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Late Antique Symbols and Numerals on Altars in the Asklepieion at Epidauros Author(S): Christopher A

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Late Antique Symbols and Numerals on Altars in the Asklepieion at Epidauros Author(S): Christopher A Late Antique Symbols and Numerals on Altars in the Asklepieion at Epidauros Author(s): Christopher A. Pfaff Source: Hesperia: The Journal of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens , Vol. 87, No. 2 (April-June 2018), pp. 387-428 Published by: The American School of Classical Studies at Athens Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2972/hesperia.87.2.0387 JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at https://about.jstor.org/terms The American School of Classical Studies at Athens is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Hesperia: The Journal of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens This content downloaded from 144.174.180.146 on Wed, 31 Oct 2018 21:03:32 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms hesperia 87 (2018) Late Antique Symbols Pages 387–428 and Numerals on Altars in the Asklepieion at Epidauros ABSTRACT The Asklepieion at Epidauros has yielded numerous altars inscribed with symbols and alphabetic numerals in the 4th century a.d., but relatively little attention has been paid to these Late Antique markings in recent scholarship. This article reviews what is known about the symbols and numerals and explores how they may have been used. Since no similar usage of symbols and numerals is attested on altars elsewhere, it is suggested here that the marks on the Epidaurian altars responded to the specific liturgical requirements of the Asklepieion, which demanded the regular servicing of an unusually large number of altars. Over the course of the large-scale excavations carried out in the late 19th cen- tury at the Asklepieion of Epidauros, many incribed blocks came to light with symbols and alphabetic numerals added in late antiquity (see Figs. 1–5).1 These marks were summarily reported by the site’s excavator, Panagiotis Kavvadias, and were soon thereafter documented and analyzed more fully by Blinkenberg.2 Much of the information provided by Blinkenberg was subsequently incorporated into Fraenkel’s discussion of the symbols and numerals in IG IV. 3 This publication also improved the documentation of the symbols by providing more accurate line drawings of all the symbols known at the time. Hiller von Gaertringen’s second edition of the Epidaurian corpus, IG IV2, generally repeated the documentation 1. Elements of this article were them for many helpful suggestions 156, nos. 12, 22, 24, 57; 1884, col. 25, first presented at the conference and corrections. I am also grateful to no. 66; 1885, col. 195, no. 98; 1894, “Texts, Non-Texts, and Contexts: Melina Melfi and the other anonymous cols. 16, 22, nos. 2, 17; 1918, pp. 192– On the Varieties of Writing Experi- reader for their comments on the first 193, fig. 37; Cavvadias 1891, pp. 43, ences in the Ancient Mediterranean,” submitted draft. For permission to 45–49, 51–54, 56–58, 60, 73, 108, 112, held February 25–26, 2011, at Florida publish photographs of the altars at nos. 35, 47, 50, 55, 63α, 67, 79, 82, 86, State University. I thank my colleague Epidauros, I thank the Ephoreia of 91, 93, 94, 96, 97, 99, 100, 101, 122, Nancy de Grummond for the invita- Antiquities of Argolida, and for per- 128, 132, 133, 134, 135, 137, 157, 161, tion to speak on that occasion. Earlier mission to use the site plan of Epidau- 231, 258; Blinkenberg 1894–1895, drafts of this paper were read by Nancy ros that appears in Figure 7, I thank pp. 174–178; 1899. Bookidis, Francis Cairns, and Molly R. A. Tomlinson. 3. IG IV, pp. 186–190. Richardson, and I am indebted to 2. Kavvadias 1883, cols. 31, 87, 88, © American School of Classical Studies at Athens This content downloaded from 144.174.180.146 on Wed, 31 Oct 2018 21:03:32 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms 388 christopher a. pfaff of the symbols and numerals from the previous edition, but it offered a different and considerably briefer discussion of them.4 It also provided a convenient listing of all the inscribed numerals. These early publications of Kavvadias, Blinkenberg, Fraenkel, and Hiller von Gaertringen have continued to be the primary sources of information for the symbols and numerals at Epidauros. Some additional examples of symbols and numerals have been reported by Mitsos, Peek, Rupp, and Nichols and Wagman, and occasional, brief comments about these marks have been offered since the publication of