Papers of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens (5.1886-1890)

90

THE CHOREGIA IN ATHENS AND AT IK ARIA.

persons from one family joined in the expense of furnishing a chorus,
and so in a private dedication called themselves victors in common
although one of their number must have been the official choregos, and
his name alone would appear on a monument of the official class.
Ergasos is a name found twice in an Eleusinian inscription of 329/8
B. c, and is probably the short form of 'Epycuricov, the name of a coun-
tryman mentioned by Aristophanes ( Vesp., 1201). The inscription
belongs to the early decades of the fourth century.

A cut of the tripod-base of inscription No. 5 is given {Figure 1) inas-
much as bases for choregic tripods which show clearly the holes for
setting in the tripod are not common, and as this base presents a few
variations from those known already. Of the tripods set up by victo-
rious choregoi at Athens no fragment of any value is known, and, to
form an idea of the shape of such tripods, we are dependent on the
innumerable instances in vase-paintings and reliefs,
on the fragments of bronze tripods found in other
parts of Greece, and on the bases for tripods which
are known. In vase-paintings and reliefs, the tripod
is usually represented without any central support,
though there are instances in which this feature
appears. The legs are commonly represented as
plain upright pieces ending in animals' feet. The

fragments of the large tripods discovered at Olympia *IG- l—Tripod-basc

i t* i i i xi i found at Ikaria. on

show no trace ot a central support, and the leo-s are J, , , ,.' .

... . ... the edge of which is

simple uprights, not ending in animals feet. The Inscription No 5

miniature tripods, however, which have been found
there, and must serve as the standard for completing the fragments of
the large ones, have, in some instances, a small central support of inter-
twining wires. The diameter of the bowl is about equal to the height
of the legs; but all these Olympian examples belong to a very early
period, and we know, from the representations on vases and reliefs, that
the ratio of proportion was ordinarily nothing like this; the diameter of
the bowls so represented would be less than half the height of the legs.

Of bases of actual tripods, two are represented in cuts by'Fabricius.32
One of these is in situ on the Akropolis behind the Propylaia, near
the fragment of wall belonging to the old Propylaia, and dates at
least from the beginning of the fifth century B. c. The three holes
for the feet of the tripod are perfectly round, but cut deeper near
the edge, leaving a kind of knob in the middle. Between the three

n Das plataische Weihgesclienk, in Jahrbuch d. deutsch. archdol. Institute, 1SS6, p. 187.