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A Note on Edson's Macedonica III
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 23 August 2011
Extract
In a significant study of inscriptions pertaining to the cults of Thessalonica, Charles Edson has given for the first time a text both accurate and complete of the “testament of a Thessalonian priestess.” The portion of the text with which we are immediately concerned, is brief and easily summarized. A priestess of Dionysos Prinophoros bequeaths to her thiasos two plethra of vineyard, ὅπως ἀποκέηταί (=ἀποκαίηται) μοι ἀπὸ ἀγορᾶς μὴ ἔλατ〈τ〉ον (δηνάρια) ɛ, “in order that sacrifices may be burned for me from the income thereof to the value of not less than five denarii.” Each member of the thiasos is to bring a crown of roses to the ceremony; if he fails to do so, he shall forfeit his share of the legacy.
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- Research Article
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- Copyright © President and Fellows of Harvard College 1949
References
1 Edson, HTR 41, 1948, 153 ff.
2 167 f.
3 Thus Edson, 170. The epithet Prinophoros and its connection with Dionysos are fully explained in Edson's commentary
4 A verb is lacking on the stone, and Edson supplies 〈φɛρέτωσαν δὲ〉 καὶ οἱ μύστɛ (=μύσται). After μύστε comes μικρὸς μέγας, and Edson (169 f.), contrary to Perdrizet and Baege, doubts that this phrase “is necessarily much more than a forceful expression for ‘all’.” That the phrase is to be taken literally, is suggested by a comparison with Pliny, Epist. 10.96, on the Christian conventicles (omnis aetatis, omnis ordinis, utriusque sexus) and Livy 39.8, on the Bacchanals (mixti feminis mares, aetatis tenerae maioribus). These passages are conveniently displayed for another purpose by Grant, HTR 41, 1948, 274.
5 BCH 38, 1914, 38–62, esp. 47.
6 στέφανον ῥόδινον.
7 Edson, 169.
8 BCH 38, 1914, 48. The inscriptions are also cited by Collart, BCH 55, 1931, 59; id., Philippes, , Éc. fr. d'Athènes, Trav. et Mém., V, Paris, 1937, 475Google Scholar.
9 BCH 24, 1900, 305 f., 320 f. Nilsson's article (1914) on Rosalia in Pauly-Wissowa also raises no problem.
10 For terminology of the rose festival see Nilsson, ibid.; for general bibliography, Hoey, HTR 30, 1937, 22.
11 Collart, BCH 55, 1931, 58 ff.; id., Philippes, 474 ff.
12 See footnote 9, and cf. Lemerle, BCH 60, 1936, 341.
13 I.e., “in order that a sum not less than five denarii be reserved for me.” Her purpose might then be to provide for maintenance of the tomb, but the language, because it is vague, would not exclude expenditure for sacrifice.
14 BCH 38, 1914, 52.
15 Collart, Philippes, 484, nn. 5 and 6.
16 Ibid., 478; cf. Nilsson, P.-W., s.v. Rosalia.
17 Edson, 175.