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I. LOCATION

i.	Geographical area	Peloponnese with Adjacent Islands
ii.	Region	Argolis
iii.	Site	Argos

II. NAME

i.	Full name (original language)	῾Αδυλύραι ἔνθεοι θίασοι (ISE 1. 39, ll. 2-3)
ii.	Full name (transliterated)	Hadylyrai entheoi thiasoi

III. DATE

i.

Date(s)

303 BC

IV. NAME AND TERMINOLOGY

ii.

Name elements

Other:

If the word Hadylyrai is to be perceived as a name element of the thiasos, then it is a thiasos consisted of individuals "that sing in a sweet voice accompanied by the music of a lyra".
entheoi

iii.

Descriptive terms

θίασοι, thiasoi

Note

thiasoi: ISE 1. 39, l. 3

V. SOURCES

i.	Source(s)	ISE 1. 39 (303 BC)
i.a.	Source type(s)	Epigraphic source(s)
i.b.	Document(s) typology & language/script	A dedication in Greek of a thiasos to Leto followed by a votive epigram and by a list of members.
i.c.	Physical format(s)	A stele of limestone. On its upper side, a chanel in the shape of a horseshoe shows that the dedication was placed on a semi-circular plinthe.
ii.	Source(s) provenance	Argos, near the sanctuary of Apollo Pythios.

IX. MEMBERSHIP

i.	Number	The list that follows the dedication of the thiasos includes the names of 31 men and women. They are to be considered as a list of members of the association: Ἀρχίας Τιμοκράτης Εὐνόα Ἀλεξεύς or Δεξεύς (cf. P. Charneux, BCH 107, 1983, 251, no. 1) Κλευάνδρα Κλεόδαμος Μελίτα [Μ]ενελαΐδας Ἀσία Βουκολίων Δάμεον Νίκανδρος Ἀρίστεον Ἀγαῖος Καλλιστράτα Εὐκράτεια Πολυκράτης Εὐκράτεια Πολύστρατος [. . . .]α[. .]μνα Φαηνός [2-3]αρίστα Ἀρχιτέλης [Κ]λευάνδρα Νικίων Νικίππα Ἀριστώι Ὠφελίων Δαμότιμος Πολυκράτης Πολυστράτα
ii.	Gender	Men Women
	Note	16 men and 15 women

X. ACTIVITIES

ii.	Meetings and events	A sacrifice that is to take place every month on a certain day, on the 17th of the month, in memory of the expulsion of a certain Pleistarchos by Apollo, is the only regular meeting of the association mentioned in the inscription.
iii.	Worship	The monument erected by the thiasos is dedicated to Leto. In the inscription it is mentioned that statues of Apollo and Artemis are erected.
	Deities worshipped	Leto, Apollo, Artemis

XII. NOTES

i.	Comments	The actual name of the thiasos is unknown. The thiasos is defined as entheos, i.e. "full of the god", "inspired or possessed by the spirit of the god". Moreover, above the inscription, on the epistylion, there is a dedication to Leto, whilst the monument is described in the inscription as a dedication to Apollo and Artemis. As for the word Hadylyrai, it is not clear whether it is to be associated to the thiasoi, i.e. "the thiasoi that sing in a sweet voice accompanied by the music of a lyra" or to Apollo, as Herzog 1912: 1-23 suggested. As Vollgraff 1956: 81 correctly observes, Ἀπόλλων' (l. 2) would in that case be regarded as a dative and the word υἱόν, hyion, should be emended to υἱῶι, hyioi. J. Ebert suggested in a private communication cited by Hansen 1989: 221-22 that ἁδυλύραι, hadylyrai, is to be emended to ἁδυλύρα<ν>, hadylyra<n>. Vollgraff, op. cit., 80 wonders, whether Ἁδυλύραι, Hadylyrai, at the very beginning of the metrical dedication is to be regarded as the name of the association. Despite the plural form θίαοι, thiaoi, i.e. θίαϝοι, thiawoi, = θίασοι, thiasoi, just one association is to be understood here, which was perhaps subdivided into more groups, maybe two choirs, one of men and one of women, as Vollgraff 1956: 79 suggested. As the surface of the stele is damaged, the inscription was restored in a different way by Vollgraff 1908. However, in his subsequent work on this text in Vollgraff 1956, he accepts corrections and new readings suggested by Herzog. A crucial problem posed by the inscription is the identification of Pleistarchos who was droven away by a divine intervention of Apollo, as it is related to the inscription's date. Herzog suggested that Pleistarchos was the Spartan king, son of Leonidas, whose royal term is dated to to 462-459 BC. The battle commemorated by the epigram is the battle of Oinoa in Herzog's view. However, both Vollgraff 1908 and Vollgraff 1956 associate Pleistarchos with a Macedonian commander, brother of Kassandros. Herzog's view is accepted only by Francis and Vickers 1985: 105-17, who reassessed the scanty evidence for a battle between an Athenian-Argive alliance and Spartans at Oinoa in the 450s and concluded that a battle did take place. The remaining scholars who studied the inscription incline to Vollgraff's view. Moretti 1967: 89-90 follows Vollgraff's identification of Pleistarchos and dates the text accordingly to 303 BC. Piérart 1987: 175-80, although he does not doubt the historicity of the battle of Oinoa, confirms Vollgraff's view and mentions an unpublished inscription from Argos, which attests to the presence of a Macedonian garrison in the town between 315 and 303 BC. Pleistarchos could have been its commander. Moreover, on the basis of the lettering of numerous inscriptions found in Argos, Piérart could date the text in question to the late 4th c. BC and not to the 5th c. BC. Charneux, in BE 1988: nos 601-602, draws attention to an inscription published by Ferguson 1948: 112-36 which mentions the victorious campaign of Demetrios Poliorketes in the Peloponnese with the support of Athens and other towns against Pleistarchos, cf. also Paus. 1. 15, 1.
iii.	Bibliography	Ferguson, W.S. (1948), ‘Demetrius Poliorcetes and the Hellenic League’, Hesperia 17: 112-36. Francis E.D. and Vickers, M. (1985), ‘Argive Oenoe’, AC 54: 105-15 Hansen P.A. (ed.) (1989), Carmina Epigraphica Graeca. Berlin, New York: 221-22, no. 816. Herzog, R. (1912), ‘Auf den Spuren der Telesilla’, Philologus 71: 1-23. Moretti, L. (1967), Iscrizioni storiche ellenistiche, I Firenze: 89-90, no. 39. Piérart, M. (1987), ‘Note sur l'alliance entre Athènes et Argos au cours de la première guerre du Péloponnèse’, MH 44: 175-80. Vollgraff, W. (1908), ‘Praxitèle le jeune’, BCH 32: 236-58. Vollgraff, W. (1956), Le sanctuaire d' Apollon Pythéen à Argos. Paris: 79-84.

XIII. EVALUATION

i.	Private association	Certain
	Note	The terminology used (thiasoi) and the character of the dealings of the group point to a private association.

CAPInv. 528: Hadylyrai entheoi thiasoi