Stable URL: http://ancientassociations.ku.dk/assoc/1853Download as PDF
Last Updated on 25 Jun 2019

Author: Jan-Mathieu Carbon

CAPInv. 1853: thiasos Nikaistan

I. LOCATION

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

II. NAME

i. Full name (original language) θιάσου Νικαϊστᾶν (IG XII.4 2788, lines 2-3)
ii. Full name (transliterated) thiasos Nikaistan

III. DATE

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

IV. NAME AND TERMINOLOGY

ii. Name elements
Cultic:thiasos (θιάσου, line 2)
Theophoric:Nikaistai (Νικαϊστᾶν, lines 2-3)
The name is probably formed from that of the goddess Nike. Alternatively, but less plausibly, it could be formed from a personal name (e.g. Nikaios, Nikaia).
iii. Descriptive terms thiasos (θιάσου, line 2)
The term both refers specifically to a cultic group and, more widely, to a collectivity.

V. SOURCES

i. Source(s) IG XII.4 2788
Note Bosnakis, Epigraphes 282, with ph.; SEG 58.885; Tsouli 2013: no. 489.
Cf. also Maillot 2013: no. 36.
Online Resources PHI: Epigraphes 282
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: plaque of white marble, broken below.
ii. Source(s) provenance Found in the suburb of the city of Kos (the general area of the necropolis).

VI. BUILT AND VISUAL SPACE

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

X. ACTIVITIES

iii. Worship See above IV.ii.
Deities worshipped Nike(?).

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 50 in number, cf. e.g. CAPI no. 1826), we can be confident that it constituted a private association.