Μητραγύρτης
begging-priest (of Cybele)
Translated by Ross Scaife ✝7 Feb 2004Vetting: high2 revisions
Translation
Someone came into Attica and converted the women to the mother of the gods, so they say. But the Athenians killed him by tossing him into the pit on his head.1 When a plague occurred, they got an oracle that said to propitiate the murdered one. And because of this they built a council-chamber, where they killed the begging-priest, and they enclosed it and consecrated it to the mother of the gods, even erecting a statue of the begging-priest. And they began to use the Metroon as an archive and law-depository,2 after also filling in the pit.
Greek original · Adler’s text
Μητραγύρτης· ἐλθών τις εἰς τὴν Ἀττικὴν ἐμύει τὰς γυναῖκας τῇ μητρὶ τῶν θεῶν, ὡς ἐκεῖνοί φασιν. οἱ δὲ Ἀθηναῖοι ἀπέκτειναν αὐτὸν ἐμβαλόντες εἰς βάραθρον ἐπὶ κεφαλήν. λοιμοῦ δὲ γενομένου, ἔλαβον χρησμὸν ἱλάσασθαι τὸν πεφονευμένον. καὶ διὰ τοῦτο ᾠκοδόμησαν βουλευτήριον, ἐν ᾧ ἀνεῖλον τὸν μητραγύρτην, καὶ περιφράττοντες αὐτὸ καθιέρωσαν τῇ μητρὶ τῶν θεῶν, ἀναστήσαντες καὶ ἀνδριάντα τοῦ μητραγύρτου. ἐχρῶντο δὲ τῷ Μητρῴῳ ἀρχείῳ καὶ νομοφυλακείῳ, καταχώσαντες καὶ τὸ βάραθρον.
Betacode
*mhtragu/rths: e)lqw/n tis ei)s th\n *)attikh\n e)mu/ei ta\s gunai=kas th=| mhtri\ tw=n qew=n, w(s e)kei=noi/ fasin. oi( de\ *)aqhnai=oi a)pe/kteinan au)to\n e)mbalo/ntes ei)s ba/raqron e)pi\ kefalh/n. loimou= de\ genome/nou, e)/labon xrhsmo\n i(la/sasqai to\n pefoneume/non. kai\ dia\ tou=to w)|kodo/mhsan bouleuth/rion, e)n w(=| a)nei=lon to\n mhtragu/rthn, kai\ perifra/ttontes au)to\ kaqie/rwsan th=| mhtri\ tw=n qew=n, a)nasth/santes kai\ a)ndria/nta tou= mhtragu/rtou. e)xrw=nto de\ tw=| *mhtrw/|w| a)rxei/w| kai\ nomofulakei/w|, kataxw/santes kai\ to\ ba/raqron.
Notes (2)
- Same entry in Photius (mu423 Theodoridis) and similarly elsewhere. The more distant origin of this material is uncertain.
On the establishment of Athens' city archive in the Metroon (mu 1013), probably at the end of the fifth century BCE when the new council-house was built, see Rosalind Thomas, Oral Tradition and Written Record in Classical Athens (Cambridge 1989) 38-40. - 1See beta 99. ↩
- 2See mu 1013; Pollux 8.102; Hesychius s.v.
*xarw/nion . ↩
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Revision history2 revisions · last 22 May 2013
- augmented notes and keywords — David Whitehead
- modified aspects of translation; augmented notes and keywords — David Whitehead
- Translated — Ross Scaife ✝