IG IV2, but over the past 85 years, no attempt has been made to reexamine the context and significance of these marks.5 The purpose of this article is to do just that. NATURE OF THE MARKED BLOCKS A correct understanding of the symbols and numerals at Epidauros depends first and foremost on the proper identification of the blocks that received them. Undoubtedly influenced by the variation in the types of blocks that bear the marks, Kavvadias concluded very generally that the symbols and numerals appeared on dedications in the sanctuary. Blinkenberg also identified the marked blocks in very general terms as altars and bases for votives. As he noted, however, the idea that all of the blocks with symbols may have served as altars in late antiquity had been suggested to him by an unnamed source (“von befreundeter Seite”), and he had not had the opportunity to verify this theory in the field.6 Fraenkel, in his subsequent study of the Epidaurian inscriptions, em- phasized the fact that symbols are not associated with other well-represented categories of inscribed votives, such as lustral fonts (perirrhanteria), and concluded that all the marked blocks were indeed altars at the time they received their symbols (though some had previously served as statue bases).7 Fraenkel does not expand on this point, but it is clear that he thought that if the symbols and numerals had been intended for votives generally, these marks should be widespread through the full range of surviving votives from the site, which is clearly not the case at Epidauros. It must be admitted, of course, that the exclusion of other types of votives from the category of marked blocks does not quite constitute proof that all the marked blocks were altars, but since many certainly were altars, and many more provide no evidence of having been used for some other purpose (at least in their final state), the identification of all marked blocks as altars is accepted here.8 By my reckoning, as many as 156 such blocks are preserved (or at least partially preserved) out of an original total of at least 221.9 As indicated by the inscriptions they bear, these blocks were all dedications to a deity or hero, made over the course of many centuries (see the Appendix). Some 4. IG IV2, pp. 105, 173–176. 101–107, figs. 12, 27, 37, 57, pls. V, p. 187) generally accept the identi- 5. Mitsos 1935, p. 14, no. 7; 1936, XII, XVI, XXIII; Rupp 1974, pp. 201, fication of the marked blocks as p. 144, no. 3; 1947, p. 84, no. 2, pl. XIV; 246–249, nos. 91, 111; Nichols and altars. Peek 1969, pp. 71, 74, 96, 103, 105, Wagman 2006, p. 187. 9. The minimum total is based on 108, 112, 138, nos. 125, 134, 163, 204, 6. Blinkenberg 1899, p. 396. the inscribed numerals (see the discus- 212, 227, 242, 335; 1972, pp. 23–25, 31, 7. IG IV, p. 186. sion on pp. 398–399, below). 36–37, 51–52, nos. 25, 27, 29, 48, 61, 8. Nichols and Wagman (2006, This content downloaded from 144.174.180.146 on Wed, 31 Oct 2018 21:03:32 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms altars in the asklepieion at epidauros 389 of them betray by their form or location that they were certainly altars.10 Moreover, at least three blocks explicitly identify themselves as altars (βωμοί) through their inscriptions.11 Some of the blocks had been at one time something other than an altar. The block inscribed with IG IV2 613, for example, had once served as a statue base, and the block inscribed with IG IV2 415 had once served as a tripod base.12 Of the extant altars that preserve symbols and/or numerals, at least 34 of them bear only the name of one or more divinities or heroes written in the genitive or dative case. Most of these altars consist of only the single inscribed block, but some were constructed of multiple blocks. The simplicity of the dedicatory inscriptions of those altars that fail to mention a dedicant may indicate that they were set up anonymously by the state. Other altars, usually monolithic, with more expansive dedicatory formulas that provide the name of the dedicant, can reasonably be identified as votive altars set up by private individuals. Since most of the altars, whether set up by the state or by private individuals, are rather small and show no obvious signs of burning, it is likely that they were used for modest bloodless sacrifices, perhaps cakes and libations. The private individuals who were responsible for dedicating altars prior to the Roman period are identified in the inscriptions only by name, so it is now impossible to say much about them and their motives for making their dedications.13 From the 2nd century a.d.
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