Athenian Innovation in Delian Religious Cult

From 158/7 survives on stone a list, in apparent hierarchical order, of Athenians then serving on Delos as priests of Delian cults (ID 2605). We begin our study of Athenian participation in and remodeling of Delian cults with this list because it provides not only an overview of the situation but also gives entrée to the new structure of individual cults.

1. Priest of Apollo on Delos: [- - -]s, son of Philoxenos, of Oion
2. Priest of Hestia, Demos, and Roma: [- - -g]oras, son of Nicocles, of Kropidai
3. Priest of Zeus Cynthios and Athena Cynthia: Micion, son of Acrisias, of Semachidai
4. Priest of Zeus Soter, Athena Soteira, Zeus Polieus, and Athena Polias: Ephoros, son of Nicanor, of Ptelea
5. Priest of Artemis “on the island”: Athenagoras, son of Athenagoras, of Melite
6. Priest of the Theoi Megaloi, Dioscouroi, and the Cabeiroi: Seleucos, son of Diocles, of Pergase
7. Priest of Dionysos, Hermes, and Pan: Eumenes, son of Eumenes, of Oinoe
8. Priest of Asclepios: Echos, son of Straton, of Sounion
9. Priest of Sarapis: Philocrates, son of Philocrates, of Hamaxanteia
10. Priest of Anios: Noumenios, son of Euthias, of Phyle

To the list of priests in ID 2605 were added also the sacred herald, Dionysios, son of Demanthes, of Lamptrai; the mantis, Olympiodoros, son of Cromachos, of Pallene; a flute player, Perigenes, son of Phocion, of Eupyridai; and the kleidouchos (“key bearer”), Nymphodoros, son of Nymphodoros, of Marathon.

The establishment of ten priesthoods by itself suggests the extent of systematization the Athenians employed.^[8] Among the annual ten priests of 158/7 at least seven tribes are represented. At least one tribe has two priests (Ephoros and Noumenios are both from Oineis), and the sequence of some priests in some periods follows the canonical order of tribes.^[9] The annual terms, the number ten, the distribution among the tribes, and some arranging according to the canonical order of tribes all indicate that the Athenians were bringing to bear on this religious remodeling their long-standing governmental and bureaucratic systems. This may serve as our first indication that Athenian involvement in Delian cults was tied more to administrative than to religious purposes.

To have only ten priests, some of the Delian cults had to be combined. Zeus Cynthios and Athena may already have had a combined cult, and, as we have seen (above, p. 210), the Soteriad and Poliad deities may well already have been identified, but first under the Athenians do we have attested one cult and one priest for them. Also first under the Athenians are Hermes and Pan united with Dionysos, and the Dioscouroi and Cabeiroi joined with the Theoi Megaloi (“Great Gods”) of Samothrace. The latter consolidation in particular is our earliest clear example of what will become common on Delos and what is taken to be a characteristic of Hellenistic religion: that is, syncretism, the blending of deities of quite different origins but of similar functions into one cult.

Our investigation of Athenian Delos is greatly facilitated by Pierre Roussel’s excellent study Délos colonie Athénienne (1916) and by Philippe Bruneau’s work (1970). With them as our guides we now survey, in the hierarchical order of the priesthoods, changes that Athenians made to the cults they “inherited” on Delos. I also add the results of our own study of the dedications made to the various gods in order to indicate the amount and nature of Athenian participation in these cults.

1. Delian Apollo (Roussel, 206–15; Bruneau, 15–114)

Apart from installing their own fellow citizens as the annual priests for Delian Apollo, the Athenians probably continued many of the traditional practices of this most prestigious and profitable cult. They managed the annual celebration of the Apollonia, but now, for the first time, we have attested for it participation of resident foreigners and of foreign religious associations. In a sense all the inhabitants of Delos were now foreigners (i.e., non-Delians), and the Athenians could hardly stage a major festival with only their fellow citizens. Necessity thus promoted foreign participation, but it is also characteristic of the Athenians on Delos that in religious affairs they welcomed foreigners, even into cults that had once been exclusive to the Delians. For obvious reasons the Athenians were less inclined to maintain the exclusivity of Delian cults than they were to maintain that of their own cults back home. The model for the new Apollonia was probably the Athenian Panathenaia, which was designed to include and provide roles for all members of the community. The Athenians essentially made the Apollonia a Panapollonia.

