Pronouncement for the Anaitians and the Metapians

Abstract

The ϝράτρα for the Anaitians and the Metapians falls under a definite group of archaic and classical Olympian documents, which hand us some of the oracles issued by Zeus; this time, the god orders those communities (otherwise unknown and not belonging to the political community of ‘the Eleans’) to bind themselves in a reciprocal φιλία under penalty of exclusion from his altar. The decidedly imposing dictate of Olympian Zeus, absolute ruler of this φιλία, undoubtedly contradicts the image of his sanctuary as a (politically) neutral place of arbitration of conflicts between the (autonomous) communities living around it.