IThera010

Findspot and Location

  • Country: Greece
  • Region: Santorini
  • Settlement: Ancient Thera
  • Repository: Archaeological site of Ancient Thera

Support

Material: stone.
Object type: rock face.

The inscription is located in the archaeological context called 'Agora of the Gods' by the first excavators. The graffito is placed on the same rock surface where the cult of Apollo is attested (IThera007). This complex is located to the west of the temple of Apollo Carnaeus, from which it is separated by the main road.

Layout

The graffito is written from right to left (except for the iota) and is difficult to read.

Execution: chiselled.

Palaeography

Letters of the archaic alphabet of Thera: iota: with three bars

omicron: smaller than the other letters, with a dot inside

rho: rigid bowl

san: for sibilants.

Provenance and Discovery

Place:Archaía Thíra (36.36349, 25.47804)

Date:End of the 8th - beginning of the 7th century BCE

Findspot:«Intra aedificium perantiquum, quod prope Apollinis Carnei templum meridiem fere versus situm est». Hiller, Suppl. p. 86

Coordinates:36.36200, 25.48064

Last recorded location: in situ; Last seen by A. Inglese in 2003 in situ; rubbing

Edition


Διόσ[ϙ]ο̣ροι̣

Apparatus


Hiller: Διόσϙοροι

Commentary

This graffito is proof of the archaic nature of the epigraphic attestation of the name Dioscuri, i.e. the divine brothers's name since Hesiod. In inscription IThera001, a symbol is present that Hiller hypothesized to be a small ladder, or dokanon, which is a symbol associated with the Dioscuri, also known in Sparta. If this interpretation is correct, it would suggest that the cult of the Dioscuri existed in the area, supported by similar inscriptions and onomastic evidence found on the same rocky surfaces. The worship of the Dioscuri at Thera likely mirrors practices found in Sparta, where the dokanon symbolized the brothers, Castor and Pollux. In other parts of Greece, such as Laconia and Taranto, the Dioscuri played an important role in religious traditions. They were often associated with dual kingship and were depicted in mortal or immortal forms, sometimes representing the sons of Zeus. The Dioscuri’s presence is evidenced through various reliefs and inscriptions, many of which can be dated to the classical period. For an overview of the matter, refer to Inglese 2008, pp. 157-159.

Bibliography

To consult the full bibliography of the project, visit our Zotero library.

Images

Rubbing inv. no. EpiLab-rtv-rub-033 (October 2003). © Greek Ministry of Culture / Ephorate of Antiquities of the Cyclades. Reproduction authorized for this use only. Any further use requires permission

Editorial Team

Editor: Alessandra Inglese

Principal Investigator: Alessandra Inglese

Funder: CHANGES - Theme 5. Humanities and Cultural Heritage as Laboratories of Innovation and Creativity, funded by the European Union – NextGenerationEU, Associazione Centro di Eccellenza DTC

Alessandra Inglese: original data collection and edition

Valentina Mignosa: encoding, editing metadata and geo data, website content creation, HTML transformation, website design and styling, interactive mapping implementation

Marika Griffo: rubbings digitisation

Simone Lucchetti: rubbings digitisation

Luigi Tessarolo: website construction, design and styling, interactive mapping implementation

Virgilio Costa: methodological and digital consultancy

Publication Details

Authority: ThERA (Theran Epigraphic Rubbings Archive) project

Licence: Licensed under a Creative Commons-Attribution 4.0 licence

Encoding model / validation: EpiDoc encoding model and validation framework adapted from ISicily

Download

To consult the full TEI EpiDoc XML source of this inscription, click here.