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Last Updated on 24 Jun 2019

Author: Jan-Mathieu Carbon

CAPInv. 839: thiasos

I. LOCATION

i. Geographical area Western Asia Minor
ii. Region Caria
iii. Site Knidos

II. NAME

i. Full name (original language) θίασος (I.Knidos 23, line 2)
ii. Full name (transliterated) thiasos

III. DATE

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

IV. NAME AND TERMINOLOGY

ii. Name elements
Cultic:θίασος, thiasos
Probable, see below X.iii.

V. SOURCES

i. Source(s) I.Knidos 23 (ca. 200-100 BC?), with further bibliography.
Note Cf. also Foucart 1873: 233 no. 57.
Online Resources PHI: I.Knidos I 23
PHI: Knidos 20
Harland, AGRW no. 9729
i.a. Source type(s) Epigraphic source(s)
i.b. Document(s) typology & language/script A list of contributors and their promised financial contributions to the group in Greek. After a header (lines 1-2), one finds two fragmentary columns of names and amounts (cols. I-II).
i.c. Physical format(s) Pedimental stone stele, broken at the bottom.
ii. Source(s) provenance Tekir (Knidos).

VII. ORGANIZATION

iii. Members See below IX.

VIII. PROPERTY AND POSSESSIONS

i. Treasury/Funds Funding is notably provided by individual contributions: the inscription lists a series of contributors and the sums promised by them for the benefit of the thiasos.
iii. Income Several contributions are quite considerable (300 drachmae), others much more modest (as little as 5 dr.). The total amount promised is a substantial sum: 1333 drachmae, not to mention some contributions now missing in the gaps (cf. e.g. col. I, line 13).

IX. MEMBERSHIP

i. Number 14 members are known from the two fragmentary lists in the columns of the inscription.
ii. Gender Men
Note All contributors are male. One, however, makes a donation on behalf of his wife (col. II, lines 9-10).
iii. Age Adults
Note All contributors appear to be adults, but two of them make a donation on behalf of their children (col. I, lines 9-10; col. II, lines 1-2).
iv. Status All of the individuals, except perhaps for the first 2 mentioned in the list (col. I, lines 1-2, both named Nearchos, perhaps Knidians), are foreigners to the city of Knidos and identified by their corresponding ethnics. The ethnics of the contributors reveal highly diverse origins: Libya, Arados, Soloi, Myndos, Phrygia, Selge, Kaunos, Thrace, Seleukeia (which?), Samos. It is difficult to distinguish a pattern in these varied provenances (though they might e.g. suggest a group of mercenaries).

X. ACTIVITIES

iii. Worship The cult (if any) belonging to this thiasos is unknown, but the foreign membership suggests that the cult was perhaps connected to gods situated outside the traditonal cultic sphere of Knidos (for example, the Egyptian gods).

XII. NOTES

ii. Poland concordance B306
iii. Bibliography Foucart, P. (1873), Des associations religieuses chez les Grecs, Paris.

XIII. EVALUATION

i. Private association Probable
Note Given the foreign membership and the substantial donations involved, it is highly probable that the thiasos was a private association which was intended to form a lasting group.