CGRN 3

Fragmentary purity regulation from Kleonai

Date :

ca. 575-550 BC

Justification: lettering, cf. Jeffery LSAG, p. 148 and 150 no. 6.

Provenance

Kleonai . The precise findspot is unknown, but the general area is the Hagios Basilios village, south of the ancient city. The stone is now in the Epigraphical Museum in Athens (inv. no. 585).

Support

Black poros stone inscribed on three sides, perhaps the lower portion (?) of a quadrangular stele. The block is now heavily broken and it is unclear what original dimensions it may have had. One of the rectangular sides (D) is completely broken off.

  • Height: 38.1-38.5 cm
  • Width: 18.8-26.6 cm
  • Depth: 12.4 cm

Layout

The text is inscribed in vertical boustrophedon and runs continuously on three sides of the stone block, A-C. Lines 1-5 are on side A, 6-9 on side B (more narrow), and 10-16 on side C. The fourth side, D, is completely broken or worn away; inscribed text may have been found there as well. Jeffery LSAG, p. 148 no. 6, writes: "The wide face A, which has a modern socket for a door-post, and was evidently used as a threshold, is badly worn, but may have lost only one line (the topmost, adjoining the lost side D)." Jeffery thinks that the text "probably started in the lost top line(s) of A", but it is also possible that the contiguous side D would have contained the start of the inscription, or that this would have begun on a higher part of the stone 'stele'. Jeffery additionally notes that the inscribing has been carefully executed: "Guide-lines and a cutting-compass have been used; the circular letters are small in proportion to the rest, the legs of mu are parallel (as also in comtemporary inscriptions from Argos [...]). The triple-dot punctuation is used throughout, as at Mycenae and Argos."

Letters inscribed within register lines 3.2-3.5 cm high apart; round letters smaller, 2 cm high.

Bibliography

Edition here adapted from Dickerman and Jeffery's drawing, with a less restored version of the text.

Editions: Dickerman 1903: 147, figs. 1-3; Fraenkel IG IV 1607.

Cf. also: Roehl IIGA 70; Ziehen LGS II 50; Sokolowski LSCG 56; Jeffery LSAG, p. 148 and 150 no. 6, 405 and pl. 25.

Further bibliography: Kyparissis - Peek 1941: 200, with ph. pl. 71.

Online record: Poinikastas  website, with ref. no. 150.06.

Text


[..?..]
[..?..]τα τὀλατέριο-
ν
ἀπόβαμα ξε[..?..]
[..?..]ος εἶμεναἴνετ-
ον
ϝρέξανταα[..?..]
5[..?..] μὲ μιαρ[ὸν ε]ἶμε-
⋮] αἰ νθροπον hα[..?..]
[..?..]αντα χρε̑μα μεθ-
έν
μιαρὸν εἶμεν [..?..]
[..?..]ατον μεθὲν π++
10[..]ον εἶμενα [..?..]
[..?.. ἀνθ]ρόποι μιαρο̑ικά-
θαρσιν
δὲ εἶμεν h[..?..]
[..?.. ἀ]ποθάνοι, καθαρά-
μενον
κατὰ νόμ[ον ..?..]
15[..] π ἰαρο̑ δαμο-
τε[λέος
..?..]
[..?..]

Translation

[...] the purificatory water [...] he/there is to be [...]; having sacrificed something praiseworthy (?), [... (5) ...] let him not be polluted; if with respect to a man (?) [...] no thing: let him be polluted [...] no [... (10) ...] he/there is to be [...] if [...] impure human beings; and let there be a purification [...] in the case of a death (?), he is to be purified according to the norm [... (15) ...] from a publicly funded offering [...]

Traduction

[...] l'eau lustrale [...] il/cela sera [...]; ayant sacrifié quelque chose de louable (?), [... (5) ...] qu'il ne soit pas impur; si, quant à un homme (?) [...] aucune chose : qu'il soit impur; [...] aucun [... (10) ...] il/cela sera [...] si [...] des êtres humains impurs; et qu'une purification ait lieu [...] dans le cas d'un décès (?), qu'il soit purifié selon la norme [... (15) ...] d'une offrande financée par le peuple [...]

