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The Twelve Gods at Cos

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 August 2011

Mortimer Hardin Chambers
Mortimer Hardin Chambers
Affiliation:
Harvard University
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Extract

The group known as the “Twelve Gods” possessed a δωδεκάθεον at Cos and had their own priest. But the gods' names are nowhere explicitly enumerated. They can only be recovered (1) from observation of the roster of the Twelve Gods elsewhere in Greece and (2) from conclusions as to the most important gods at Cos. The “canonical” group in Greece generally was: Aphrodite, Apollo, Ares, Artemis, Athena, Demeter, Hephaestus, Hera, Hermes, Hestia, Poseidon, Zeus. But of these twelve, Ares and Hephaestus are nowhere found at Cos on either epigraphic or literary evidence. It is therefore unlikely that they belong in the Twelve.

Type
Research Article
Information
Harvard Theological Review , Volume 48 , Issue 2 , April 1955 , pp. 153 - 154
Copyright
Copyright © President and Fellows of Harvard College 1955

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References

1 Paton-Hicks, , Inscriptions of Cos (Oxford 1891), No. 1.15, 38.16, 43 b 7Google Scholar. Other testimonia for the cult are collected by Weinreich, art. “Zwölfgötter,” Roscher's Lexicon, 6.789.

2 Heilige Gesetze von Kos (Abh. Berl. Ak. 1928), p. 47; reproduced by Weinreich, loc. cit., 790.

3 Used as a public posting-place for decrees, Herzog, op. cit., No. 8 A 17.

4 Of course the largest temple at Cos was the property of Asclepius, but he is never in the Twelve Gods (Weinreich, loc. cit. 781.61).

5 I note only Paton-Hicks 37.20, 26, 29; 401.9; cf. Herzog, op. cit., No. 1.28, for another restoration.

6 Nilsson, Griech. Feste, 397, note 3; Sittig, Diss. Phil. Hall. 20 (1916) 61 ff.; Headlam on Herodas 7.86–88; Pap. Oxy. 412; Farnell, Cults of the Greek States, 2.506; Paton-Hicks p. 370.

7 Maiuri, Nuova Silloge etc. (Florence 1925), No. 475.12 (Roman); Herzog, op. cit., No. 5 A 8. From the Coan demes, Maiuri No. 676, Herzog, Koische Forschungen (Leipzig 1899), No. 217, Paton-Hicks Nos. 370, 388, 401.

8 Sitzb. Oest. Ak. 213 (1931–32) 1.99.