A New Epistomion from Sfakaki, near Rethymno

During rescue excavations by the Ephorate of Antiquities in Rethymno in the property of the IRIS Hotel Inc. in the region of Sfakaki, thirty-eight graves came to light. In the same area and to the west of this property, earlier rescue excavations in the properties of Markos Polioudakis and Michalis Pyrgaroussis revealed twenty-seven and thirty graves respectively, apparently all part of a cemetery by the seashore to the N of the modern highway. The region Sfakaki, ca 8 km east of Rethymno and 10 km north from ancient Eleutherna, is in close proximity to the archaeologically better-known sites of Stavromenos and Chamalevri, where thanks to the excavations by the Rethymno Ephorate of Antiquities extensive settlement(s) and burial sites have come to light.^[1] The area of Sfakaki-Stavromenos-Chamalevri probably constitutes the territory of an ancient city-state, whose name is uncertain, but its existence is confirmed by a 2nd century BCE inscription that refers to the institution of a city’s kosmoi who were in charge of a sanctuary’s renovation.^[2] Unfortunately, evidence from Sfakaki is still too inconclusive to support its identification with one of Eleutherna’s seaports in the north shore or some other settlement by the sea (fig. 1).

Context and Chronology. The thirty-eight graves in the property of IRIS Hotel Inc. are cut at two different levels and belong to four different types: sixteen are tile-graves, twenty-one cist-graves (fourteen simple and seven built) and one is a pit-grave (fig. 2). All graves were oriented on the E-W axis and eight extended to the eastern adjacent property where more were buried. Although most skeletal remains were found decomposed due to sea-corrosion, the deceased were in a supine position with head to the E with only one exception of a skull to the W in grave 20. Most of the grave-goods are 233 closed and small clay vessels of very few types (unguentaria, small amphorai and phialai, ladles, wine-jars, loom-weights), but also glass vessels, objects and beads, a pin, metal objects and jewelry (mainly bronze but a few of gold, iron, and lead), a number of silver and bronze coins, bone and stone objects, an obsidian flake, and an incised gold epistomion.

Based on the type of the graves and their grave-goods, the chronology for the thirty-eight graves covers the Hellenistic period to the middle of the 1st century CE, with the earliest burial belonging to the early 3rd BCE.

Grave 7 (figs. 3 and 4). Cist-grave 7 was found intact covered with limestone slabs in second use. The grave is oriented W-E measuring 2,00 m x 0,88 m. Its floor consists of the local yellowish earth and its dimensions after the excavation are 1,50 m. x 0,51 m. (east) and 0,45 m. (west). The deceased was placed in a supine position with head to the E and hands parallel to the body. The epistomion was found under the lower jaw and spinal vertebrae and must have been placed on the lips of the deceased during the burial rites (fig. 5). The deceased’s grave-goods include clay, glass and metal objects, among them: four clay bulbous unguentaria (fig. 6), similar to those found in Grave 1 of Polioudakis’ plot at Sfakaki and dated to the last quarter of the 1st century BCE and the first half of the 1st century CE;^[3] a lead pyxis with its lid (fig. 7),^[4] similar to the one from Grave 3 in Polioudakis’ plot; a pair of gold earrings with tiny fayence beads (fig. 8); a gold ring with a standing female in the type of Aphrodite Anadyomene; and the unfolded gold epistomion (figs. 9 and 10). The types of grave goods indicate that the deceased was probably a female.

The grave-goods are quite similar to the ones from Grave 1 of Polioudakis’ property wherefrom epistomion E4 and Grave I of Pyrgaroussis’ property wherefrom epistomion B12 (Grave I in Pyrgaroussis’ plot is dated to the 2nd or early 1st century BCE on the basis of its unguentaria).^[5]

Inscription (Rethymno, Archaeological Museum, inv. no. Μ 5596, fig. 10). The incised gold epistomion in the shape of the mouth is preserved in excellent condition with only minor wrinkles and tears. As can be surmised, there are no holes through which would pass a string for fastening. It is almost identical to E4, except that instead of being rounded the edges are cut as in the unincised G2,^[6] both from graves in Polioudakis’ property.

Bibliography: Tsatsaki/Flevari 2015, 348–350, figs.7–10.

Dimensions: H. 0.09 m, W. 0.052 m, Th. less than 0.001 m, LH. 0.001–0.002 m.

25 BCE–50 CE

Πλούτωνι

Φερσεφόνῃ.

(Greetings) to Plouton and Persephone.

In line 2 the spelling of Persephone’s name with iota omitted in the dative is identical to that in E4. The letters are carefully engraved, although as in E4 they appear pressed, and their shapes are similar to that of other Cretan epistomia, especially E4: rectangular epsilon, small ‘hanging’ omicron, four-bar sigma, and closed omega.^[7]

Commentary. The new epistomion is the sixth from the Sfakaki cemetery (two of them E4 and B12 incised and three unincised G2–4; see Appendix). According to the proposed classification, the new epistomion is E6, namely belongs to the category of texts in which the chaire-formula is employed or implied in addressing the Underworld deities, either Plouton or Persephone by name or epithet, or both.^[8]

This new text brings the total number of Cretan epistomia to sixteen (16) (see Appendix): ten deceased buried with an epistomion (B3–8, B13–15, E1) in the site Mnemata near the village Alphá – rougly at the midpoint of the approximately 10 km distance from Eleutherna to the north shore – were active from the 3rd to the 1st centuries BCE; and six buried with an epistomion in the cemetery at Sfakaki/Stavromenos from the late 2nd century BCE to the middle of the 1st century CE (E4, B12, E6 and the unincised G2–4).^[9] What these sixteen burials highlight in a remarkable way is that within a distance of ca 10 km north of ancient Eleutherna and in a period of three centuries the initiates in an otherwise homogeneous bachchic-orphic cult did not all conform to identical ways:^[10] ten incised ‘extracts’ of the so-called ‘Mnemosyne’– or Underworld-topography-texts (B3–8 and B13–15 from Mnemata, and B12 from Sfakaki), among which three epistomia (B6, B12, and B15) betray more or less important differences (see Appendix): whether these three ‘deviations’ from the norm of texts in category B are due to the engraver’s mistake or to the choice of text by the three deceased cannot be answered definitively; three decided not to incise anything (G2–4 from Sfakaki); and three chose the chaire-formula in addressing the Underworld deities (E1 most likely from Mnemata, and E4 and E6 from Sfakaki). The new sixth epistomion (E6) of probably a female deceased from the Sfakaki cemetery – identical to epistomion E4 of a male from the same cemetery and dated approximately to the same period (could both deceased have been from the same family?) – is a welcome addition to the ever growing orphic-dionysiac corpus of epistomia in Crete.