Stephanephoros (Office)

Stephanephoros ( Greek Στεφανηφόρος , "wreath bearer") was a title in ancient Greece for a high, annually awarded priesthood , which was associated with the cultic use of wreaths .

In most of the Poleis in which the office was assigned, the Stephanephoros only had sacred tasks, which were individually designed and accordingly different in importance. In Iasos and in Smyrna it was an eponymous office, after whose annually changing holder the year was named, as was the case in Miletus , where Stephanephoros was also the chief priest of the Panhellenic important shrine of Apollo at Didyma . In Magnesia am Meander was in the middle of the 3rd century BC. The Prytanis abolished and their tasks handed over to the Stepanophoros of Artemis Leukophryne , 344 BC. A similar process took place in Priene when it became independent again in the course of the Alexanderzug .

Athenaios reports in connection with ruling philosophers about the Epicurean Lysias, who rose to the sole ruler of Tarsus by refusing to give up his office : “ He had been elected Stephanophoros by his fatherland, that is, the priest of Heracles , and he laid the Rule did not fall, but was king because of his garb, putting on a purple tunic with white stripes , putting on a magnificent cloak, wearing white laconic shoes and putting on a golden wreath of ivy. "

The nickname of the Asian Minor Apollon Stephanephoros has its origin in the office. If no successor was found for Stephen Ephorus of Didyma, symbolically the god had to take over this office. The costs associated with the office then had to be covered from the temple treasury.

literature

Karl Baus : The wreath in antiquity and Christianity. A study of the history of religion with special consideration of Tertullian (= Theophaneia . Volume 2). Hanstein, Bonn 1940 (reprint 1965).
Michael Blech: Studies on the wreath among the Greeks (= attempts at religious history and preliminary work. 38). de Gruyter, Berlin et al. 1982, ISBN 3-11-004157-X .
Georg Busolt : Greek political science. Volume 1: General presentation of the Greek state (= manual of classical antiquity in systematic presentation. With special consideration of the history and methodology of the individual disciplines. Dept. 4, Part 1). Beck, Munich 1920 (reprint. Ibid 1979, ISBN 3-406-01360-0 ).
Hans Erich Stier : Stephanephoria . In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume III A, 2, Stuttgart 1929, Col. 2341-2341.

Individual evidence

^ Georg Busolt : Greek political science. 1920, p. 499.
↑ Athenaios, Deipnosophistai 5, 215 bc. Quoted from: Angelos Chaniotis : Greek rituals of status change and their dynamics. In: Marion Steinicke, Stefan Weinfurter (eds.): Investiture and coronation rituals. Assertions of power in a cultural comparison. Böhlau, Cologne et al. 2005, ISBN 3-412-09604-0 , pp. 43-61, here p. 52, ( online ).
↑ Otto Höfer : Stephanephoros 2) . In: Wilhelm Heinrich Roscher (Hrsg.): Detailed lexicon of Greek and Roman mythology . Volume 4, Leipzig 1915, Col. 1426 f. ( Digitized version ).

[1] Georg Busolt : Greek political science. 1920, p. 499.

[2] Athenaios, Deipnosophistai 5, 215 bc. Quoted from: Angelos Chaniotis : Greek rituals of status change and their dynamics. In: Marion Steinicke, Stefan Weinfurter (eds.): Investiture and coronation rituals. Assertions of power in a cultural comparison. Böhlau, Cologne et al. 2005, ISBN 3-412-09604-0 , pp. 43-61, here p. 52, ( online ).

[3] Otto Höfer : Stephanephoros 2) . In: Wilhelm Heinrich Roscher (Hrsg.): Detailed lexicon of Greek and Roman mythology . Volume 4, Leipzig 1915, Col. 1426 f. ( Digitized version ).