Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 October 2013
In the course of investigating the Pontic region under Byzantium, Anthony Bryer and David Winfield have rescued from oblivion a monument from Sinope of much earlier date. 'Excavations for a gas pump not far west of the walls. . . brought to light an altar made of a stumpy fluted Doric column. A clean-cut inscription carved on two successive flutings reads:
ΔΕΛΦΙΝΙοΣ
ΟΡΓΙΑΛΕΟΣ
1 I am indebted to several helpers. Anthony Bryer and David Winfield informed me about the circumstances of discovery of the stone to be discussed, and the latter also supplied the photograph shown here as Plate Via. Peter Fraser generously gave me a full record of similar stones which he saw in Sinope in 1950 and discussed the names on this one. Homer Thompson guided me on some archaeological points.
2 Bryer, Anthony and Winfield, David, The Byzantine monuments and topography of the Pontos, Dumbarton Oaks Studies xx (Washington, D.C. 1985), 87 with Pl. 25bGoogle Scholar (identical to PI. Vla here).
3 J. Kirchner, ‘Aρχ. 'Eφ. (1937) 338-40.
4 Information and several photographs kindly supplied by Peter Fraser; however, David Winfield tells me that he could find no other stones on the site. Of the eighteen stones, the earliest was published by Akurgal, E., Zwei Grabstelen vorklassischer Zeit aus Sinope, (Winckelmannsprogramm des Arch. Ges. zu Berlin cxi [1955]) 10–13Google Scholar, cf. Hiller, H., Ionische Grabreliefs, 1st. Mitt. Beih. xii (1975) 60, with Pl. 12.2Google Scholar; on the inscription, J. and L. Robert, Bull, épigr. (1956) 308, (1959) 430. A second, a plain column with the names again inscribed vertically, was illustrated by Bean in Türk Tarih Kurumu Belleten xxix (1965) 594 fig. 3Google Scholar (Bull, épigr. [1968] 532).
5 Columns: a recent, selective list in Guarducci, M., Epigrafia Greca i (Rome 1967) 451 n. 3Google Scholar. Assos: Merkelbach, R., Die Inschriften von Assos (Bonn 1976) no. 1Google Scholar, with bibliography.
6 For this form, Schwyzer, E., Griechische Grammatik (Munich 1939) i 575Google Scholar; -εος could represent the genitive of a third-declension -ης only in names formed from nouns like Διογένης, Περικλής: cf. Schwyzer 579-80. For Sinope as a colony of Miletos, Ehrhardt, N., Milet und seine Kolonien (Frankfurt 1983) 55–8Google Scholar.
7 On this cult generally, M. P. Nilsson, Geschichte der griechischen Religion i3 (1967) 554-5; Graf, F., Mus. Helv. xxxvi (1979) 2–22Google Scholar; Ehrhardt (n. 6) 130. At Miletos: Kawerau, G. and Rehm, A., Das Delphinion in Milet, Milet i 3 (Berlin 1914)Google Scholar.
8 Levi, E. I.et at, Ol'viia: Temenos i Agora (Moscow and Leningrad 1964 [non vidi])Google Scholar; Graf, , Mus. Helv. xxxi (1974) 209–15Google Scholar; Ehrhardt (n. 6) 139-40.
9 Ehrhardt (n. 6) 136, with references, 431 notes 442, 443. The example of Delphinios cited from Panticapaeum by Zgusta, L., Die Personennamen griechischer Städte der nördlichen Schwarzmeerküste (Prague 1955) 372 no. 947Google Scholar appears to be another amphora-stamp from Sinope.
10 Ehrhardt (n. 6) 141.
11 Engelmann, H. and Merkelbach, R., Die Inschriften von Erythrai und Klazomenai (Bonn 1972-1973) no. 379Google Scholar (Delphinios), no. 209 (Apollo Delphinios), no. 349 (Delphinas: on the nature of this inscription, Bull. épigr. [1974] 479). Sittig, E., De Graecorum nominibus theophoris (Diss., Halle 1911) 54Google Scholar, also cites IG iii 939 and 1037 from Athens, but while the name would be at home there it has disappeared in revision of both inscriptions (respectively IG ii/iii2 3725 and 1784 line 36).
12 Paris, P., BCH viii (1884) 248 no. 14Google Scholar (whence Ramsay, W. M., Cities and bishoprics of Phrygia ii [Oxford 1897] 393 no. 266Google Scholar), Παπίας 'Aττάλου 'Oργαλεύς Tάτά τ[ὴ] ℓδίά γυναικί, κτλ. On this problem, Ruge, W., RE xviii (1939) 1021–2Google Scholar.
13 Robert, L., Noms indigènes dans l'Asie mineure gréco-romaine (Paris 1963) 449–57Google Scholar, discussing the inscription now republished by Bradeen, Donald W., The Athenian Agora xvii: inscriptions: the funerary monuments (Princeton 1974) no. 404Google Scholar (cf. Bull, épigr. [1974] 219).
14 Gramatopol, M. and Bordea, G. Poenaru, Dacia xiii (1969) 215 nos. 577, 578Google Scholar. On such ‘parentés de noms’, Robert (n. 13) Index s.v.
15 Wilamowitz, Sitzungsber. Berlin 1904 619-40 lines 4-5 (Rehm [n. 7] no. 133; Syll.3 57; Sokolowski, Lois sacrées d'Asie mineure [Paris 195S] 129-35 n0 - 50). Cf. Wilamowitz, 622, 'ὅργια bezeichnet noch einfach ίερά δρὠμενα ohne den Nebensinn des geheimen oder des orgiastischen; so wenden Aischylos (Sieben 180) und Sophokles (Ant. 1013, Trach. 765) das Wort noch an, nicht mehr Euripides und Aristophanes.’