I.Iasos 52 e il culto di Zeus Idrieus

This contribution presents a new edition of I.Iasos 52, a decree honouring a Iasian citizen, Theodoros son of Hegyllos, who is awarded, for his merits, among other honours, the title of priest of Zeus Idrieus. Particular attention is paid to the cult title ‘Idrieus’, which several scholars have interpreted as referring to the name of the satrap Idrieus (351/0 – 344/3 BC) and as evidence of a divine cult in his honour. There are, however, important arguments for understanding the title instead in a geographic-ethnic sense, as deriving from the Carian sub-region called Idrias, a view already expressed by Pugliese Carratelli. Even if one accepts the possibility that the satrap Idrieus and/or the founders of the cult played with the ambiguity of the epiklesis, the most important conclusion to draw would still be that Iasos, after the repression of the conspiracy against Mausolus (I.Iasos 1), had become a city deeply connected to the Hekatomnids and had for this reason become closely linked also to the Carian world. Theodoros son of Hegyllos was probably either the founder or the son of the founder of the cult; though it is also possible that he had brought it to new splendour. Since I.Iasos 52 can be dated to the decade of Alexander the Great’s rule, Theodoros must have been a member of a philo-Hecatomnid family, which had welcomed the “Carianizing” policy encouraged by the satraps: the very existence of the decree and the continued interest of Iasos in the cult after the Macedonian conquest of Caria indicate the abiding prestige of the members of the philo-Hecatomnid élite even after the Persian defeat.