Reassessing a Late Sixth-Century Boiotian Dedication: Delphi Museum inv. no. 3078
Citation: ZPE (Bonn) 162 (2007) 99-106 (Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik)
Abstract:
This Boiotian dedication from Delphi corroborates the cultic portrait that the Boiotians used among themselves during the late sixth century, as documented specifically inside Boiotia at the Ptoion sanctuaries and also in evidence associated with the sanctuary of Athena Itonia near Koroneia. In this article the author demonstrates that at the Ptoion sanctuaries the Boiotian collective was concerned to link itself to Athena in Apolline contexts, and, as is well known, the sanctuary of Athena Itonia played a pivotal cultic role in the region from the archaic period onward; inscriptions, literary references, and pottery from both the seventh and sixth centuries attest to this relationship. That the Boiotians chose in this inscription to emphasize this very relationship with Athena at panhellenic Delphi indicates the importance of this aspect of late sixth-century Boiotian collectivity, since dedications there were highly public and surely intended for more and varied viewers than inscriptions from local sanctuaries inside Boiotia. Together this evidence offers a brief glimpse of Boiotian cultic identity which complements other recent discussions of archaic collective identity in mainland Greece.