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Last Updated on 24 Jun 2019

Author: Jan-Mathieu Carbon

CAPInv. 845: heroistai

I. LOCATION

i. Geographical area Western Asia Minor
ii. Region Caria
iii. Site Mylasa

II. NAME

i. Full name (original language) [ἡ]ρωϊσταί (I. Mylasa 423, line 3)
ii. Full name (transliterated) heroistai

III. DATE

i. Date(s) 150 (?) BC - 100 (?) AD

IV. NAME AND TERMINOLOGY

ii. Name elements
Cultic:[ἡ]ρωϊσταί, [he]roistai; see below X.iii.

V. SOURCES

i. Source(s) I.Mylasa 423 (ca. 150 BC - 100 AD?)
Online Resources PHI: Mylasa 350
i.a. Source type(s) Epigraphic source(s)
i.b. Document(s) typology & language/script Fragmentary regulation in Greek, perhaps part of a testament or by-law of a funerary association.
i.c. Physical format(s) Marble fragment.
ii. Source(s) provenance Milas.

VI. BUILT AND VISUAL SPACE

ii. References to buildings/objects εἰκών, eikon (line 4)
Reference is made to a statue, beneath which an inscription (perhaps the present text) is to be inscribed. Though this statue may have been connected with the private cult in some way, we must admit that the context is lost.

VII. ORGANIZATION

i. Founder(s) The founder is obliquely referred to in the attribution of the heroistai to his person: "my heroistai" (line 3).
ii. Leadership ἱερε[ύς], hiere[us] (line 1)
A priest is mentioned, possibly in this capacity as leader of the heroistai, and definitely as a primary official in the cult.
iii. Members [ἡ]ρωϊσταί μου, heroistai mou (line 4)
The group envisaged by the founder is called "his" heroistai: hoi heroistai was perhaps the name of the association and cultic group, though it may also have been named differently. It is possible that family members, but also other people, may have been involved in this group.
iv. Officials See above VII.ii.
ix. Privileges γέρας, geras (line 1)
The priest receives an honorific sacrificial portion during the rites.

X. ACTIVITIES

iii. Worship A sacrifice is clearly mentioned in lines 1 and 3 (in the latter case, apparently one of a single sheep). A phrase in line 2, ἐ]ν τῆι αὐτῇ ἡμέραι ὅτε Γ[—], e]n tei autei hemerai hote G[...] suggests that rites performed in the cult were to take place on a specific date.

Since the heroistai are said to belong to an individual (μου), we can assume that the founder, as a heroised figure, was the main object of the cult undertaken by the association.
Deities worshipped Deceased or living (?) hero.

XII. NOTES

i. Comments Cp. also the other testaments and cultic regulations known from Mylasa at I.Mylasa 421 (mentioning kleronomoi; periodic rites and epimenieia) and 422 (epitropoi; the appointment of a priest is mentioned). Both of these texts invoke the inheritors or executors of testamentary dispositions but do not refer to associations in and of themselves (yet it is possible that heroistai may have been involved in those cases as well).

XIII. EVALUATION

i. Private association Probable
Note Though heroistai may not have been the full or precise name of the association, but instead have designated its agents or members, we can still be sure that a private cultic group, and probably a more permanent association, was envisaged in this fragmentary inscription.