Pronouncement for the Chaladrioi and Deukalion

Abstract

The ϝράτρα for the Chaladrioi and Deukalion falls under a definite group of Elean documents, archaic and classical, that is the oracular pronouncements enacted by Olympian Zeus for the Eleans and their dependent political communities, whether allies, perioikoi, or members of an alleged Elean confederacy. The god instructs the Chaladrioi (a political community which is elsewhere unattested) to bestow on the foreign Deukalion and his descent citizenship and some distinctive privileges (isoproxeny and isodamiurgy). These privileges enable him ‘to speak in the god’s presence’, with the same authority that lies with Olympian officials and the Elean damos, and to take care of the sole Chaladrian land in Pisa, relevant to the Olympian sanctuary. This land, allocated to a new citizen receiving special honours, seems actually linked to the Olympian sanctuary – whether consecrated or not – by the pronouncement of Zeus for the first time. After the Persian Wars, Pindar and Bacchylides started to sing about Pisa as the very place of the Olympian Games and the sanctuary of Zeus reached a new level of Panhellenic renown, which was emphasised in the construction of the first temple of the god and other important building activities (such as the enlargement and partial displacement of the stadium) and surely brought about a lot of new visitors and pilgrims, in need of hosting land.