Sacral graffiti on ceramics from the early Phanagoria (original) (raw)

A substantial lack of information about Ancient Greek cults in the early Phanagoria makes us turn to the graffiti, found during the excavations of this city. Eleven inscriptions on ceramic sherds (Ionic and Attic vases), dating from the third quarter of the VIth - IVth centuries BC, are published in the article. Graffiti № 1 (540–500 BC) and №10 (Vth century BC) are devoted to Hera, graffito № 2 (4th quarter of VIth century BC) – Apollo. Before their publications there are no any written evidence concerning to the cults of Hera and Apollo for the Bosporos in the third quarter of the VIth – Vth centuries BC. The inscriptions make it impossible for to believe a temenos was situated in the territory of the “Upper City” in Phanagoria, where was its acropolis in the third quarter of VIth – Vth centuries BC. Temples of Apollo and Hera were located somewhere in the temenos. The graffito № 2 indicates that Apollo was worshiped in the city almost from the period of its foundation. The dedications of Hera point out a keeping of traditional beliefs inherent in Ionian Greeks by inhabitants of Phanagoria. The epigraphic data related to the cult of Apollo Iatros in Phanagoria has still referred to a period not earlier than the first half of Vth century BC (graffito № 6). So far, the new dedications from Phanagoria are not correlated with the generally accepted concept of Apollo Iatros as the supreme deity patron of the Ionian colonists in the Cimmerian Bosporos. At the same time, it is not supported by the hypothesis that Apollo Iatros was worshiped in Phanagoria only after the inclusion of it in the Spartokidai state at the end of Vth century BC. The dedication of Aphrodite is incised in the graffito № 5 (the first half of V century BC). It denotes that a temple of Aphrodite acted apparently in the acropolis of Phanagoria in V century BC. Only ceramic inscriptions (graffiti №№ 7, 8, 9) inform of a worship of Hermes in the early Phanagoria. So, it is impossible to suspect an existence of Hermes temple in the city in the Classical period. Hermes Agaphos was worshiped in "Southern City" – a trade and handcraft part in the early Phanagoria. This epithet of the deity is found only in the early inscriptions from Panticapaeum and Phanagoria. Graffiti №№ 3, 4, 11 are votive inscriptions cut out in offerings (vases) to some deities. They correspond to the formulas in dedicated inscriptions of the VIth - the first half of Vth centuries BC in the cities of the ancient Mediterranean, which were allocated to M. Lazarini. Graffiti № 3 mentions a name of Naikas (Ναϊκᾶς). This name is firstly met in anthroponomy not only of Phanagoria, but also of the Northern Black Sea. Earlier it was known only in an inscription of the Late Hellenistic time from Caria.