Sacred Law from Ios in Homer’s Honour

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DC Field	Value
dc.identifier	ECF_article_8041
dc.title	Sacred Law from Ios in Homer’s Honour
dc.contributor.author	Tronchin Davide
dc.publisher	Edizioni Ca’ Foscari - Venice University Press, Fondazione Università Ca’ Foscari
dc.type	Research Article
dc.language.iso	it
dc.identifier.uri	http://edizionicafoscari.it/en/edizioni4/riviste/axon/2022/1/la-legge-sacra-di-ios-in-onore-di-omero/
dc.description.abstract	On the Cycladic island of Ios, an exceptional epigraphic document was unearthed, the ‘sacred law’ in Homer’s honour. Dated to the 2nd-3rd century AD, the text is inscribed on a white and blue marble stele, on whose surface two snakes are depicted crawling towards a third decorative element, interpreted as either an offering or a violet. The inscription allows us to reflect on the importance of Homer for the island of Ios, which was considered in the ancient tradition to be the death place of the Greek aoidos, and which is mentioned in ancient literature only in connection with Homer. The document therefore allows some observations on the heroic cult of poets, considered as essential in the education of a good citizen, as well as personifications of the values sung in their own verses and expressions of civic pride.
dc.relation.ispartof	Axon
dc.relation.ispartof	Vol. 6 \| Issue 1 \| June 2022
dc.issued	2022-06-20
dc.dateAccepted	2022-04-09
dc.dateSubmitted	2022-02-08
dc.identifier.issn
dc.identifier.eissn	2532-6848
dc.rights	Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License
dc.rights.uri	http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
dc.identifier.doi	10.30687/Axon/2532-6848/2022/01/006
dc.peer-review	yes
dc.subject	Epichoric Traditions
dc.subject	Heroic Cult
dc.subject	Homer
dc.subject	Sacred Law

Research Article
open access peer reviewed

Davide Tronchin Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia, Italia

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abstract

On the Cycladic island of Ios, an exceptional epigraphic document was unearthed, the ‘sacred law’ in Homer’s honour. Dated to the 2nd-3rd century AD, the text is inscribed on a white and blue marble stele, on whose surface two snakes are depicted crawling towards a third decorative element, interpreted as either an offering or a violet. The inscription allows us to reflect on the importance of Homer for the island of Ios, which was considered in the ancient tradition to be the death place of the Greek aoidos, and which is mentioned in ancient literature only in connection with Homer. The document therefore allows some observations on the heroic cult of poets, considered as essential in the education of a good citizen, as well as personifications of the values sung in their own verses and expressions of civic pride.

Published

June 20, 2022

Accepted

April 9, 2022

Submitted

Feb. 8, 2022

Language

Keywords: Homer • Sacred Law • Heroic Cult • Epichoric Traditions

permalink http://doi.org/10.30687/Axon/2532-6848/2022/01/006

Link AXON 34

Copyright: © 2022 Davide Tronchin. This is an open-access work distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction is permitted, provided that the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. The license allows for commercial use. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

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