Abstract

A letter in Ionian Greek, engraved on a baked clay tablet, which probably to the middle of the 5th century BC (likely a little earlier than 450), was found at Thasos. It was published by Natacha Trippé, and later again by Madalina Dana, as a private letter. As the text is very incompletely preserved, its interpretation is difficult. This paper offers a new possible reading and interpretation. According to his new hypothesis, the text would be an official letter through which a magistrate of the polis Thasos, a certain Euarchos, orders Echiōn, son of Artymokleēs, to celebrate the next festival of Zeus Patrōios and justifies his order (unfortunately the part of the letter containing the justification is lost). If this reading is correct, the letter is proof of the existence of a civic cult of Zeus Patrōios at Thasos. Additionally, it explains why the clay tablet was baked: the official character of the letter demanded that it be preserved permanently and unalterably. We already knew from inscriptions engraved on boundary-stones found in, or (in one case) coming from, the Thesmophorion of Thasos that some of the Thasian patrai worshipped Zeus Patrōios, i.e. “Zeus of the family”, as their god. It therefore appears that the civic community of Thasos as a whole celebrated a festival in honor of this god. The community likely saw him as the father of the great family that was the polis. This paper argues that the Thasian patrai were subsections of the phylai. The existence of the latter is shown by an inscription naming the Geleontes.