Stable URL: http://ancientassociations.ku.dk/assoc/1951Download as PDF

Author: Jan-Mathieu Carbon

CAPInv. 1951: thiasos Athenaistan ton syn Zethoi

I. LOCATION

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

II. NAME

i. Full name (original language) θιάσου Ἀθηναιστᾶν τῶν σὺν Ζήθωι (IG XII.4 2821)
ii. Full name (transliterated) thiasos Athenaistan ton syn Zethoi

III. DATE

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

IV. NAME AND TERMINOLOGY

ii. Name elements
Cultic:θίασος, thiasos (l. 2)
Professional:σὺν Ζήθωι, syn Zethoi (ll. 3-4)
Theophoric:Ἀθηναισταί,Athenaistai (ll. 2-3)
iii. Descriptive terms θίασος
Note thiasos (l. 2)¨The term both refers specifically to a cultic group and, more widely, to a collectivity.

V. SOURCES

i. Source(s) IG XII.4 2821 (100-200 AD), on the basis of the copy and squeeze of Herzog.
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: cippus of amygdalopetra / Travertin.
ii. Source(s) provenance At the place called Diapeli/Giappili, between Abavris and the shore; found rebuilt into a house.

VI. BUILT AND VISUAL SPACE

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

VII. ORGANIZATION

i. Founder(s) Zethos (line 4)
The name is probably that of the founder or the leader of the association. It is rather rare in the Aegean Islands, being more prevalent in Attica, Asia Minor, and especially in the Black Sea, whence the name perhaps originates. Accordingly, we can readily identify the individual in question as a foreigner and as one of the members of the family of Ζῆθος Ζήθ̣ο̣υ̣, attested in a relatively contemporanous funerary inscription from the area of Platani near the city of Kos: IG XII.4 2060 / I.Cos EF 138 (2nd-3rd c. AD).
Gender Male
ii. Leadership See above.

X. ACTIVITIES

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

XI. INTERACTION

ii. Interaction abroad See above VII.i.

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 50 in number, cf. e.g. CAPI no. 1826http://ancientassociations.ku.dk/assoc/1826^), we can be confident that it constituted a private association.