Commentary

This is the oldest 'cathartic' or purificatory regulation currently extant in the collection of Greek epigraphic evidence. The context and the precise character of the text remain highly unclear, as do many of the cases of the words cited. But the text does appear to follow a fairly standard formulation, which is found in Archaic laws but also more clearly observable in later documents concerned with purity. This is a conditional or 'casuistic' style, where a protasis introduces a hypothetical cause for purification (cf. here esp. lines 6 and 10: αἰ...; αἴ [κα] might also be expected), and then the apodosis resolves this case with a prescription, and a final result, i.e. "purity" (cf. here the repeated infinitives of the verb "to be", εἶμεν). More elaborate instances of this type of text are found at Selinous, CGRN 13, Face B; Kos: CGRN 148; Lato: CGRN 166; and especially at Cyrene: CGRN 99. Sokolowski copiously (and rather rashly) restores the text along these lines, but the lacunae on the lefthand side of the text are difficult to estimate and sometimes nearly impossible to restore.

Lines 1-2: The phrase τ̣ο̄̓λατε̄́ριο|ν ⋮ ἀπόβαμα appears to refer to "lustral water" for purging or driving away pollution (so LSJ s.v. IIb). It is likely that it prescribed a purificatory solution to a preceding case of impurity which is now lost in the lacuna above.

Line 3-4: At the beginning of line 3, we might have expected (με̄̀) μιαρὸν εἶμεν, "let him not (i.e. no longer) be impure", as we find elsewhere in the text; but perhaps the resulting state concluding one of the cases of impurity can be envisaged e.g. [καθαρ]ός εἶμεν. After the concluding εἶμεν, there is punctuation indicating the apparent beginning of a new clause. These traces might be taken as another instance the conditonal αἰ + a word like νητός ("heaped"), but that yields little sense. Alternatively, the only solution seems to be to read the word as αἰνετός with the following participle ϝρέξαντα, "having sacrificed something praiseworthy"; perhaps this is a qualifier for an animal, but it is unattested.

Lines 6 and 10-11: The fragment here seems to introduce further cases of potential impurity, "if...", but the sense of the accusative is not clear. The phrase seems to parallel that of lines 10-11, "if... polluted human beings" (in the nominative), which is then followed by prescription of the required purification, κά|θαρσιν δὲ εἶμεν (lines 11-12).

Lines 7-8: As in line 4, it would be nice to think that the restoration of the participle [ϝρέξ]αντα is to be envisaged here, but no certainty is possible. Perhaps the sense is that if the individual did not sacrifice anything (χρε̑̄μα με̄θ|έν), then he is to remain impure.

Lines 13-14: One envisages a death ("if he/she dies"), to be followed by a purification according to a norm. The phrase κατὰ νόμ[ον] probably refers to unrecorded custom rather than to the present document or to a specific law (in the latter cases, one might have expected κατὰ τὸν... or τόνδε νόμον).

Lines 15-16: The means for a purification here, perhaps the one in lines 13-14 performed "according to the norm", seems to be to an offering or rite (ἰαρόν) funded by the city (δαμοτελής). But we may wonder what exactly the reference point of this practice was. As with much in this lacunary document, the precise signification of these prescriptions escapes us.

Publication

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike International License 4.0 .

All citation, reuse or distribution of this work must contain somewhere a link back to the DOI (https://doi.org/10.54510/CGRN3), as well as the year of consultation (see “Home” for details on how to cite or click “Export Citation” to create a reference for this specific file).

Authors

  • Jan-Mathieu Carbon
  • Saskia Peels
  • Vinciane Pirenne-Delforge

How To Cite

Brief citation of the Greek text : CGRN 3, lines x-x.

Reference to the file as a critical study of the inscription : Jan-Mathieu Carbon, Saskia Peels et Vinciane Pirenne-Delforge, "CGRN 3: Fragmentary purity regulation from Kleonai", in Collection of Greek Ritual Norms (CGRN), 2017-, consulted on April 26, 2024. URL: http://cgrn.philo.ulg.ac.be/file/3/; DOI: https://doi.org/10.54510/CGRN3.

Full citation of the CGRN in a list of abbreviations or a bibliography is the following : Jan-Mathieu Carbon, Saskia Peels-Matthey, Vinciane Pirenne-Delforge, Collection of Greek Ritual Norms (CGRN), 2017-, consulted on April 26, 2024. URL: http://cgrn.ulg.ac.be; DOI: https://doi.org/10.54510/CGRN0.

