DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.800#0344
INSCRIPTIONS ON THRONES EXPLAINED.
323
We find in them two exegetae (A 4, B 5). The exegetae, in this
special signification, were expounders of sacred law and custom. Be-
sides the two here mentioned, we also hear of a third, of the race of
the Eumolpids.1 Timaeus2 says that there were three, and calls them
all TruOoxprjcTTot, or declared by the Delphic oracle. But this does not
seem to agree with what we read on the second throne of an exegetes
chosen by the people for life; unless, indeed, the election was subject
to the approval of the Pythian god. The Eupatrids at Athens, like the
Patricians at Borne, had the care of sacred things, with which they had
been intrusted by Theseus.3 According to some authorities the office
of exegetes was confined entirely to the race of the Eumolpids.4 If
that was the case, we do not see the necessity for using the word
einraTpiStov in the inscription on the throne, or m/j.6\iri8(ov in the
passage from the Lives of the Ten Orators. In the latter case, if they
were all Eumolpids, it is a tautology; in the former case it is a vague
term for the preciser one ^ivfiokinh&v, if it was necessary to use any
definition at all. From what we can gather from a comparison of these
inscriptions and passages, it would seem most probable that the exe-
getae being all Eupatrids, one was named by the Pythian oracle, one
was chosen by the people, and the third was a Eumolpid, either
claiming the office hereditarily, or being chosen by his family. The
two last may possibly have been subject to the approval of the oracle,
if the account of Timaeus be correct.
In compartment B, No. 3, we find a priest of Poseidon with the epithet
(f>vrd\fjLWi, or the nourisher. Poseidon was the god of humidity in
general, one of the principles of generation and growth.5 The Artemis
Epipyrgidia mentioned on the fourth throne of this compartment is the
three-headed Artemis or Hecate, who had a shrine on the Acropolis, near
the temple of Nike Athena. Pausanias alludes to this statue and name in
1 Mt]8fios, 6 Kai i^r]yr)rrjs e£ EifioXinSwv
yevoiievos. Vit. X. Oat. t. ix. p. 352, Reiske.
2 Lex. Platon. in voc.
3 Plut. Thes. 25. An exegetes of the
Eupatrids is named in the Corp. Inscr.
Grajc. No. 765; an exegetes of the Eu-
molpida? in No. 392.
4 Smith's Diet, of Antiquities in Exe-
geta; and Eumolpida?.
" See Plutarch, Sympcs. v. '£, and viii. 8,
pp. 688 and 914, Reiske.
y2
323
We find in them two exegetae (A 4, B 5). The exegetae, in this
special signification, were expounders of sacred law and custom. Be-
sides the two here mentioned, we also hear of a third, of the race of
the Eumolpids.1 Timaeus2 says that there were three, and calls them
all TruOoxprjcTTot, or declared by the Delphic oracle. But this does not
seem to agree with what we read on the second throne of an exegetes
chosen by the people for life; unless, indeed, the election was subject
to the approval of the Pythian god. The Eupatrids at Athens, like the
Patricians at Borne, had the care of sacred things, with which they had
been intrusted by Theseus.3 According to some authorities the office
of exegetes was confined entirely to the race of the Eumolpids.4 If
that was the case, we do not see the necessity for using the word
einraTpiStov in the inscription on the throne, or m/j.6\iri8(ov in the
passage from the Lives of the Ten Orators. In the latter case, if they
were all Eumolpids, it is a tautology; in the former case it is a vague
term for the preciser one ^ivfiokinh&v, if it was necessary to use any
definition at all. From what we can gather from a comparison of these
inscriptions and passages, it would seem most probable that the exe-
getae being all Eupatrids, one was named by the Pythian oracle, one
was chosen by the people, and the third was a Eumolpid, either
claiming the office hereditarily, or being chosen by his family. The
two last may possibly have been subject to the approval of the oracle,
if the account of Timaeus be correct.
In compartment B, No. 3, we find a priest of Poseidon with the epithet
(f>vrd\fjLWi, or the nourisher. Poseidon was the god of humidity in
general, one of the principles of generation and growth.5 The Artemis
Epipyrgidia mentioned on the fourth throne of this compartment is the
three-headed Artemis or Hecate, who had a shrine on the Acropolis, near
the temple of Nike Athena. Pausanias alludes to this statue and name in
1 Mt]8fios, 6 Kai i^r]yr)rrjs e£ EifioXinSwv
yevoiievos. Vit. X. Oat. t. ix. p. 352, Reiske.
2 Lex. Platon. in voc.
3 Plut. Thes. 25. An exegetes of the
Eupatrids is named in the Corp. Inscr.
Grajc. No. 765; an exegetes of the Eu-
molpida? in No. 392.
4 Smith's Diet, of Antiquities in Exe-
geta; and Eumolpida?.
" See Plutarch, Sympcs. v. '£, and viii. 8,
pp. 688 and 914, Reiske.
y2