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Fragment of marble, perhaps from a
Stoichedon of uncertain length.
Letters: height unknown.
Encoded for EpiDoc schema 8.17 on 01-01-2014 by J.-M. Carbon.
Edition here based on:
Other edition:
Cf. also:
(Given the extremely fragmentary character of the text, no translation is attempted; see Commentary.)
(En raison du caractère très fragmentaire du texte, aucune tentative de traduction n'est proposée; voir Commentary.)
The inscription is fragmentary and several passages are so obscure that they are difficult to interpret with any conviction. But the inscription does appear to belong to the wider group of regulations concerning priesthoods on Chios; cf. CGRN 50 and CGRN 88 for contracts for the sale of priesthoods. The fragment seems to be structured as a list of perquisites which are to be attributed in different circumstances: different agents (probably the
Lines 3-4: The restorations are due to Plassart - Picard and Sokolowski respectively. On the recurrent phrases, "incense from which smoke is made" and "viscera (placed) on the knees" (and/or the hands of the divine statue), both frequently found as priestly perquisites on Chios, see CGRN 50, lines 3-4, and CGRN 88, lines 2-4.
Lines 6-7: Restorations from Plassart and Picard. This passage of the fragment appears to introduce a new clause to be considered in the regulation, "when such-and-such sacrifices ...", then the priest or priestess receives a double portion of meat, as well as various measures in lines 8-9 apparently. Cp. lines 9-10 which seem to introduce a further similar clause.
Lines 8-9: As the editors of the contract for the priesthood of Ilithyia on Chios, Matthaiou (cf. CGRN 38) pointed out, a ἡμυσυκτέυς, or half-hekteus in the local Ionic dialect, is also to be restored here; it occurs side-by-side with the more usual form ἡμίεκτον. In fact, if the measures are identical to those of grain that the priestess of Ilithyia received, we might also think of restoring the same series here, that is to say: [ἡμ|υσ]υκτέως ἀ[λφίτων σίτ|ο ἡ]μίεκτον. This would then imply that the stoichedon length of our text was 18. But there is no way to be absolutely certain of this, and such a length is almost certainly too short for the restorations suggested in line 3. It is also odd that the grain in question should occur once after its measure and once before it.
Line 11: Flayed animals constitute apparently another possibility envisaged in this regulation, as the genitive plural seems to indicate (e.g. ἀπὸ ... το̑ν δαρτο̑ν). For this type of sacrifice, see here CGRN 156 (Mykonos), line 25.
Line 13: The mention of meat or other portions from a goose is surprising in the usual context of Greek sacrifice and it may have some bearing on the (foreign?) character of the cult involved in this regulation. Meat from geese is more frequently found in Hellenistic Egypt, where it regularly occurs alongside other more usual sacrificial portions from livestock, cf. e.g.
Lines 14-15: In line 14, there is apparently the introduction of another case where the priest or priestess receives perquisites: "from the..."; a group of people might be expected. At the end of the line and the beginning of line 15, accordingly, one might think of [τῶν τὰ ἱρὰ ποιη|σ]άντων, as Forrest proposed, but something like [π]άντων is also possible. Here and in the phrase which follows, μὴ Χ[ι-], the sense is elusive.