Hierothesion

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The ancient Greek word formation Hierothesion ( ἱεροθέσιον ) is a name known only from the Kingdom of Commagene in Asia Minor for the sacred burial area of ​​members of the royal family. Of the well-known Hierothesia, one was built by King Antiochus I for his father Mithridates I Kallinikos in Arsameia on Nymphaios , another by his son Mithridates II for female relatives on Karakuş and finally the most famous again by Antiochus for himself on Nemrut Dağı . In Arsameia on the Euphrates, today's Gerger Kalesi, there is also a hierothesion, although the names of the kings buried there, at least two according to Friedrich Karl Dörner , are not known. The burial mound of Sesönk (Dikilitaş) resembles the Karakuş with three pairs of surrounding pillars, whether it also represents a hierothesion is doubted.

The word is known, among other things, from the inscription at base III in Arsameia am Nymphaios, in which Antiochus reports on the construction of the cult area there and issues precise instructions for carrying out the ordinances. Dörner translates the term as sepulkrales cult shrine.

literature

  • Friedrich Karl Dörner : The throne of the gods on the Nemrud Dağ. Kommagene - the great archaeological adventure in eastern Turkey. 2nd, expanded edition. Gustav Lübbe, Bergisch Gladbach 1987, ISBN 3-7857-0277-9 .
  • Sencer Şahın: ἱεροθέσιον " freed from the predicament of a hapax legomenon "? In: Epigraphica Anatolica 17 (1991), p. 8.