Alexander HOLLMANN Dionysos and Kadmilos on a Curse Tablet from Antioch

The tablet in question together with others was discovered by excavators from Princeton University in 1934 in a drain near the meta prima of the hippodrome at Antioch and has only recently (1998) been unrolled and deciphered. The tablet (probably late 5th - 6th c. CE) is a 61 line curse directed against the horses of the Blue faction, all thirty-six of whom are named in an impressive catalogue. The curse itself is preceded by a lengthy invocation of divine names and epithets which takes up two-thirds of the tablet. My paper will focus on a number of these divine names. In addition to the usual magical logoi and epithets of Hekate, Demeter, and Persephone which find parallels elsewhere, the tablet also mentions the names of Dionysos and Kadmilos. Dionysos is mentioned extremely rarely on magical papyri and curse tablets. In this tablet he appears in the company of among others Demeter, Zeus, Poseidon (also infrequent on magical papyri and curse tablets), and Pluto, and is also connected with the Korybantes. Kadmilos (so far unattested on a curse tablet to my knowledge) is invoked twice and in connection with two divine names (Arxieris, Arxierissa) which I suggest form, together with Kadmilos, the Megaloi Theoi of the Samothracian mysteries.