Stable URL: http://ancientassociations.ku.dk/assoc/1238Download as PDF
Last Updated on 11 Jul 2019

Author: Andreas Victor Walser

CAPInv. 1238: U-WAM-021

I. LOCATION

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

II. NAME

i. Association with unknown name U-WAM-021

III. DATE

i. Date(s) 276 / 275 BC

IV. NAME AND TERMINOLOGY

iii. Descriptive terms θίασος, thiasos
Note Milet VI.3 1222

V. SOURCES

i. Source(s) Milet VI.3 1222
Note Sokolowski, LSAM 48
Online Resources Sokolowski, LSAM
CGRN 138
i.a. Source type(s) Epigraphic source(s)
i.b. Document(s) typology & language/script Diagraphe for the sale of the priesthood of Dionysos
i.c. Physical format(s) Three fragments of two copies of the text:
A) Two joining blocks of white marble from an anta
B) Fragment of a column of white marble, broken on all sides but below.
ii. Source(s) provenance A) Found in resp. near the Sacred Way
B) Found in the apsis of the church of St. Michael

VII. ORGANIZATION

i. Founder(s) According to the interpretation of Henrichs (1969: 237-238), every woman was allowed to found their own thiasos.
Gender Female
viii. Obligations A woman who introduces other women to the cult of Dionysos Bakchios and is therefore founding her own thiasos has to pay a fee of 1 stater for every two year period to the priestess of the city.
ix. Privileges The priests and priestesses of the private thiasoi partake together with the priest and priestess of the city in the procession at the festival of the Katagogia.

IX. MEMBERSHIP

ii. Gender Women

X. ACTIVITIES

iii. Worship The thiasoi are making sacrifices to Dionysos and are involved in the festivities for the god.
Deities worshipped Dionysos (Bakchios)

XII. NOTES

i. Comments The only document mentioning the thiasoi in Miletus is a diagraphe detailing the conditions for the sale of the city's priesthood. According to ll. 1-4 of the text, the city's priestess heads a Dionysiac thiasos of women, specified as δημόσιος, demosios, "public". This public thiasos takes precedence over all other thiasoi. This implies the existence of several 'private' Dionysiac thiasoi.

According to ll. 18-20, every women is allowed to introduce another into the cult of Dionysos, paying a fee to the city's priestess. This probably means that every woman is allowed to found her own 'private' thiasos. These 'private' thiasoi are assigned a specific role within the procession at the festival of the Katagogia.

Many aspects of the interpretation of the document remain uncertain.
iii. Bibliography Henrichs, A. (1969), 'Die Maenaden von Milet', ZPE 4: 223-241.

XIII. EVALUATION

i. Private association Certain
Note The term Βακχεῖον, Bakcheion, points to a Dionysiac cult association.