The Festival of Dionysos in Ikarion: A New Study of <em>IG</em> I³ 254

Abstract

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org. AbstrAct the long, fragmentary decree of the Attic deme Ikarion IG I 3 254 is one of the earliest and most important documents for the history of the theater. It occupies one side of a stele (Athens, NM 4883), whose other side was inscribed with a series of financial accounts (IG I 3 253). I present here a detailed study of the decree based on a physical analysis of the stele, which had been lost to scholarly knowledge for more than a century prior to 1999. I demonstrate that the original line length of the inscription was longer than has been thought, and I offer the first detailed commentary of the decree in its historical context, arguing that more can be learned from this inscription about the finances, administration, and performances of the Ikarian Dionysia.