By 158/7 the Athenians had also appended an Athenaia to the Apollonia. The new Athenaia, probably held concurrently with the Apollonia, included a sacrifice and a torch race, and it is indicative of Athenian attempts throughout Delian cult to promote their patroness, a deity who had been, as we have seen, of limited importance to the Delians themselves.

For Apollo himself the Athenians also reestablished the Delia, which they had instituted in 426 but which had since probably lapsed. The new, now annual Delia included contests and the horse race that had been part of the original Delia. Athenian theōroi, called Deliastai, traveled from Athens to Delos to participate. The renewed festival would recall the glory of classical Athens and was surely intended, at least in part, to reassert what the Athenians no doubt thought to be their traditional suzerainty over the island.^[10]

During the Athenian period Apollo, as head of the Delian triad of Apollo, Artemis, and Leto, received hundreds, probably thousands of dedications. On a dedication he alone might be named or he might be joined with his sister and mother. Many, if not most, of these dedications were statues.^[11] The dedicators erected statues of the humans they wished to honor and dedicated them to Apollo or the Delian triad.

Among the honorees were kings of Egypt, Syria, Pontus, Pergamon, members of their families and staff, and friends, and these dedications were usually made by the royalty themselves, their staff, and friends.^[12] On these “royal” dedications Athenians infrequently appear as dedicators: Areios, son of Pamphilos (PA 1589), for a member of the Ptolemaic court (ID 1525); Stolos, son of Theon (PA 12909), a Ptolemaic official, honoring and being honored by a friend (1533, 1534); an Athenian honoring Antiochos IV (1541); an Athenian satrap of Demetrios I or II for his son (1544; cf. 1545); and an Athenian for Seleucos VI (1553). Athenians themselves are three times recipients of the honor: Himeros, son of Zenon (PA 7579), from a Cleopatra (1537); Apollonides, son of Theophilos, a naturalized citizen, from Attalos II (1554); and Dionysios, son of Boethos (PA 4118), from, probably, a member of the court of Mithridates V (1559). Similarly with a bronze plaque dedicated to the Delian triad, the Demos of the Athenians honored Stratonice, daughter of King Ariarathes IV of Cappadocia, for “her virtue and goodwill toward it” (1575).

By such statues dedicated to Apollo Athenians commonly honored also their own officials on the island: for example, epimelētai who held the highest administrative position,^[13]epimelētai of the market, agoranomoi, and, quite naturally, a priest of Apollo.^[14] We find also statue dedications by family members for sons who served as kleidouchoi in Apollo’s cult and for daughters who were kanēphoroi and subpriestesses of Artemis.^[15] These dedications have been occasioned by some secular or religious office held by the honoree. There are, in addition, numerous statues of apparently ordinary but no doubt prosperous Athenians dedicated to Apollo by family members. One exedra in Apollo’s sanctuary held statues of the two sons of Artemidoros, son of Hephaistion (PA 2272), and of himself, his father, and his wife, all dedicated to Apollo by Artemidoros or his sons (ID 1962). Such statuary dedications of multiple family members by Athenians are common,^[16] and to them can be added numerous single Athenian dedications: by sons for fathers, by a father for a son, by a wife for her husband, by a mother for a son, by an uncle for a nephew, and by nephews for an uncle.^[17] Athenians also used this means to honor friends and acquaintances.^[18]

The dedications to Apollo also give a taste of the religious cosmopolitanism of Delos in the period. For example, the Poseidoniastai were a koinon of merchants and shipowners devoted to the worship of Poseidon, Astarte, and Echmoun, the triad of deities of their native Beirut.^[19] The members of this foreign cult, however, in 122/1 made a large public dedication to Apollo honoring the Demos of the Athenians for “virtue and goodwill toward them” (ID 1777). And, as perhaps the best example, the banker Philostratos of Ascalon made dedications of altars to, quite naturally, Astarte (1719) and Poseidon (1720, 1721) of Ascalon for the sake of himself, his family, and his city. But, on another occasion, he presented dedications “to Apollo and the Italians” (1717, 1718). The same Philostratos was, in turn, honored by Romans with a statue dedicated to Apollo (1722, 1724) and, on another occasion, by a fellow Ascalonite, his nephew, with a statue dedicated to Zeus Cynthios and Athena Cynthia (1723), all ca. 100 B.C.^[20] What we have here is the participation of foreigners in both their national and the Delian cults. But we shall see that as private citizens Athenians, with a few major exceptions, limited themselves to Greek, Delian cults.

