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Last Updated on 24 May 2019

Author: Ursula Kunnert

CAPInv. 1026: hoi mystai

I. LOCATION

i. Geographical area Eastern Asia Minor
ii. Region Cilicia
iii. Site Seleukeia Tracheia

II. NAME

i. Full name (original language) οἱ μύσται (Hagel-Tomaschitz, Repertorium Sel 62, ll. 2-3)
ii. Full name (transliterated) hoi mystai

III. DATE

i. Date(s) ii (?) BC - ii (?) AD

IV. NAME AND TERMINOLOGY

ii. Name elements
Cultic:mystai

V. SOURCES

i. Source(s) Hagel-Tomaschitz, Repertorium Sel 62 (ii BC - ii AD)
Note See also:
AGRW 218
Heberdey-Wilhelm, Reisen in Kilikien: 104 no. 183
Online Resources Heberdey-Wilhelm, Reisen in Kilikien: 104 no. 183

AGRW ID# 1540
i.a. Source type(s) Epigraphic source(s)
i.b. Document(s) typology & language/script Dedication in Greek to Dionysos Archebakchos and the mystai
i.c. Physical format(s) Limestone altar (H 0.95 m, W 0.46 m, Th 0.35 m)
ii. Source(s) provenance Found in an old quarry near the southern necropolis of Seleukeia.

VII. ORGANIZATION

ii. Leadership A priest (ἱερεύς, hiereus) is mentioned, maybe the leader of the mystai.
Eponymous office The priest Sopatros, son of Apollonios, is mentioned eponymously to date the dedication (preposition epi + gen.).
iii. Members οἱ μύσται, hoi mystai

X. ACTIVITIES

iii. Worship Athenaios, son of Chareinos, dedicated an altar to Dionysos Archebakchos and the mystai.
For the epithet cf. Santamaría 2013: 44.
Deities worshipped Dionysos Archebakchos

XII. NOTES

i. Comments The date is arguable: Nilsson 1957: 9 n. 20 dates the inscription to the 2nd century BC; Mitford 1990: 2148 note 82: “palaeographically of the 1st century of our era, but perhaps late Hellenistic”; Woodhead in SEG 16: 778: 1st century AD?; Harland in AGRW 218: i-ii AD.
ii. Poland concordance Poland B 448
iii. Bibliography Mitford, T.B. (1990), ‘The cults of Roman Rough Cilicia’, ANRW II 18.3: 2131-60.
Nilsson, M.P. (1957), The Dionysiac Mysteries of the Hellenistic and Roman Age, Lund: 9.
Santamaría, M.A. (2013), ‘The Term βάκχος and Dionysos Βάκχιος’, in A. Bernabé, M. Herrero de Jáuregui and A.I. Jiménez San Cristóbal (eds.), Redefining Dionysos, Berlin: 38-57.

XIII. EVALUATION

i. Private association Possible
Note It is not clear whether the initiates formed a durable, privately founded association.
ii. Historical authenticity Certain