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An unusual victory list from Keos: IG XII, 5, 608 and the dating of Bakchylides

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 February 2012

Desmond Schmidt
Desmond Schmidt
Affiliation:
Cambridge
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Extract

This paper discusses the interpretation of an important historical document: IG XII, 5, 608, a victory list from Iulis on ancient Keos. Since its discovery in 1883 it has always been described as a chronologically ordered official victory list of Kean athletes who have won at each of the major games. The surviving portion contains one complete list prefixed by the words ‘these won at Nemea’, and preceded by fourteen other names, which must, following the usual order, belong to Isthmian victors. Since the two lists together name two athletes for whom Bakchylides wrote victory songs, Argeios (odes 1 and 2) and Lachon (odes 6 and 7), it has long been used as a means of dating the first pair of poems, as well as the victories mentioned on the inscription not celebrated by Bakchylides. More recently, it has been used to fix the death of that poet to just after 452, in spite of a clear reference to him in Eusebios' Chronicle under the year 431. It is the contention of this paper that this unique victory list has been misclassified and misinterpreted. It is not a chronologically ordered official victory list; it is rather an honorific victory list in which the entries are arranged by decreasing order of importance. This interpretation, and its various repercussions, destroys many of the currently accepted views about the dating of Bakchylides.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Hellenic Studies , Volume 119 , November 1999 , pp. 67 - 85
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies 1999

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References

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16 Προσετέθη σαλπιγκτὴς καὶ ἓνικα Τίμαιος Ήλεῖος. Προσετέθη καὶ κῆρυξ καὶ ένίκα Κράτης Ήλεῖος

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23 IG Xn,V,594; Dunant et Thomopoulos, No. 1=SEG 14 (1957) 531.

24 Dunant and Thomopoulos, 393-77, 321; Brun, c. 364, 124; Cargill 136, n.14.

25 Dow 679.

26 As can be surmised from Tod passim.

27 Jebb 188.

28 IG II2 2311.

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35 P. Oxy. II 222; FGrH 6, fr. 2 (Plut. Numa 1).

36 Theseus was supposed to have founded the Isthmian games in 1258/7 BC (MP 20). Historians claim that the Isthmian festival was in fact founded perhaps at the start of the seventh century BC, but only as a local games. The Kypselids founded the panhellenic version in 581 (RE 9.2.2248).

37 IG II2 2311-2317.

38 Lines 21 ff. of IG II2 2311.

39 Erotideia: British Museum II, 28, CLXII (c. 240); Musaia: IG VII, 1760 (early first century); SIG 3 667 = IG II 2 956 (Athens, Theseia, 160); SIG 3 1061 (Samos 2nd cent.); SIG 3 1063 (Ambryssi in Phocis, c. 212 AD; SIG 3 1079 (Magnesia II/I); IG II2 958-965 (Athens, Theseia, second century); IG IX, 2: 525, 526, 527, 528, 529 (Larisa, Eleutheria, second century) cf. 531. Taurotheria IG IX, 2, 531-34 (second-first century); IG X, 2, 1, 38 at Kallithea, ‘Pythian games’(third century AD); XII, 9, 952 (Chalcis, late second century); IG II2 956-64 Theseia (second century); IG VII, 414 The Great Apmhiaraïa at Oropus (fourth century); Charitesia at Orchomenos IG VII, 3195 (first century).

40 E.g. Maehler, Kommentar 126: ‘Für die Siegerliste von Keos gibt es m. W. keine direkte Parallele; jedenfalls ist sie auch ein offizielles Verzeichnis …’.

41 Amandry, ‘Sur les Concours Argiens’, BCH Suppl. VI, 220.

42 Moretti No. 21; SIG3 1065: παῖδας Ίσθμικους στάδιον καὶ πένταθλον τᾶι αύτᾶι άμέρᾶι; SIG 3 1066 παῖδας Ίσθμικοὺς στάδιον, δίαυλον, πένταθλον τᾶι αύτᾶι άμέραι. Moretti 16: πρᾶτ[οςπ]αίδον δόλ[ιχον Λιθ]έһια καὶ κέλεξ μιᾶς άμέρας һαμᾶ ὲν[ίκ]ον.

43 Moretti Nos. 44, 47.

44 Moretti No. 21=SIG3 36.

45 Moretti No. 44; IG V, 2, 142; SGDI 1232(a).

46 Early examples: IG V.2 142 (late third century); SIG 3 1064 (86-31 BC); IG IV, 428 (c. 340). Counter examples: SIG 3 1063, 1065, IG II. 3, 1319, IG II, 1, 129 etc.

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48 As were, for example, the victory lists of the Theseia: Bugh 21.

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51 The στάδιον, πάλη and πύξ contests were all age-classed at Olympia in the fifth century (P.Oxy. 222), so also probably at Nemea and the Isthmus; also we have the evidence of the Iulis victory list itself for the ατάδιον. Boys' versions of πάλη, πένταθλον, and παγκράτιον are attested in the fifth century in Pindar at either Nemea or the Isthmus but not both (N.7, 4.6,1.6.8).

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59 Jebb 187, 214.

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61 E.g. Severyns 103, Jebb 204-5.

62 IG XII, 5, 444, 468/7: Σιμωνίδης ό ποιητὴς έτελεύτησεν βιοὺς ἕτη ένενήκοντα. Maehler Text 6; Str. 10.5.6.486; Syr. 1.47.

63 Körte 143.

64 IG XII, 5, 444 under 477/6.

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68 Mosshammer 30.

69 Schoene Vol. 2 108; cf. J. Karst, Die Chronik des Eusebios aus dem Armenisichen übersetzt, Eusebios Werke V 194 (Ol. 87,2): ‘Bakchylides der Liederdichter war gekannt’.

70 Mosshammer 75, cf. 59-60.

71 Severyns 21.