A New Copy of the Relief of Demokratia Crowning Demos and the Question of Duplication of Document Reliefs
Olga Palagia Professor of Classical Archaeology, emerita, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens
The law against tyranny passed by the Athenian Boule in 337/6 B.C. was inscribed on a stele decorated with a relief of Demokratia crowning Demos (personifying the members of the Athenian democracy) which survives intact in the Athenian Agora. The decree stipulates that it should be inscribed on two stone stelai, one to be set up by the entrance to the Bouleuterion, the other at the Ekklesia. Only a handful of fourth-century decrees so far specify the exact locations of stelai but none mentions the duplication of the decorative relief along with the text. The discovery of a fragmentary copy of the relief of Demokratia crowning Demos prompts a new discussion of multiple copies of reliefs, especially document reliefs, which were erected at different locations.