The dedications to Delian Apollo are the most numerous set of dedications in the Athenian period, but, in comparison to those of other cults, they seem most devoid of religious content. That these statues, plaques, and other objects were dedicated to Apollo probably meant little more than that they were to be erected in Apollo’s sanctuary and were to become part of Apollo’s sacred and inviolable property.

On some (e.g., ID 1645, 1651, 1652, 1663) even the god’s name was omitted. Among the deities Apollo was probably selected when honor was being sought generally among the whole Delian community and when neither the dedicator nor the honoree had close ties with another cult. In this time and in this place, the dedication, though made to Apollo, seemingly was intended primarily to honor the human represented by the sculpture or praised in the text, not the god.^[21] We shall see, however, in other cults on Delos in this period some signs of religious devotion to the deities themselves.

2. Hestia, Demos, and Roma (Roussel, 221–23; Bruneau, 441–46)

Hestia had been worshipped, alone, by the Delians in their Prytaneion, and the Athenian remodeling of her cult gives one of our best examples of cult being used symbolically to represent changed political circumstances. Athens had gained control of Delos by Roman intervention, and the new cult—of the Delian Hestia, the Athenian Demos, and the goddess Roma, all elevated to the second level of importance just behind Apollo—perfectly reflects political realities. A later reality appears in 103/2 and thereafter when the priest is listed only as the Priest of Roma (SEG 32.218.40, 127–28, 264–65). The Demos of this triad recalls the cult of Demos and the Charites founded in Athens in the 220s and prospering in this period (above, chapter 6, pp. 172–78). In an Athenian context, however, the goddess Roma is new. The Delian Romaia was held as early as 167/6 (ID 1950) and was probably founded, as were other Athenian “political” festivals, in genuine gratitude to powerful benefactors. The Athenians on Delos apparently participated vigorously in the Romaia, in 127/6 providing eighteen of the twenty-one hieropoioi for the festival (ID 2596); but, to judge from the surviving inscriptions, they did little else in these cults of Hestia, Demos, and Roma.^[22] Only the priest of 129/8 erected a dedication (ID 1877). Most dedications were to Roma, and these only from foreign associations and usually in their own sanctuaries (ID 1763, 1778, 1779, 2484).

3. Zeus Cynthios and Athena Cynthia (Roussel, 223–28; Bruneau, 222–32)

At the Cynthion on the summit of Mount Cynthos, before 166, Zeus Cynthios predominated, but even the nomenclature of the first attested Athenian priest suggests that from the very beginning the Athenians gave to Athena in this cult the increased prominence she was later to enjoy. The sanctuary was considerably enlarged and embellished in the second half of the second century with new terraces, entrance, exedra, and temple. Also, between 156/5 and 145/4, a single bronze statue (no doubt of Zeus) was replaced by two bronze statues of Zeus and Athena. The torch race ending at the altar of the Cynthion may also, in the Athenian period, have been that of the new Athenaia (above, p. 219).

Forty dedications attest to the prosperity of the cult in the Athenian period before the sack of Sulla, particularly at the end of the second century and the beginning of the first.^[23] At least nineteen of these are made by former priests, kleidouchoi, or other officials of the cult. One priest, Charmicos, son of Ainesias (PA 15516), dedicated a cult statue (ID 1881) and, on behalf of the Demos of the Athenians and the Demos of the Romans, a temple (1880). Another priest, Dionysios, son of Menias (PA 4229), dedicated two altars, one at his own expense on behalf of the Athenians and Romans (1882, 1883). Diophantos, son of Parnasos (PA 4431), contributed an exedra in 96/5 (1878), and the former epimelētēs of 97/6, Aristion, son of Socrates (PA 1749), at his own expense had several buildings built in the sanctuary (1817). A significant number of dedications come from foreigners: from Italy (ID 1893), Alexandria (1532), Ascalon (1723), Laodicea (2420), Seleucia on the Tigris (2429), and Gerrha (1442.A.82).

