The Inventory SEG XXVI 139, and the Athenian Asklepieion
Part of : Τεκμήρια ; Vol.9, 2008, pages 7-16
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This paper examines an inventory found in two fragments in the Athenian Agora, published as a single document by D. Clay, identified by its editor as the inventory of a gymnasion, and dated, on palaeographical grounds, to the later second century BC (SEG XXVI 139). This inventory would be comparable to a gymnasion inventory found on Delos. The identification shows us an Athenian gymnasion peopled with images of gods, notably Asklepios, and Hermaphrodite (!), works by named and known artists. But is the identification correct? In the second fragment, I propose seeing a mention of a [Nyjnphaion, and identify this shrine of the Nymphs with the shrine known to have stood in the precinct of the shrine of Asklepios in Athens town, on the south slope of the Akropolis. The second fragment at least seems to belong to an inventory of dedications in the Asklepieion. The mention of a «balbis» in this fragment has a topographical interest: rather than the starting line of a race track in a gymnasion, it might be a remnant of a disused archaic race track on the south slope of the Akropolis- a feature earlier, and controversially, postulated by Raubitschek. The first fragment published by D. Clay might not belong to the same document.
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