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	    			<author>Jan-Mathieu Carbon</author>
	    			<author>Saskia Peels</author>
				<author>Vinciane Pirenne-Delforge</author></titleStmt>
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				<layoutDesc><layout><p>The text is inscribed in vertical boustrophedon and runs continuously on three sides of the stone block, A-C. Lines 1-5 are on side A, 6-9 on side B (more narrow), and 10-16 on side C. The fourth side, D, is completely broken or worn away; inscribed text may have been found there as well. Jeffery <bibl type="abbr" n="LSAG">LSAG</bibl>, p. 148 no. 6, writes: "The wide face A, which has a modern socket for a door-post, and was evidently used as a threshold, is badly worn, but may have lost only one line (the topmost, adjoining the lost side D)." Jeffery thinks that the text "probably started in the lost top line(s) of A", but it is also possible that the contiguous side D would have contained the start of the inscription, or that this would have begun on a higher part of the stone 'stele'. Jeffery additionally notes that the inscribing has been carefully executed: "Guide-lines and a cutting-compass have been used; the circular letters are small in proportion to the rest, the legs of mu are parallel (as also in comtemporary inscriptions from Argos [...]). The triple-dot punctuation is used throughout, as at Mycenae and Argos." </p>
					<p>Letters inscribed within register lines <height unit="cm">3.2-3.5</height> apart; round letters smaller, <height unit="cm">2</height>.</p>
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		<p><desc>Justification: lettering, cf. Jeffery <bibl type="abbr" n="LSAG">LSAG</bibl>, p. 148 and 150 no. 6.</desc></p>
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		<provenance><p><placeName key="Kleonai" n="Peloponnese"><ref target="http://pleiades.stoa.org/places/570361" type="external">Kleonai</ref></placeName>. The precise findspot is unknown, but the general area is the Hagios Basilios village, south of the ancient city. The stone is now in the Epigraphical Museum in Athens (inv. no. 585).</p>
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	    			<head>Bibliography</head>
<p>Edition here adapted from Dickerman and Jeffery's drawing, with a less restored version of the text.</p>
	    			
<p>Editions: 
	<bibl type="author_date" n="Dickerman 1903">Dickerman 1903</bibl>: 147, figs. 1-3; 
	Fraenkel <bibl type="abbr" n="IG IV">IG IV</bibl> 1607.</p>
	    			
<p>Cf. also: 
	Roehl <bibl type="abbr" n="IIGA">IIGA</bibl> 70; 
	Ziehen <bibl type="abbr" n="LGS II">LGS II</bibl> 50; 
	Sokolowski <bibl type="abbr" n="LSCG">LSCG</bibl> 56; 
	Jeffery <bibl type="abbr" n="LSAG">LSAG</bibl>, p. 148 and 150 no. 6, 405 and pl. 25.</p>
	    			
<p>Further bibliography: 
	<bibl type="author_date" n="Kyparissis - Peek 1941">Kyparissis - Peek 1941</bibl>: 200, with ph. pl. 71.</p>
	    			
<p>Online record: <ref target="http://poinikastas.csad.ox.ac.uk/" type="external">Poinikastas</ref> website, with ref. no. 150.06.</p>	
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					<head>Text</head>
	    				<ab>					
<lb/><gap reason="lost" extent="unknown" unit="line"/>
<lb xml:id="line_1" n="1" rend="left-to-right"/><gap reason="lost" extent="unknown" unit="character"/><orig><unclear>τ</unclear>α</orig> <name type="purification"><w lemma="ἐλατήριος"><unclear>τ</unclear>ὀλατέριο
	
<lb xml:id="line_2" n="2" rend="right-to-left" break="no"/>ν</w></name> <pc>⋮</pc> <name type="liquid"><w lemma="ἀπόβαμμα">ἀπόβαμα</w></name> <orig>ξ<unclear>ε</unclear></orig><gap reason="lost" extent="unknown" unit="character"/> 
	    					
<lb xml:id="line_3" n="3" rend="left-to-right"/><gap reason="lost" extent="unknown" unit="character"/><orig>ος</orig> <w lemma="εἰμί">εἶμεν</w> <pc>⋮</pc> <name type="animal" key="generic"><name type="quality"><w lemma="αἰνετός">αἴνε<unclear>τ</unclear>
	
<lb xml:id="line_4" n="4" rend="right-to-left" break="no"/>ον</w></name></name> <name type="sacrifice"><w lemma="ῥέζω">ϝρέξαντα</w></name> <pc>⋮</pc> <orig>α</orig><gap reason="lost" extent="unknown" unit="character"/>
	    					