The Athenians again opened up to foreigners a cult once limited to Delian males. Some results of such inclusion may be seen in two dedications, both found in Sarapieion C: one by an Athenian (2074) to Zeus Cynthios, Athena Cynthia, Sarapis, and Isis; the other (2104) of 92/1 to Zeus Cynthios, Sarapis, and Isis. We have in these two dedications our first instance of l’orientalisation of two purely Greek deities in the cosmopolitan Delian society. Here, seemingly, devotees of the Egyptian gods have assimilated Zeus Cynthios to Sarapis and Athena Cynthia to Isis. As further evidence of this development Bruneau (231) notes the oriental style of a statue dedicated to Zeus Cynthios and Athena Cynthia (ID 2428), the formula κατὰ πρόσταγμα (“according to [the god’s] command”), characteristic of oriental dedications (2104, 2424), and the Egyptian structure (with priest, zakoros, and kleidouchos) of the cult personnel. The datable oriental features are relatively late, all after ca. 125 B.C. Zeus Cynthios as a “summit” deity may well have appealed also to the oriental worshippers of Ba’al, who had neighboring sanctuaries on Mount Cynthos. The process on Delos was thus not only the acceptance of foreign cults by Athenians but also a transformation of the understanding of a Greek deity under the influence of foreign cults, even for some Athenians there (ID 2074).^[24]

A cult regulation (ID 2529), unfortunately of uncertain date but at least fifty years after the Athenians occupied Delos, may give tangible evidence of this orientalisation of Zeus Cynthios and Athena Cynthia. It is the reissue of a former ordinance, produced κατὰ πρόσταγμα, by the priest of the two deities, that orders that those entering “the sanctuary be with pure hands and soul (ψυχῇ καθαρᾷ), wear white garments and no shoes, be pure (ἁγνεύοντας) of a woman and meat, and carry with them no key, or iron finger-ring, or belt, or purse, or military weapons, and do nothing other of the things forbidden but perform their sacrifices and seek omens in their sacrifices (καλλιερεῖν) in the ancestral ways.” The provisions for strict physical purity, the dress code, and especially the demand for moral purity, the first we have met in this study, suggest that a strong oriental influence has had its effect on this cult.^[25]

4. Zeus Soter, Athena Soteira, Zeus Polieus, Athena Polias (Roussel, 228–29; Bruneau, 233–38)

The pairs Zeus Soter / Athena Soteira and Zeus Polieus/ Athena Polias are first unmistakably associated in one cult in the priest list of 158/7. In origin the Poliades were quite probably civil gods whereas the Soteres may have been linked more to specific instances of “saving” in international political affairs (cf. IG XI 559). The Poliades appear earlier (sixth century B.C.), and the Soteres are not attested until 280 (IG XI 559), about the time when Athena Soteira emerges as a partner to Zeus Soter in Athenian city cult (above, chapter 5, pp. 110–13). The Poliad deities of the Delian state may have been of slight interest to the Athenians, and by the end of the second century the priest can be denoted simply as “of Zeus Soter and Athena Soteira” (ID 2608), the pair more familiar to the Athenians from their homeland. A major task of this priest must have been the staging of a procession, and for this he selected as many as thirty young Athenian males as pompostoloi (“conductors of the procession”; ID 2607, 2608).^[26] No dedications by Athenian officials or laymen survive, and cult activity seems similar in pattern to that of Hestia, Demos, and Roma.

5. Artemis “On the Island” (Roussel, 215–21; Bruneau, 176–88, 197–201)

Before 166 this cult was probably served by a priestess who was assisted by a male neōkoros (“warden”). One would expect a priestess for Artemis,^[27] and it is probably an indication of the bureaucratic (vs. religious) orientation of the Athenian reorganization that a male priest was chosen for this service. Neither the site nor much else is known of this cult, and only one dedication survives from the Athenian period; it is not by an Athenian (ID 2374).

