ISic002955: Small altar of Zeus Soter Hieron
- ID
- ISic002955
- Language
- Ancient Greek
- Text type
- dedication
- Object type
- altar
- Status
- No data
- Links
- View in current site
Edition
Apparatus criticus
- Text from autopsy
Physical description
Support
- Description
- A small horned altar of limestone, damaged across the top from front to back between the horns. The altar has mouldings around the base and the top on all four sides, with a smooth field in between on all four faces
- Object type
- altar
- Material
- limestone
- Condition
- No data
- Dimensions
- height: 7 cm, width: 9.4 cm, depth: 4.5 cm
Inscription
- Layout
- Two lines of Greek text in the field on the front face of the altar (8.5 cm wide x 2.5 cm high)
- Text condition
- No data
- Lettering
-
- Letter heights
- Line 1-2: 5-10mm
- Interlinear heights
- Interlineation line 1 to 2: not measured
Provenance
- Place of origin
- Syracusae
- Provenance found
- Found in excavation in Giardino Spagna (1948), area of the modern Umberto I hospital, Siracusa
- Map
Current location
- Place
- Siracusa, Italy
- Repository
- Museo Archeologico Regionale Paolo Orsi , 51593
- Autopsy
- Display Sector D, case 315 no.4
- Map
Date
Second half of 3rd century BCE (content) (250 BC – 200 BC)- Evidence
- No data
Text type
commentary
Interpretation of this small altar is difficult and important. Small domestic altars of this sort are common, with the name of the divinity to which it is dedicated often in the genitive. The combination of Zeus Soter (Zeus the Saviour, a common form of Zeus; pot sherd graffiti on display in the same gallery as this altar in the Siracusa Archaeological museum attest to the existence of Zeus Soter cult in Hellenistic Syracuse; also possibly attested at Megara Hyblaea (Treziny 2018: 221)) together with the name Hieron encourages the idea that this altar reflects the existence of a ruler cult for Hieron II of Syracuse, with Hieron assimilated to Zeus Soter. The form of the letters is compatible with a third-century date. However, the presence of all three words in the genitive in this way is not typical and is awkward grammatically and lacks easy parallels. Additionally, there is no evidence for official ruler cult for Hieron II of Syracuse (see the extensive discussion in Habicht 1970 and Serrati 2008 in particular). The nature of the object (small domestic altar) together with the rather crude form of the inscription both suggest a private domestic context; however, the existence of such private veneration would more commonly be assumed on the basis of public cult.
Bibliography
- Digital editions
- TM: 284604
- EDR: 114491
- EDH: -
- EDCS: -
- PHI: -
- Printed editions
- Accademia nazionale dei Lincei, Istituto nazionale di archeologia e storia dell’arte (Italy), e Reale Accademia d’Italia, «Notizie degli scavi di antichità», Notizie degli Scavi di Antichità, 1876, http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1646037, at 208-209 ph
- Association pour l’encouragement des études greques, « Bulletin épigraphique », Revue des études grecques, 1888, http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/797735566, at 1971.0157
- Association pour l’encouragement des études greques, « Bulletin épigraphique », Revue des études grecques, 1888, http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/797735566, at 1953.0282
- ‘Supplementum Epigraphicum Graecum’, Supplementum Epigraphicum Graecum, 1923, http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1607583, at 58.1056
- ‘Supplementum Epigraphicum Graecum’, Supplementum Epigraphicum Graecum, 1923, http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1607583, at 57.0893.3
- ‘Supplementum Epigraphicum Graecum’, Supplementum Epigraphicum Graecum, 1923, http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1607583, at 56.1103.3.4
- Giacomo Manganaro, «Per la storia dei culti in Sicilia», La Parola del Passato 20, fasc. 101 (1965): 163–78, at 174-175 ph
- C. Habicht, Gottmenschentum un griechische Staedte, 2nd Aufl. (Munich, 1970), at 259-262
- C. Lehmler, Syrakus unter Agathokles und Hieron II (Frankfurt am Main: Verlag Antike, 2005), at 148-149
- Alessia Dimartino, «Per una revisione dei documenti epigrafici siracusani pertinenti al regno di Ierone II», in Guerra e pace in Sicilia e nel Mediterraneo antico (VIII-III sec. a.C.). Arte, prassi e teoria della pace e della guerra, a c. di C. Michelini, vol. 2, 2 voll., Atti Elimi V (Pisa: Edizioni della Normale, 2006), 703–17, at 710 no.3.4 fig.421
- J. Serrati, ‘A Syracusan Private Altar and the Development of Ruler-Cult in Hellenistic Sicily’, Historia 57, no. 1 (2008): 80–91.
- Henry Tréziny, Mégara Hyblaea. 7, La ville classique, hellénistique et romaine, CEFR 1/7 (Rome: École française de Rome, 2018), at 221 fig.335
Citation and editorial status
- Editor
- Jonathan Prag
- Principal contributor
- Jonathan Prag
- Contributors
- Jonathan Prag
- James Cummings
- James Chartrand
- Valeria Vitale
- Michael Metcalfe
- Simona Stoyanova
- system
- Last revision
- 1/19/2021