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Last Updated on 25 Jun 2019

Author: Jan-Mathieu Carbon

CAPInv. 1838: thiasos Agathameiris[t]an ton syn Athe[- - -]

I. LOCATION

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

II. NAME

i. Full name (original language) θιάσου Ἀγαθ̣αμειρισ[τ]ᾶν τῶν̣ σ̣ὺν Ἀ̣θ̣η̣[—] (IG XII.4 2791, lines 1-5)
ii. Full name (transliterated) thiasos Agathameiris[t]an ton syn Athe[- - -]

III. DATE

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

IV. NAME AND TERMINOLOGY

ii. Name elements
Cultic:thiasos (θιάσου, lines 1-2)
Personal:syn Athen[---] (σ̣ὺν Ἀ̣θ̣η̣[—], line 5)
Other:Agathameristai (Ἀγαθ̣αμειρισ[τ]ᾶν, lines 2-4)
This part of the name is clearly some sort of cultic element, but it remains unclear whether it designates the worship of a sacred and good day (ἀγαθά + ἀμέρα), or no doubt more plausibly, the worship of a heroised individual called Agathemeros (male) or Agathemeris (female). Both names are attested on Kos: cf. LGPN I s.v. Note that the construction in -istes for this kind of heroised worship is seldom found, however.
iii. Descriptive terms thiasos (θιάσου, lines 1-2)
The term both refers specifically to a cultic group and, more widely, to a collectivity.

V. SOURCES

i. Source(s) IG XII.4 2791.
Note Segre, I. Cos EF 413; SEG 57.785; Tsouli 2013: no. 636c with ph.
Cf. also Maillot 2013: no. 21.
Online Resources PHI: EF 413

Harland, AGRW 12002
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 black stone), with a base designed for insertion into the ground.
ii. Source(s) provenance Found in the excavations of the Roman house at Amygdalona.

VI. BUILT AND VISUAL SPACE

ii. References to buildings/objects The point of reference of the boundary stone (ὅρος) is unclear, but in other similar cases (e.g. CAPI no. 1826), reference is explicitly made to burial plots of the group, thekaia.

VII. ORGANIZATION

i. Founder(s) See above IV.ii.
ii. Leadership Athen[---] (line 5).
This individual, mentioned in the name of the association, is probably its leader (if not its founder; but see above IV.ii).

X. ACTIVITIES

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

XII. NOTES

iii. Bibliography S. Maillot (2013), 'Les associations à Cos', in P. Hamon and P. Fröhlich (eds.), Groupes et associations dans les cités grecques, Geneva: 199-226.

M. Segre (2007), Iscrizioni di Cos, Epigrafi funerarie, Rome.

C. Tsouli, Ταφικὰ και επιτάφια μνημεία της Κω, diss. Athens 2013.

XIII. EVALUATION

i. Private association Certain
Note Little is known about this association, its context, or even its precise form of worship. 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.