New Hellenistic Inscriptions from Phigaleia (Arcadia)

Chapter 6 New Hellenistic Inscriptions from Phigaleia (Arcadia)

Athanassios Themos and Eleni Zavvou

The ancient city of Phigaleia is located on the north bank of the Neda river on the south-west edge of Arcadia (Peloponnese), near the borders with Triphylia and Messenia.1 The site is surrounded by the mountains Minthi and Kotilion to the north, Lykaion and Tetrazi to the east and south respectively. Phigaleia is attested as a polis in the Delphic accounts of the naopoioi, ca. 360 BC (CID II 4 col. III.45 = CID III5, 3 col. III.45), as well as in the works of Polybius (4.3.7) and Diodorus Siculus (15.40.2 - r 374).2 Its main urban centre is located to the east of the modern village of Pavlitsa. A number of other second- order or satellite settlements also existed in its territory.3 One such settlement has been associated with the Classical temple of Apollo Bassitas or Epikourios on the south side of the Kotilion mountain,4 which is famous for its Doric ar- chitecture and sculptural decoration. In his account of the city of Phigaleia, Pausanias (VIII, 39–41) mentions the sanctuaries of Artemis Soteira (Savior), Dionysos Acratophoros and a statue of Hermes at the gymnasium. A temple of Athena is known from a 1st cent. AD inscription, which mentions its restoration,5 while another very worn inscription twice makes reference to the epithet Polias of the same goddess (IG V.2

1 We are greatly indebted to Dr X. Arapogianni for entrusting us with the publication of this important epigraphical material, and for her continuous support and encouragement. We are also grateful to Dr. A.P. Matthaiou for generously offering his help at all stages of our work, and to Prof. A. Chaniotis for invaluable comments. A.A. Themos would like to thank AIEGL for awarding him a prestigious Geza Alföldy Stipend that allowed him to travel to Berkeley and present a version of this article at the 2nd North American Congress of Greek and Latin Epigraphy. 2 See the detailed discussion by Nielsen 2004, 527–528, who also deals with the problem of the exact form of the name of Phigaleia. 3 Cooper and Myers 1981, 133. See also Nielsen 2004, 527–528 no. 292. 4 Yalouris 1979, 90. 5 Te Riele 1966, 266 no. 11 (SEG XXIII 237); Bull. Epigr. 1967, no. 278.

42, ll. 2 and 5). The cult of Hygeia is also attested in a votive inscription of the 4th cent. BC.6 Excavations in the ancient city were quite limited before the 1990s. Only a springhouse of the late 4th or the early 3rd cent. BC had been excavated by Anastasios Orlandos in 1927,7 and some other plots of land by the Ephorate of Antiquities of Olympia.8 Systematic archaeological investigation was re- sumed by Dr. Arapogianni from 1994 onwards. These new excavations revealed a temple on the south edge of the plateau of the Kourdoubouli hill within the fortification walls of the ancient city. The building has a length of 15.70 m. and a width of 7.70 m., and is divided into a pronaos and a sekos where a base for the cult statue was found in situ.9 It was dedicated to Athena and Zeus Soter, as shown by an inscribed statue base.10 Zeus was also worshipped as Πατρώιος, as another fragmentary inscription found in the same excavation shows (inscription no. IV below). In yet another inscription, the honorary decree for Ἀριστοβώλα, Athena is called Polias,11 an epithet already known, as we have indicated, from IG V.2 421. Until the recent excavations, the number of inscribed Phigaleian monu- ments was rather limited. In the Arcadian epigraphic corpus IG V.2, which was published in 1913, only twelve inscriptions (IG V.2 419–430) originating from the territory of the ancient city were included. Another thirteen inscriptions from Pavlitsa were published by Gérard-Jean Te Riele in the Bulletin de Correspondance Hellénique of 1966.12 The picture changed considerably after the inception of the excavations and other archaeological investigation

6 Te Riele 1966, 251 no. 1 (SEG XXIII 240). For other cults which are attested through the city’s numismatic evidence see Jost 1985, 85–86. 7 Orlandos 1927/28, 1–7. 8 Arapogianni 2001, 300. 9 Arapogianni 1996b, 134; Arapogianni 2001, 301; Arapogianni 2002, 9. As Arapogianni has pointed out the building has obvious similarities with the temple of Asklepius in the neighboring Arcadian city of Alipheira: see Arapogianni 1996b, 129 note 2; Arapogianni 2001, 301–302. 10 Arapogianni 1996a, 43; Arapogianni 1996b, 134; Arapogianni 2001, 302. See also SEG XLVI 448; SEG XLVII 441; SEG LI 511C; SEG LII 457B; SEG LVI 492bis. 11 See below. 12 Te Riele 1966, 248–273. Of these inscriptions the following are worth mentioning: the ded- ication of Prokleidas to the goddess Hygeia (4th c. BC), whose cult in Phigaleia had been previously unattested (Te Riele 1966, no. 1 = SEG XXIII 240); a fragmentary inscription on a territorial arbitration of the second half of the 3rd cent. BC (Te Riele 1966, no. 5 = SEG XXIII 236; BE (1967) no. 278; SEG XXV 454); and the aforementioned fragmentary inscription from the Kourdoubouli hill that attests to the restoration of the temple of Athena, perhaps during the 1st c. AD (Te Riele 1966, no. 11 = SEG XXIII 237; BE (1967), no. 278).