<lb xml:id="line_5" n="5" rend="left-to-right"/><gap reason="lost" extent="unknown" unit="character"/> <w lemma="μή">μὲ</w> <name type="purification"><w lemma="μιαρός">μια<unclear>ρ</unclear><supplied reason="lost">ὸν</supplied></w></name> <w lemma="εἰμί"><supplied reason="lost">ε</supplied>ἶμ<unclear>ε</unclear>
	
<lb xml:id="line_6" n="6" rend="right-to-left" break="no"/><supplied reason="lost">ν</supplied></w> <supplied reason="lost"> <pc>⋮</pc></supplied> <w lemma="εἰ">αἰ</w> <name type="person"><w lemma="ἄνθρωπος">ἄ<unclear>ν</unclear>θ<unclear>ρ</unclear>οπον</w></name> h<orig>α</orig><gap reason="lost" extent="unknown" unit="character"/>
	    					
<lb xml:id="line_7" n="7" rend="left-to-right"/><gap reason="lost" extent="unknown" unit="character"/><orig>αντα</orig> <w lemma="χρῆμα">χρε̑μα</w> <w lemma="μηθείς">μεθ
	
<lb xml:id="line_8" n="8" rend="right-to-left" break="no"/>έν</w> <pc>⋮</pc> <name type="purification"><w lemma="μιαρός">μιαρὸν</w></name> <w lemma="εἰμί">εἶμεν</w> <gap reason="lost" extent="unknown" unit="character"/>			
	    					
<lb xml:id="line_9" n="9" rend="left-to-right"/><gap reason="lost" extent="unknown" unit="character"/><orig>ατον</orig> <w lemma="μηθείς">μεθὲν</w> <orig><unclear>π</unclear></orig><gap reason="illegible" quantity="2" unit="character"/>
	    					
<lb xml:id="line_10" n="10" rend="right-to-left"/><gap reason="lost" quantity="2" unit="character"/><orig>ον</orig> <w lemma="εἰμί">εἶμεν</w> <pc>⋮</pc> <w lemma="εἰ">α<unclear>ἰ</unclear></w> <gap reason="lost" extent="unknown" unit="character"/>
	    					
<lb xml:id="line_11" n="11" rend="left-to-right"/><gap reason="lost" extent="unknown" unit="character"/> <name type="person"><w lemma="ἄνθρωπος"><supplied reason="lost">ἀνθ</supplied>ρόποι</w></name> <name type="purification"><w lemma="μιαρός">μιαρο̑ι</w></name> <pc>⋮</pc> <name type="purification"><w lemma="κάθαρσις">κά
	
	<lb xml:id="line_12" n="12" rend="right-to-left" break="no"/>θαρσιν</w></name> δὲ <w lemma="εἰμί">εἶμεν</w> h<gap reason="lost" extent="unknown" unit="character"/>
	    					
<lb xml:id="line_13" n="13" rend="left-to-right"/><gap reason="lost" extent="unknown" unit="character"/> <name type="death"><w lemma="ἀποθνήσκω"><supplied reason="lost">ἀ</supplied>ποθάνοι</w></name>, <name type="purification"><w lemma="καθαίρω">καθαρά
	
<lb xml:id="line_14" n="14" rend="right-to-left" break="no"/>μενον</w></name> <pc>⋮</pc> <w lemma="κατά">κατὰ</w> <name type="authority"><w lemma="νόμος">νόμ<supplied reason="lost">ον</supplied></w></name> <gap reason="lost" extent="unknown" unit="character"/>
	    					
<lb xml:id="line_15" n="15" rend="left-to-right"/><gap reason="lost" quantity="2" unit="character"/> <w lemma="ἀπό">ἀ<unclear>π</unclear>’</w> <name type="genericOffering"><w lemma="ἱερός">ἰαρο̑</w></name> <name type="group"><w lemma="δημοτελής"><unclear>δ</unclear>αμο
	
<lb xml:id="line_16" n="16" rend="right-to-left" break="no"/>τ<unclear>ε</unclear><supplied reason="lost">λέος</supplied></w></name> <gap reason="lost" unit="character" extent="unknown"/>
	    					
<lb/><gap reason="lost" extent="unknown" unit="line"/>		
	    				</ab>
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				<div type="translation" xml:lang="eng">
					<head>Translation</head>
<p>[...] the purificatory water [...] he/there is to be [...]; having sacrificed something praiseworthy (?), [... (5) ...] let him not be polluted; if with respect to a man (?) [...]  no thing: let him be polluted [...] no [... (10) ...] he/there is to be [...] if [...] impure human beings; and let there be a purification [...] in the case of a death (?), he is to be purified according to the norm [... (15) ...] from a publicly funded offering [...]</p>
					
