To (Zeus) Meilichios in (the sanctuary?) of Euthydamos let them sacrifice a ram.
The next year, it is also possible to sacrifice an animal. One shall take out the public sacred objects and set out a table and a thigh and burn the first-offerings from the table and the bones. (20) No meat is to be carried away; one shall invite whoever one wishes. The next year (year 3), it is also possible to sacrifice in the building [...] let them slaughter a bovine in front of the statues [...] whatever sacrificial animal the ancestral customs permit [...] on the third year [...]
Face B
[If a] person, [a homicide] (wishes) to purify himself from
Face A
Le sacrifice d'offrandes avant les Kotytia et la trêve qui a lieu la cinquième année (c'est-à-dire tous les quatre ans) lorsque l'Olympiade prend cours; à Zeus Eumenes un animal et aux Euménides un animal adulte et à Zeus Meilichios dans (le sanctuaire ?) de Myskos un animal adulte; aux (10) Tritopatres impurs comme aux héros, ayant versé du vin par le toit, des neufs portions en brûler une; ceux à qui c'est religieusement permis sacrifieront un animal et feront la consécration (en brûlant); ayant fait une lustration (avec de l'eau ?), qu'ils oignent (l'autel ?), et aussitôt sacrifient un animal adulte aux Tritopatres purs; versant un mélange de lait et de miel, une table est dressée et une banquette et qu'ils y mettent un tissu propre et des couronnes (15) et un mélange de lait et de miel dans de nouvelles coupes et des gâteaux et de la viande. Ayant offert des prémices, qu'ils les brûlent et oignent, ayant déposé les coupes (sur l'autel ?). Les sacrifices ancestraux sont faits comme pour les dieux. À (Zeus) Meilichios dans (le sanctuaire ?) d'Euthydamos, qu'ils sacrifient un bélier.
L'année suivante, il sera également possible de sacrifier un animal. Que l'on sorte les objets sacrés publics et que l'on dresse une table et y mette une cuisse, et qu'on brûle les prémices provenant de la table et les os. (20) Aucune viande ne doit être emportée; que l'on invite quiconque l'on souhaite. L'année suivant (an 3), il sera également possible d'offrir un sacrifice dans le bâtiment [...] qu'ils égorgent un bovin devant les statues [...] quel que soit l'animal sacrificiel permis par les coutumes ancestrales [...] la troisième année [...]
Face B
[Si une] personne, [un meurtrier], (souhaite) se purifier des
This tablet, not only in its shape, but also in its wealth of ritual detail, is quite unique among the texts included in this collection. Whether it was displayed as such and intended to be published in this form remains a source of speculation. The choice of lead and the unusual format may perhaps indicate either a special ritual use, or more simply a set of patchy drafts, either for more formal documents or as records in and of themselves (for a recent discussion, see Carbon). Neither text announces the sources of its authority, though involvement of the
Conjecture also holds sway over the debate of the identity of the two texts on the tablet. If there is any unity between them, then it could lie in the notion of purification, which is manifest in the casuistic purity regulation on side B, but much more discrete on side A (except in the qualifications of the Tritopatres); for a different view, see Salvo. As preserved, side A appears to be wholly concerned with a recurrent cycle of sacrificial rituals. Furthermore, the two sides were written in different hands. Clinton (as reported in Lupu) has therefore doubted that there was any thematic coherence between the two sides of the tablet. However, Lupu (p. 366) also rightly underlines that a legal dossier might consist of very different components. As many have pointed out, a possible common element is the cult of Zeus mentioned on both faces and prominent at Selinous (cf. also now Carbon).
Despite all of the work on the tablet, the fact remains that its context is largely irrecoverable. It has been tied to the area of the Gaggera and the sanctuary of Zeus Meilichios at the border of the city, but even that is not completely assured. A particular enigma on face A are the implied points of reference for ritual actions (ἐν Μύσϙο, line 9; ἐν Εὐθυδάμο, line 17) which are now lost to us; see also below at line A9. Given the extremely rich commentaries included in the first edition (Jameson et al.) and in Lupu, we again opt to refer readers to these works
Face A
The first two lines of face A reproduced here appear to constitute a heading or title for the remainder of the regulation. In unusual language, the text is therefore introduced as "the sacrifice of the sacred things (sc. offerings)". The deadline for a major set of rituals is expressed both in terms of a festival, the Kotytia, and in terms of the penteteric (quadrennial) Olympic truce before the summer solstice. These are sacrifices to Zeus Eumenes, the Eumenides, Zeus Meilichios and the Polluted and Pure Tripatores. Additional sacrifices are possible on the consecutive years of the 4-year cycle, as prescribed starting in line A18. These sacrifices are described in a seemingly abbreviated manner: it is not specified which gods received particular types of sacrifices (cf. the Commentary below).
