The King loves grey black

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system1988
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Location: Athens, Greece

The King loves grey black

Post by system1988 »

In 1986 in the town of Demetrias (the city founded by the Macedonian king Demetrios Poliorketes- 294 BC) an inscription of 17 lines was found.

"The text is an edict of King Philip V, issued in the yeat the Antipatros was epistates in Demetrias. The edicts prescribes that the color of the petasoi and the chlamydes of the Kynegoi of Heracles should no longer be colourful, which was the custom until then, but dark grey, according to the practice introduced by the king. "

The link for the original text of the inscription is here

http://s1246.photobucket.com/user/IamSy ... t=3&page=1

The translation of the text is the following:

Under the command of the epistates Antipatros
the hunters of Hercules wear colouful hats,
they must (change the color) in grey black
as well as their clamydes, like the king commands;
also this text must be inscribed in a stele and
be placed in the temples;



"The edict was issued in the 37th year of the reign of king Philip V, on the 24th day of the month Apellaios."

The text continues to make hypothesies and analysing who the hunters of Hercules might be, cocnluding that they were royal ephebes who, among all their other duties had "to guard the forests where royal hunts took place and the preparation of- as well as participating- in those hunts." As far as why the color had to be changed there is the possibility that the bright colors might be noticable by the wild animals.

The Demetrias is the third city of the Macedonian kingdom after the Aegae and Pella which had the royal residence for the Macedonian kings.

The translation is a crude attempt of mine and the " " parts are from the book "Inscriptions and history of Thessaly new evidence by Christian Habicht" and the article is of Babis G. Intzesiloglou. The title of the article is "The inscription of the Kynegoi of Herakles from the ancient theatre of Demetrias"

Best regards to all
Πάντες άνθρωποι του ειδέναι ορέγονται φύσει
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