6. Theoi Megaloi, Dioscouroi, Cabeiroi (Roussel, 229–33; Bruneau, 379–99)

At the time of the Athenian occupation of Delos there was a Dioscourion, with its own annual ritual, and a separate sanctuary of the Theoi Megaloi and the Cabeiroi.^[28] These cults, at least in this form, had not been established in Athens, and we can see here how the Athenians coped with them. The Athenians had at home several well-established cults of the Dioscouroi and knew them as protectors of sailors from their own literature,^[29] and on Delos they combined their cult with the Samothracian Theoi Megaloi and the Cabeiroi, who had a similar function. The Athenians may have united the cults at the sanctuary of the Theoi Megaloi, which they called the Samothrakeion, and may have virtually abandoned the Dioscourion. Under the Athenians the Samothrakeion was enlarged and remodeled in the third quarter of the second century. The Dioscourion has not yet been positively identified; but in contrast to the Samothrakeion, it must have fallen into some disrepair, for near the beginning of the first century, a priest, Athenobios, probably not an Athenian, prided himself on restoring the statues of the Dioscouroi on the porch of the temple, on renewing the lapsed annual procession, and on giving the gods their traditional honors (ID 2548).^[30] Rituals there as well as artifacts needed restoration.

In this cult complex we can see, perhaps better than elsewhere, the Hellenistic process of assimilation of deities (syncretism) and an Athenian contribution to it. By 166 the Samothracian Theoi Megaloi and the Cabeiroi were probably already assimilated, but the Dioscouroi were distinct. The Athenians then, in public cult, brought the Dioscouroi into the group, and among the now heterogeneous gods gave precedence to the Theoi Megaloi. In the nomenclature of the priest, the Theoi Megaloi always occur and always come first. In organizing this priesthood the Athenians had to decide which cults to combine, which deities should have priority, and, presumably, which of the sanctuaries should form the cult center. The selected sanctuary would profit from state support, and the others could be neglected. The result was an idiosyncratic cult because only on Delos were these sets of deities combined in just this fashion.

As epimelētēs of the island in 120/19 Polemon, son of Patron (PA 11891), dedicated a building in the Samothrakeion to the Theoi Megaloi and Heracles (ID 1808; cf. 1809). In this sanctuary the Athenian priests of the Theoi Megaloi regularly erected dedications throughout the Athenian period (1898–905, 1981). One of the priests, Helianax, son of Apollodoros (PA 6403), was exceptionally active. He may have been a naturalized citizen; if so, he was the only such among the Delian priests. As priest in 102/1 he dedicated a temple and accoutrements “to the gods for whom he served as priest and to King Mithridates…on behalf of the Demos of the Athenians and the Demos of the Romans” (SEG 40.657). On this “monument of Mithridates” ^[31] Helianax dedicated a number of statues: to Antiochos VIII (1552), to Mithridates and members of his court (1563, 1569, 1574), to Ariarathes VII (1576), and to other kings (1581, 1582). He also erected a statue of his own father (1903; cf. 1902). Apart from Polemon, the epimelētēs of the island, all other Athenians erected dedications to the Theoi Megaloi as priests of the cult.^[32]

7. Dionysos, Hermes, and Pan (Roussel, 233–37; Bruneau, 295–328, 349–54, 435–38)

Before 166 Dionysos had altars and choregic monuments on Delos but, apparently, no Dionysion. The Athenians combined his cult with that of Hermes and Pan and constructed for the unified cult a new sanctuary near the theater. It included a gateway, an altar, a stoa, and both a larger and smaller temple. In 146/5 the Athenians, interestingly, purchased from sacred funds a new garment for Artemis and gave to the cult statue of Dionysos the goddess’ old garment (ID 1442.B.54–56, 1444.Aa.38). In cultic terms such a move is unprecedented and scarcely conceivable, but it has the flavor of a purely bureaucratic maneuver to provide low-cost adornment for a relatively new cult. The Athenians continued to celebrate on Delos the Dionysia and the Lenaia, both probably with dramatic competitions.^[33] One priest of the cult (ID 1907), a priest of Sarapis (2061), and other Athenians (1870, 1873) honored their daughters, as was the fashion also in Athens (above, chapter 6, pp. 198–99), for their service as kanēphoroi in these festivals. The priest of Dionysos also selected Athenian young men as pompostoloi for the festivals (ID 2609). The Athenians may well have introduced into the Delian Dionysia their own practice of announcing crowns for civic services (ID 1505.18–21, 1507.21–23). Dionysos also received dedications from the epimelētēs of 111/0, who had won victories in a dramatic competition (ID 1959), and from the epimelētēs of 110/09.^[34]