Lines A7-A8: For similar sacrifices which must be performed prior to a certain occasion, i.e. by a deadline, see CGRN 56 (Marathonian Tetrapolis), col. II, line 5. That regulation also contains sacrifices to the Tritopatres (among others) which must take place before the summertime festival Skira (col. II, line 32). At Selinous, Zeus Eumenes receives his own offering, together with the Eumenides (cf. Carbon). This consists of a θῦμα, which probably designated an immature animal by contrast with the other animals qualified as τέλεον (for this inference, see Georgoudi).
Line A9: One of the elusive points of reference of the text is featured in this line, which prescribes a sacrifice to the Zeus Meilichios in the (x) of a certain Myskos. The original editors attempted to link this ritual practice with the aniconic and partly iconic stones found in the precinct of Zeus Meilichios at Selinous (again, Gaggera hill), some of which are identified as belonging to persons (names in the genitive). These would particularly suit the context of anointing which is regularly mentioned in the rituals, because the procedure of anointing is often found with sacred stones (though not in the epigraphical evidence, but cf. e.g. Theophr.
Lines A9-10: Following the work of Clinton, a form of consensus (cf. Lupu) emerged that face A envisages two separate sets of Tritopatres (literally, "great-grandfathers"); see also Georgoudi. The original editors had proposed that the impure Tritopatres were transformed into pure versions of these gods or heroes through the ritual described herein. Instead, it may be argued that the Tritopatres form one group of divine beings, viewed under successively different aspects (see below at A13), as Impure and Pure, as deceased mortals and divinised ancestors; for a detailed discussion of this question, see now Pirenne-Delforge. The qualifications "Impure" and "Pure" act essentially as epithets for the gods and these notions are reflected in the sacrificial rituals offered to them. The Impure Tritopatres receive a very detailed form of sacrifice "as to the heroes", as well as a libation of wine into the roof of a structure and a combustion of a ninth portion of the sacrificial animal. On this type of ritual, also called ἐνατευεῖν, see CGRN 27 (Thasos), line 5, and CGRN 156 (Mykonos), lines 23-24. On rituals performed "as to the heroes", see Parker. As Pure, by contrast, the Tritopatres receive libations of honey-mixture, a form of
Line A12: Those to whom it is divinely sanctioned (ὁσία), for whom it is in accordance with cultic practice, should sacrifice. Here, as further on in the regulation, the context is not explicit, but the regulation refers to traditional knowledge (cp. line A22, "whatever the ancestral customs permit"), perhaps belonging to a familial group or a body of priests, or to other norms that would have been spelled out in other documents. For the analogous right (ὁσία) to attend the sacrifices and shrines of the Akamantia, apparently including the Tritopatres and other ancestral heroes, see also at CGRN 99 (Cyrene), lines 21-25.
Line A13: Reinforcing the unity of the Tritopatres is the temporal conjunction κἔ̄πειτα, which must here be translated as "and immediately" (see Dubois, p. 50; Carbon). This also implies that the two different aspects of the Tritopatres were worshipped in the same location.
Lines A18-20: Sacrifices in years within the penteteric cycle prescribed in the header (A7-8) are specified in terms of possibility (impersonal ἔστο + infinitive θύεν) rather than overt prescription. It remains unclear whether these possible sacrifices can be offered to any or all of the gods listed above, or only to a certain subset among them, and which types of animals would be involved. The former seems the likeliest and most general option, though the rituals in question recall mostly the explicit ones assigned to the Pure Tritopatres. For the first year following the penteteric one in these lines, a specific method of sacrifice is described: the offering of a cult-table and of first-offerings as well as a sizeable thigh (probably set on the table and not burned). The bones are explicitly said to be burned, a very unique prescription in the epigraphical documentation on Greek sacrifice, but one which appears from iconographic and literary sources to have been a fundamental component of the
Lines A20-22: Sacrifices are also permitted in year 3 of the cycle, where they can now take place in a specific location: in the
Face B
Differently from Face A, this is essentially a casuistic purity regulation, though it concludes with the possibility of making sacrifice. See e.g. CGRN 3 (Kleonai) for further instances of this type of document, constructed according to hypothetical cases (αἰ κα... or similar). All of the purifications and also the sacrifice seem to concern the removal of pollution incurred from
Lines B1-7: The first case of purification, as has been correctly restored (cp. line B9, hόνπερ hοὐτορέκτας ἐπεί κ’ ἐλαστέρο ἀποκαθάρεται), concerns a figure called the
Lines B7-11: A second case necessitating purification involves any other manifestation of an
Line B13: This directionality, "toward the ground", is an unusual specification for a sacrifice and not mentioned elsewhere in epigraphic documents; cp. the directionality of the slaughtered animals (with blood flowing) "to the river" Acheloos at Mykonos, CGRN 156, lines 35-37. Lupu (p. 387) comments: "ordinary sacrifice with blood flowing onto the ground (...) is explained by the identity of the recipient: a divine being of netherworld affiliation."