Wiki#1582

The Stone for a List: The Delphic Decree for Aristotle and Callisthenes Read as a Material-Historical Poem, in Relation to the Peripatetic Wills (v0.2)

Sharks, Lee · 2026-09-06 · deposit #1582
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"The Stone for a List" is a reading note by Lee Sharks (v0.2, 6 September 2026) on the Delphic decree honouring Aristotle and Callisthenes for compiling the table of Pythian victors (FD III 1, 400; Syll.³ 275; Rhodes–Osborne GHI 80), read as a material-historical poem. The stone, found broken in a well at Delphi in 1895, is the only inscription naming Aristotle as the maker of a work, and the work is a list: the decree is a record of authorization for a πίναξ that was to be set up separately in the sanctuary. The note reads the object's operations — infinitives of decision that enact honour and order the list's public existence; the stoichedon grid as a meter that governs the cutter and the restoring editor alike; the two names in two cases, nominative as makers and accusative as honorands, joined by καί, which the note holds apart from the catalogue's ἤ of alternative attribution; the clause τῶν ἐξ ἀρχῆς τὸν ἀγῶνα κατασκευασάντων as an entry that gives a beginning its public name; and the stone's condition as its history, with the fall legible only in the find-spot and its motive only in Aelian's anecdote of withdrawn honours. The decree's wording is presented as reported and unverified, with two variants noted from Jacoby's testimonia. The reading is set against the Peripatetic wills as distinct provisions — Aristotle's stone vowed at Stagira; Theophrastus's image placed in the shrine, the other dedications' prior presence, the maps in the lower stoa, the premises held in common — and against Strabo's account of Apellicon's restorations. It closes on the media together: the stone names, the well locates, the anecdote explains, the editor supplies, and their conjunction produces the history read. v0.2 incorporates a second reader's corrections. Companion to Catalogues and Wills (#1581) and EA-CORPORA-12 (#1580).

Defines (2)

material-historical poem the entry names the beginning