Before 166 Hermes was one of the patrons of the Delian gymnasia, and he remained that throughout the Athenian period. In 156/5 forty-one marble herms stood in the gymnasion (ID 1417.A.I.146–47), and Hermes shared with Apollo and sometimes Heracles dedications erected by winners of torch races at the Romaia (ID 1950), Theseia (1951, 1952), and Athenaia (1953), most of them ephebes.^[35] He was particularly associated with the ephebes and ephebic training, and the Hermaia as an agonistic festival included a torch race for young men from both Athens and elsewhere. For this festival in the late second century ten young men from one palaestra, again both Athenians and non-Athenians, were designated as “priests” and no doubt assisted in the sacrifice.^[36] Private, non-Athenian commercial associations made dedications to Hermes as, probably, the Roman Mercurius, often joined with Apollo and Heracles,^[37] but only one Athenian, a Dionysios, made a private dedication, on behalf of Dionysios his “professor” and his fellow students (ID 1801).

Pan shared with the Nymphs a Nymphaion near the theater from as early as the fourth century, and in 115/4 Ptolemaios, son of Ptolemaios (PA 11880), who was put in charge of the Nymphaion, dedicated from his own funds an arch and doorway, “on behalf of the Demos of the Athenians” (ID 1839). After 166 Pan’s state cult was probably centered in the new Athenian sanctuary administered by the priest of Dionysos, Hermes, and Pan. One dedication to these three gods, from 98/7, survives (ID 2400). Pan’s specific function in the Delian pantheon is not known, nor are there any obvious religious reasons for uniting Dionysos, Hermes, and Pan into one cult. Their priest, of all the Athenian priests, seems to have had the responsibility for the most heterogeneous cult.

8. Asclepios (Roussel, 237–39; Bruneau, 355–77)

After its founding in the late fourth century and initial burst of construction, Asclepios’ cult developed little. Under the Athenians there was no new construction, and, as it had under the Delians, the treasury grew slowly. An inventory (ID 1417.B.I.102–50) of 156/5 gives a good contemporary picture of this treasury as the Athenians “inherited” it: a gold ring; numerous silver phialai and cups; two censors; the gold crown worn by the cult statue; coins; a lancet; a brazier; a marble table; statues, including three Asclepioi, one marble Apollo, one Apollo holding a bow, a centaur holding torches, and three children; an ivory pyxis; and ninety-seven votive tablets. The inventory, if it lists all dedications of the past 150 years, is rather small, and it grew very little in the following decade. The Athenians had at home their own cult and annual priesthood of Asclepios, and this priesthood on Delos would have probably been the most familiar and least challenging for an Athenian. But given Athenian familiarity with Asclepios and the magnificence of his sanctuary, it is surprising that no Athenian dedications made simply to him in his sanctuary survive. A priest of Asclepios even made his dedication to Artemis Soteira (ID 1909), and another was honored by a statue dedicated to Apollo (1834). The most detailed Athenian dedication to Asclepios and gods related to him was erected in Sarapieion C (2387). The Athenians clearly turned elsewhere than the Asclepieion for their healing.

9. Sarapis (Roussel, 249–52; Bruneau, 457–66)

By contrast to that of Asclepios, the priesthood of Sarapis must have required the most ingenuity and open-mindedness on the part of its new Athenian priest.^[38] For him the deities (Sarapis, Isis, Anoubis, and, later, Harpocrates) were probably known only by name, the rituals were quite alien, and the devotees were non-Athenians.^[39] But it seems also to be the Delian cult into which the Athenian priests threw themselves most wholeheartedly and which enjoyed, under the Athenians, the most prosperity.

