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Last Updated on 20 May 2019

Author: Benedikt Eckhardt

CAPInv. 1181: Ga[nym]edeitai

I. LOCATION

i. Geographical area Western Asia Minor
ii. Region Ionia
iii. Site Smyrna

II. NAME

i. Full name (original language) Γα[νυμ]ηδείται (I.Smyrna 722, ll. 3-4)
ii. Full name (transliterated) Ga[nym]edeitai

III. DATE

i. Date(s) 100 (?) - 200 (?) AD

IV. NAME AND TERMINOLOGY

ii. Name elements
Heroic:Ganymede

V. SOURCES

i. Source(s) I.Symrna 722 (100 (?) - 200 (?) AD)
Note See also:
Jaccottet II no. 125
Online Resources I.Smyrna 722
i.a. Source type(s) Epigraphic source(s)
i.b. Document(s) typology & language/script Building inscription, greek
i.c. Physical format(s) Block built into a wall
ii. Source(s) provenance "On the lower slope of Mount Pagus" (Ramsay)

VI. BUILT AND VISUAL SPACE

ii. References to buildings/objects στίβας, stibas (ll. 2-3). Marcus Sertorius Aristolykos has erected it for the association. The term could designate (especially in the famous inscription of the Iobakchoi) both a festival and an association, but its original meaning is more concrete: A bed of straw or flowers (cf. discussion by Jaccottet 2011: 423-30). In our case, it must refer to a building, perhaps a dining room. – Ramsay 1885: 138 (ed. pr.) supplemented στι[λεῖ]δαν, sti[lei]dan, from στυλίς, stylis, wall.

VII. ORGANIZATION

iv. Officials The inscription is dated by reference to a tamias, but this is probably the civic official.

X. ACTIVITIES

iii. Worship Petzl in I.Smyrna suggests that the designation Ganymedeitai refers to wine-drinking in a Dionysiac cult (cf. Ganymede as cup-bearer in Olympus). The Dionysiac connection is possible because of the word stibas, but it was not exclusively used in Dionysiac contexts (cf. the doubts expressed by Jaccottet 2003: 219). This would mean that the association did not worship Ganymede, which is, however, a possibility. Picard 1944: 154, n. 1 believed that "le Ganymède smyrniote était un génie bachique, voire un symbole de la conquête de l'éternité, en raison de son enlèvement au ciel"; this is making a lot out of nothing, given the fact that we have just the name. Finally, it should not be forgotten that Ganymedes is attested as a personal name in Smyrna (I.Smyrna 685), and that the philagrippai (I.Smyrna 331) would provide a local parallel for a personal name being used as the basis for an association’s name.
Deities worshipped Ganymede? Dionysos?

XII. NOTES

ii. Poland concordance Poland B 358
iii. Bibliography Jaccottet, A.-F. (2003), Choisir Dionysos. Les associations dionysiaques ou la face cachée du dionysisme. 2 vols. Zürich: 219.
Jaccottet, A.-F. (2011), ‘Integrierte Andersartigkeit: Die Rolle der dionysischen Vereine’, in R. Schlesier (ed.), A Different God? Dionysos and Ancient Polytheism, Berlin: 413-31.
Picard, Ch. (1944), ‘Un type méconnu de lieu-saint dionysiaque: le stibadeion’, CRAI: 127-57.
Ramsay, W.M. (1885), ‘Notes and Inscriptions from Asia Minor’, AJA 1: 138-40.

XIII. EVALUATION

i. Private association Probable
Note Although the religious context is debatable, it seems likely that this was a private association.
ii. Historical authenticity Certain