CHAPTER THREE
THE CULT IN ASIA MINOR, APART FROM LYDIA AND ANTIOCH IN PISIDIA
It is a little hard trying to put together a chapter on this subject because of the sheer disparity of the material. Unlike the relative masses of material from the cult centers, the material from the other areas of Asia Minor, perhaps because it was so originally, perhaps because of less thorough exploration and discovery, is more scattered and does not fit so nicely into patterns. One thing that does, however, seem to characterize the "Phrygian" material - Phrygian is such a vague geographical term as to be almost meaningless - is vows on behalf of whole communities. If we observed in the Lydian material that Men sometimes was Xrx'rEXWV or ~rx(HAe:UWV a given place, and once that a whole community, the Trx~lJvwv Xrx'rOLX(rx, appealed to him, so in a number of cases from Northern Phrygia (nos. SS, 93, 97, 9S, 105, and lOS) he is called on for the safety of a whole group or community. Often this appeal is connected with the idea of O'WTYJP(rx. Usually little, if anything, is known about these communities, except what can be gathered from these very inscriptions, and perhaps from a few others. The first is from the' AALrxvwv Xrx'rOLX(rx. Since the location of the finding of the stone seems to be known, and since the numismatic ally attested city of Alia seems to be located elsewhere, we must distinguish between the two places.l No. 93 is an inscription of the area of Eski~ehir. and records a vow of the Oue:~rxe:r:'rrxL, E~ Em'rrxy~~ (i.e., the god could order a vow by a whole community as in no. AS). This ethnic is also known from an inscription of the nearby village of A vdan, 2 a vow to Zeus Bronton by two individuals on behalf of their families and the Oue:~rxe:r:'rrxL.
1 See Drexler, in Roscher's Lexikon, s.v. Men, col. 2709; Reinach, REG, 3, 1890, p. 52. I have discussed this matter in Anatolian Studies, 25, 1975, 105, note 3. 2 MAMA, V, 127. THE CULT IN ASIA MINOR
No. 97 cannot be relied on too heavily, as the reading is extremely uncertain, but would seem to be a dedication to Men and Zeus Benneus by a group calling itself the KWfL"Y)voL No. 98 records a vow to Men by the 'Ar::~"Y)vot eVXfupLOL. Since both 97 and 98 were found at Nacoleia, the original editors take them to be dedications by the inhabitants of surrounding villages.3 No. 105 is a dedication by an individual on behalf of a whole community - lmep 8~fLOU 'Arr.O)":A"Y)VWV o"W't""Y)pLIX~. This would seem to be the only record of this place-name, and the basis for its identification with modern <;:ogu. 4 No. 108 is a dedication, apparently, of the 8~fLO~ ~r::AfLr::"Y)vwv to Men, and this same ethnic also appears twice as an epithet of Men (nos. 107 and 109) in the same locality, thus giving a fairly certain name to the ancient site.5 We do not seem to be dealing, as we were in Lydia, with epithets or place-names not used in normal secular language. Similar to worship of Men on behalf of or by whole communities, is the worship of him by a CPPCX-rPIX, for which we have evidence in nos. 87 and 127. We have seen already various associations in the service of Men, in Lydia and Rhodes, but the term CpPCX-rPIX seems to occur only in these two inscriptions of central Asia Minor. 6 Un fortunately, neither of these inscriptions is particularly informative, although no. 87 is nicely dated to A.D. 169-170, the one CpPCX-rPIX being qualified by two (?) proper names in the genitive, the other with a name in the accusative. The only thing that stands out is that one or more persons had a strong position of leadership in these organizations. The concept of o"W't""Y)PLIX is peculiarly strong in the Men-inscrip tions of this area. This, of course, is a common enough concept in ancient religion, usually restricting itself (as in Aelius Aristides) to
3 MAMA, V, p. 100; the word EvxwpLm is discussed, ibid., p. 105, and the idea advanced that it simply means "villagers." 4 MAMA, I, p. xxviii. 5 MAMA, VII, p. xx. 6 For a thorough discussion of cpp&:t"pac as a title of a cult-organization, and its relation to crUtL(3LWtJL<; see Buresch, Aus Lydien, p. 130 ff. Its leader is called &.ywvo6eTIl<;. See also P. Herrmann, Anz. Akad. Wien, Ph.-Hist. Klasse, 107, 1970, p. 103; H. W. Pleket, Talanta, 2, 1970, p. 74.