Dion. Ein pergamenischer Politiker im Himmel

Abstract

Publication of a grave cover found in the town of modern Bergama. The slab imitates a stele crowned with a tympanum. The tympanum shows a wreath of laurel awarded the deceased by the koinon of Asia. Two of three crowns sculpted below it were awarded by the council and demos of Pergamum, while the one on the right, woven from ears of corn, was granted him by the gerousia. The merits of the deceased, whose name was Dion, are recorded in the inscriptions preserved on the lowest part of the slab. Consisting of two epigrams and an oracle of Apollo in metre, these texts describe Dion as a model councilman of his hometown. In this capacity, Dion apparently helped govern the city as wisely as Nestor in the Homeric epics and would have been pronounced truly happy even by Solon – a reference to Herodotus’ dialogue between him and Croesus. Apollo accordingly promises him eternal glory. The images of a lion and a crab shown beside the tympanum probably illustrate the notion that souls ascended to heaven upon death, an idea attested for Herakleides Pontikos, a disciple of Plato’s.