Months in Dorian Calendars

Abstract

determined explicitly from the limited evidence, scholars have attempted to establish the order of months by resorting to the comparative method. M. P. Nilsson, whose calendar studies are probably the most extensive of those of any living scholar, has repeatedly denied the validity of this method. For example, in Timbres Amphoriques de Lindos (Copenhagen, 1909), p. 137, he states with regard to the calendar of Rhodes, I1 n'a fait que mettre en une plus vive clarte encore, l'absence de concordance entre les diff rents calendriers doriens; nous avons done eu raison d'eviter de nous servir d'analogies tirees des calendriers etrangers. I anticipate my conclusion by stating that the evidence supports Nilsson's opinion, and dependence on the analogical method can lead to no assured results. An effort has recently been made, employing this method, to determine the order of months at Kos and at Sparta; and the Spartan calendar so determined would permit a solution of the problem of intercalation in the Athenian calendar of 423-421 B.C. studying the calendar of Kos, M. Giffler has argued: 1) position of Artamitios in the Rhodian calendar suggests a similar position for Artamitios in the Coan calendar. 2) Since Kos and Sparta share the months Artamitios and Gerastios, it is suggested that the relation of these two months was the same in both places.' Giffler's conclusions, in turn, have been considered by B. D. Meritt as affording independent testimony for intercalation in the Athenian calendar of the fifth century: In a recent note on the calendar of Kos, Milton Giffler has drawn attention to the sequence of the Doric months Gerastios and Artamitios, in that order, and I believe his suggestion sound that they must be construed in the same sequence in the calendar of Sparta.2 That the position of a month in the Rhodian calendar affords no evidence for a similar position of an homonymous month in the calendar of Kos can most easily be seen from the following table which contains those months with the exception of Artamitios which were common to Rhodes and Kos.3 The first month corresponds to the fourth in the Athenian calendar and is usually equated with October/November. NAME OF POSITION IN POSITION IN MONTH RHODIAN KOAN CALENDAR CALENDAR Theudaisios III VIII Pedageitnios IV IX Badromios V V Agrianios VIII I Hyakinthios IX VII Panamos X XI Karneios XI II Dalios XII X