				</div>
				<div type="translation" xml:lang="fre">
					<head>Traduction</head>
<p>[...] l'eau lustrale [...] il/cela sera [...]; ayant sacrifié quelque chose de louable (?), [... (5) ...] qu'il ne soit pas impur; si, quant à un homme (?) [...] aucune chose : qu'il soit impur; [...] aucun [... (10) ...] il/cela sera [...] si [...] des êtres humains impurs; et qu'une purification ait lieu [...] dans le cas d'un décès (?), qu'il soit purifié selon la norme [... (15) ...] d'une offrande financée par le peuple [...]</p>
					
				</div>
					<div type="commentary">    
						<head>Commentary</head>   
<p>This is the oldest 'cathartic' or purificatory regulation currently extant in the collection of Greek epigraphic evidence. The context and the precise character of the text remain highly unclear, as do many of the cases of the words cited. But the text does appear to follow a fairly standard formulation, which is found in Archaic laws but also more clearly observable in later documents concerned with purity. This is a conditional or 'casuistic' style, where a protasis introduces a hypothetical cause for purification (cf. here esp. lines 6 and 10: αἰ...; αἴ [κα] might also be expected), and then the apodosis resolves this case with a prescription, and a final result, i.e. "purity" (cf. here the repeated infinitives of the verb "to be", εἶμεν). More elaborate instances of this type of text are found at Selinous, <ref target="http://cgrn.ulg.ac.be/CGRN_13/">CGRN 13</ref>, Face B; Kos: <ref target="http://cgrn.ulg.ac.be/CGRN_148/">CGRN 148</ref>; Lato: <ref target="http://cgrn.ulg.ac.be/CGRN_166/">CGRN 166</ref>; and especially at Cyrene: <ref target="http://cgrn.ulg.ac.be/CGRN_99/">CGRN 99</ref>. Sokolowski copiously (and rather rashly) restores the text along these lines, but the <foreign>lacunae</foreign> on the lefthand side of the text are difficult to estimate and sometimes nearly impossible to restore.</p>

<p>Lines 1-2: The phrase τ̣ο̄̓λατε̄́ριο|ν ⋮ ἀπόβαμα appears to refer to "lustral water" for purging or driving away pollution (so <bibl type="abbr" n="LSJ">LSJ</bibl> s.v. IIb). It is likely that it prescribed a purificatory solution to a preceding case of impurity which is now lost in the lacuna above.</p>

<p>Line 3-4: At the beginning of line 3, we might have expected (με̄̀) μιαρὸν εἶμεν, "let him not (i.e. no longer) be impure", as we find elsewhere in the text; but perhaps the resulting state concluding one of the cases of impurity can be envisaged e.g. [καθαρ]ός εἶμεν. After the concluding εἶμεν, there is punctuation indicating the apparent beginning of a new clause. These traces might be taken as another instance the conditonal αἰ + a word like νητός ("heaped"), but that yields little sense. Alternatively, the only solution seems to be to read the word as αἰνετός with the following participle ϝρέξαντα, "having sacrificed something praiseworthy"; perhaps this is a qualifier for an animal, but it is unattested. </p>

<p>Lines 6 and 10-11: The fragment here seems to introduce further cases of potential impurity, "if...", but the sense of the accusative is not clear. The phrase seems to parallel that of lines 10-11, "if... polluted human beings" (in the nominative), which is then followed by prescription of the required purification, κά|θαρσιν δὲ εἶμεν (lines 11-12).</p>

<p>Lines 7-8: As in line 4, it would be nice to think that the restoration of the participle [ϝρέξ]αντα is to be envisaged here, but no certainty is possible. Perhaps the sense is that if the individual did not sacrifice anything (χρε̑̄μα με̄θ|έν), then he is to remain impure.</p>

<p>Lines 13-14: One envisages a death ("if he/she dies"), to be followed by a purification according to a norm. The phrase κατὰ νόμ[ον] probably refers to unrecorded custom rather than to the present document or to a specific law (in the latter cases, one might have expected κατὰ τὸν... or τόνδε νόμον).</p>

<p>Lines 15-16: The means for a purification here, perhaps the one in lines 13-14 performed "according to the norm", seems to be to an offering or rite (ἰαρόν) funded by the city (δαμοτελής). But we may wonder what exactly the reference point of this practice was. As with much in this lacunary document, the precise signification of these prescriptions escapes us.</p>
				
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