Sarapis and Isis were imagined as more immanent in human life than their Olympian counterparts. They are often, in dedications, addressed as “hearing” (ἐπηκόος) and “appearing” (ἐπιφανής) deities. Dedications and buildings were often given to them “as ordered” (κατὰ πρόσταγμα)—that is, presumably, as the deities commanded in a dream.^[40] Both served as healers, which may suggest a reason for the slow growth of the Asclepios cult on Delos, and Isis protected sailors. For the former role Isis was associated with Hygieia (ID 2060) and for the latter Sarapis and Isis were linked to the Dioscouroi (ID 2123). Isis, as elsewhere in the Hellenistic world, took on many epithets and roles. On Delos she was praised as “just” (δικαία), “savior” (σώτειρα), and “good” (χρηστής). She was linked with Aphrodite, the Mother of the Gods, Astarte, Nemesis, Nike, and Hygieia. In Sarapieion C, which Roussel (251) nicely terms “un véritable pandémonium,” stood dedications to Ammon, Boubastis, Osiris, Zeus Ourios, Demeter Eleusinia, Kore, Hermes, Heracles, Apallaxikakos, Asclepios, Hygieia, the Dioscouroi, and even Apollo.^[41]

The cult structure, even under the Athenians, had the oriental form: a (Athenian) priest, (often Athenian) subpriest (ὑφιερεύς), kleidouchos, zakoros (“attendant”), females serving as kanēphoros and dream interpreter, lamp bearers, and aretologists. Of the hundreds of donors to special projects in Sarapieion C at the end of the second century (ID 2614–25), only a handful, all officials, can be identified as Athenians (e.g., 2616.I.3–10, 2619.6–10). Most of the donors bear Greek names, a substantial minority are Roman, and many were quite likely freedmen and slaves. In this cult, more than in any other of the original ten priesthoods, the Athenians found themselves participating in and leading foreign religious activities of a very mixed and cosmopolitan congregation.

The Demos of the Athenians itself also dedicated several temples and buildings in Sarapieion C: one before 135 and others in 135/4, 130/29, and ca. 90 (ID 2041–43, 2045). The state also erected a large statue of Isis in 128/7 (2044).^[42] Athenian priests of the cult also contributed significantly:

-
• Athenagoras, son of Athenagoras (PA 217), of 126/5, “as ordered”: a megaron (ID 2047; cf. 2048)
• Staseas, son of Philocles (PA 12875), of 118/7: exedrai and a statue (2053, 2054)
• Hipponicos, son of Hipponicos (PA 7665), of 117/6 and his kanēphoros, Mystion, daughter of Heracleides (PA 10515): vaults, altars, and steps (2055, 2056)
• Dionysios, son of Dionysios (PA 4249), of 116/5: a spring house (2057)
• Sosion, son of Eumenes (PA 13302), of 110/09: temple and statue of Isis Nemesis along with other dedications (2038, 2062–64)
• Dionysios, son of Zenon (PA 4190), of 109/8: a gateway and pavement (2065)
• Dicaios, son of Dicaios (PA 3784), of ca. 94/3: a building, on behalf of the Athenians, Romans, Mithridates, and his own mother and father (2039; cf. 2040)

Other priests of Sarapis also made dedications to the Egyptian gods and were in turn honored by members of the cult or by their own relatives for their service.^[43]

Eight of the nearly 130 surviving private dedications to the Egyptian deities can also be attributed to Athenians.^[44] In 111/0 a father erected, for the sake of himself, his wife, and his children, a statue of his daughter who had served as a kanēphoros (ID 2125). In 92/1 the brother of a priest erected a dedication for Isis Aphrodite Dikaia (2158). In the late second century an Athenian dedicated an altar to Isis Euploia (2153), and a former epimelētēs and a priest made cash contributions (2165–66). Athenagoras, son of Athenagoras, was, as we have seen, priest in 126/5, and members of his family thereafter made gifts to the Egyptian deities (2152, 2179). This level of state, priestly, and private participation by Athenians is unparalleled among the cults of Delos, and it reflects the favor that Sarapis, Isis, and their entourage quickly found among the new masters of the island.

10. Anios (Roussel, 239–40; Bruneau, 413–30)

The Athenians, despite assigning him a priest, showed little interest in the purely Delian hero Anios. To the Delians he was Archegetes (“Founder”) and his sanctuary was the Archegesion. The Athenians had, of course, their own Founder, Athena Archegetis, and they designated the Delian hero’s sanctuary as only “that of Anios” (ID 1417.A.I.117–18). Only three dedications survive from the Athenian period, two of them by the priests of Anios (ID 1910, 1911). In the great inventory of 156/5 the only dedication listed for the sanctuary is an archaic bronze statue of Apollo, Anios’ father (ID 1417.A.I.117–18). Clearly, to the Athenians, this cult deserved its last place in the hierarchy.