Page:On two Greek inscriptions, from Kamiros and Ialysos, in Rhodes, respectively (1878).djvu/5

This page has been validated.
ON TWO RHODIAN INRCRIPTIONS.
3

This decree orders that the κτοῖναι of the Kamireans both in the Island and on the Continent are to be inscribed on a marble stelè, and set up in the Hieron of Athena. The κτοῖναι of Chalke are not included in this order, but the people of that island may, if they think fit, also have their κτοῖναι entered in the register. Three commissioners are to be at once elected, who are to superintend the carrying out the decree, and are to contract for providing a stelè, for which the lowest tender is to be accepted. The contractor is to inscribe the κτοῖναι on the stelè, to erect it in the Hieron of Athena, and to fix it firmly all round with lead. The Treasurer is to defray the cost of all these operations. The κτοινάται or members of the κτοῖναι are to select out of these κτοῖναι a μάστρος who is to be appointed in the most holy Hieron in the κτοῖνα, according to the law of the Rhodians. These, the κτοινάται?, are to be assembled in Kamiros, in the Hieron of Athena, and on the arrival of the ἱεροποιοί are to inspect the Hiera of the Kamireans.

The first question which presents itself in this decree is, who and what are the κτοινάται and κτοῖναι. The word κτοῖναι is not found in ordinary Greek Lexicons. I had, however, inferred from the context that in this inscription it was used in the sense of a district or local division of land. Again, the mention of the μάστρος l. 14, and the ἱεροποιοί l. 17, seemed to point to some religious rites in connection with the κτοῖναι. I had already come to this conclusion, when I stumbled on the word in Hesychios, placed out of its true alphabetical order as follows:—κτύναι, ἢ κτοῖναι, χωρήσεις προγονικῶν ἱερείων ἢ δῆμος μεμερισμένος. Schmidt in his recent edition of Hesy-

A 2