A New Thiasos from Mylasa: Thiasitai Heroistai of Ouliades, Son of Euthydemos

Abstract

This article presents a new funerary inscription on a stele from Mylasa. The stele was found in the area to the southeast of Esentepe during the sondage excavation held under the supervision of the Milas Museum in 2021. The text is the funerary inscription of 11 members of a thiasos who claimed to be buried together at the same place when they die. According to the inscription, Ouliades son of Euthydemos was heroized with divine honors after his death, and the thiasos was established in his honor. The members of the thiasos (θιασεῖται Ἡρωϊσταί) dedicated a bomos to the heros Ouliades on the street called “the street of Skorpon.” The heros Ouliades, who became the object of a cult, was the son of Euthydemos, the well-known leader of the city in the first half of the first century BC. Therefore the inscription is dated to the late first century BC - first century AD due to letter forms and prosopography.

Keywords

• Mylasa
• thiasos
• heros cult
• Ouliades son Euthydemos
• funerary inscription

Project Number

The epigraphical study on the stele was performed with the permission of the Directorate of Milas Museum, dated 16.02.2021 and numbered E-51034835-155.01-1136099.

Thanks

I would like to thank Ali Yalçın, the director of Milas Museum, and Mehmet Çelebi, the former director of Milas Museum, for the permission to study the inscription. Additionally, I am indebted to archaeologists Cemre Öztan Çetinkaya and Selçuk Karabağ, for their assistance during my studies at the Museum.

References

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