Torre Nova (Sicily, Italy). AGRW 330 = IGUR 160 = Achille Vogliano, “La grande iscrizione bacchica del Metropolitan Museum.” American Journal of Archaeology 37 (1933) 215-31 = PHI 187794 = ID# 4194 160-70 CE
Statue base of marble with the inscription on three sides, found near Torre Nova, where a villa of Gallicanus was located. The priestess of this association, Pompeiia Agrippinilla, was the wife of Gavius Squilla Gallicanus, consul at Rome in 150 CE and proconsul of Asia in 165 CE. This family’s ancestors included Theophilos of Mytilene (friend and historian of Pompey in the mid-first century BCE) on the island of Lesbos. Many of the members of the household that participated in this association (both men and women, slaves and freedpersons) have Greek names indicating origins in Asia Minor.
The initiates (mystai) written below set this up for the priestess Agrippinilla. (List of members follows).
Description of membership list
There are about 402 members organized by roles (many other names are now missing or illegible). Here is an overview of the functionaries and roles:
- Roles mentioned in column one: 1 male “hero”; 1 female torch-bearer (dadouchos) named Kethegilla (the daughter of Agrippinilla); 7 male priests (including Gallicanus himself); 2 female priestesses; 1 male revealer of the sacred objects (hierophantēs); 2 male god-bearers (theophoroi); 1 male assistant (hypourgos) who is also described as the one who keeps order among the Silenoi (seilēnokosmos); 3 female basket-bearers (kistaphoroi); 3 male head-cowherds (archiboukoloi); and 8 male sacred cowherds (boukoloi), with the last one starting at the top of the list on column 2.
- Roles mentioned in column two: 2 male heads of the male bacchic devotees (archibassaroi); 2 male “flourishing children” (amphithaleis); 3 female winnowing-basket-bearers (liknaphoroi); 1 female phallus-bearer (phallophoros); 2 male fire-bearers (pyrphoroi); 1 male sacred official (hieromnēmōn); 1 male head of the youths (archineaniskoi); 4 female heads of the female bacchic devotees (archibassarai); 11 male cowherds (boukoloi).
- Roles listed in columns three, four, five, and six: approximately 128 members (91 men and 37 women) described simply as those wearing the special garment or “the bacchic devotees wearing the special garment” (bacchoi apo katazōseōs).
- Roles listed in columns six and seven: 46 male sacred bacchants (hieroi bacchoi)
- Roles listed in columns eight and nine: 70 legible male names, many others lost or illegible.
- Roles listed in column ten: 27 female names, likely under the role of “cave guards” (antrophylakes) mentioned at the end of column 9.
Translation by Philip Harland
Tagged: dionysos, heroes, italy, may you never thirst
