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Last Updated on 25 Jun 2019

Author: Jan-Mathieu Carbon

CAPInv. 1851: th[i]asos Aphrodis[i]a{si}stan tas syn Artemisiai

I. LOCATION

i. Geographical area Aegean Islands
ii. Region Kos
iii. Site Kos

II. NAME

i. Full name (original language) θ[ι]άσου Ἀφροδισ[ι]α{σι}στᾶ<ν> τᾶς σὺ[ν] Ἀρτεμισίᾳ (Epigraphes 280-II, lines 1-4)
ii. Full name (transliterated) th[i]asos Aphrodis[i]a{si}stan tas syn Artemisiai

III. DATE

i. Date(s) 100 (?) - 1 (?) AD

IV. NAME AND TERMINOLOGY

i. Name in other forms IG XII.4 prints the name as θ[ι]άσου Ἀφροδισ[ί]ας {ΙΣΤΑ} τᾶς σὺν Ἀ<ρ>τεμισίᾳ, probably incorrectly, though the cutter apparently made several mistakes and hesitations.
ii. Name elements
Cultic:thiasos (θ[ι]άσου, lines 1-2)
Personal:syn Artemisiai (σὺ[ν] Ἀρτεμισίᾳ, lines 3-4)
Theophoric:Aphrodisiastai (Ἀφροδισ[ι]α{σι}στᾶ<ν>, lines 2-3)
Apparently theophoric, though it may also be heortephoric (sc. the festival of the Aphrodisia). The cutter has muddled the precise reading: see above.
iii. Descriptive terms thiasos (θ[ι]άσου, lines 1-2)
The term both refers specifically to a cultic group and, more widely, to a collectivity.

V. SOURCES

i. Source(s) Bosnakis, Epigraphes 280-II.
Note SEG 58, 883; IG XII.4 2774 II; Tsouli 2013: no. 486.
Cf. also Maillot 2013: no. 34.
Online Resources PHI: Epigraphes 280,II
i.a. Source type(s) Epigraphic source(s)
i.b. Document(s) typology & language/script Boundary stone of a burial plot. Greek.
i.c. Physical format(s) Boundary stone: rectangular marble block, reinscribed. The present text is the second inscription added to the boundary; for the first, and earlier text, cf. CAPI no. 1850.
It would seem that ownership of both the boundary and the burial ground had changed by the 1st c. AD.
ii. Source(s) provenance Area of the Asklepieion.

VI. BUILT AND VISUAL SPACE

ii. References to buildings/objects The point of reference of the boundary stone (ὅρος) is to burial plots, thekaia (θηκαίω<ν>, line 1).

VII. ORGANIZATION

i. Founder(s) Artemisia, line 4.
This individual, mentioned in the name of the association, is either its founder or its leader.
Gender Female

X. ACTIVITIES

iii. Worship See above IV.ii.
Deities worshipped Aphrodite.

XII. NOTES

iii. Bibliography D. Bosnakis (2008), Anekdotes epigraphes tes Ko, Epitymvia mnemeia kai horoi, Athens.

S. Maillot (2013), 'Les associations à Cos', in P. Hamon and P. Fröhlich (eds.), Groupes et associations dans les cités grecques, Geneva: 199-226.

C. Tsouli, Ταφικὰ και επιτάφια μνημεία της Κω, diss. Athens 2013.

XIII. EVALUATION

i. Private association Certain
Note Little is known about this association and its context. But simply on the basis of its name and by comparison with other highly similar boundary stones of the burial plots of associations near the city of Kos (more than 40 in number, cf. e.g. CAPI no. 1826), we can be confident that it constituted a private association.