Stable URL: http://ancientassociations.ku.dk/assoc/1903Download as PDF

Author: Jan-Mathieu Carbon

CAPInv. 1903: Osiria[s]tai to[n] syn Ep[i]tynchanon

I. LOCATION

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

II. NAME

i. Full name (original language) Ὀσιρια[σ]τᾶν τῶ[ν] σὺν Ἐπ[ι]τυγχάνοντ[ι] (IG XII.4 2823, lines 2-7)
ii. Full name (transliterated) Osiria[s]tai to[n] syn Ep[i]tynchanon

III. DATE

i. Date(s) 100 (?) - 200 (?) AD

IV. NAME AND TERMINOLOGY

ii. Name elements
Personal:Epitychanon (σὺν Ἐπ[ι]τυγχάνοντ[ι], lines 5-7)
Theophoric:Osiriastai (Ὀσιρια[σ]τᾶν, lines 3-4)

V. SOURCES

i. Source(s) IG XII.4 2823 (2nd c. AD).
Note Bosnakis, Epigraphes 286; RICIS Suppl. II 204/1013.

Cf. also Maillot 2013: no. 50.
Online Resources PHI: Epigraphes 286
i.a. Source type(s) Epigraphic source(s)
i.b. Document(s) typology & language/script Probably, but not absolutely certainly, a boundary stone. See VI.ii. and Comments. Greek.
i.c. Physical format(s) Cippus of white marble, broken at the top and on the right.
ii. Source(s) provenance Unknown location, but once located in the baths of the Asklepieion.

VI. BUILT AND VISUAL SPACE

ii. References to buildings/objects If the restorations of the first two lines are correct, The point of reference of the boundary stone ([ὅρος], line 1) would be to private burial plots for the group: thekaia ([θηκαίων], lines 1-2).

VII. ORGANIZATION

i. Founder(s) Epitynchanon (σὺν Ἐπ[ι]τυγχάνοντ[ι], lines 5-7)
This individual, mentioned in the name of the association, is either its founder or its leader. The name is not particularly common, and so it would be tempting to identify this individual as a member of the family of an Epitynchanon who was the husband or father of an Athenais from Alexandria, known from a funerary inscription on Kos: IG 2726 (1st c. BC?). If this inference is correct, then this earlier Epitygchanon may have been the founder of the group, whose name was still preserved in the nomenclature of the association several centuries later.
Gender Male
ii. Leadership See above.

X. ACTIVITIES

iii. Worship See above IV.ii.
On the cult of Osiris on Kos, see also D. Bosnakis, AD 49-50 (1994-1995) 57.
Deities worshipped Osiris.

XII. NOTES

iii. Bibliography D. Bosnakis (2008), Anekdotes epigraphes tes Ko, Epitymvia mnemeia kai horoi, Athens.

L. Bricault and R. Veymiers (2011) 'Supplément no.2 au RICIS', in id. (eds.), Bibliotheca Isiaca II, Bordeaux: 273-307.

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

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 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.