The Power of Zeus Bronton: Notes on a New Miracle Narrative

Abstract

N. Eda Akyürek Şahin and Hüseyin Uzunoğlu have recently published an interesting dedication to Zeus Bronton from the 2nd-3rd c. AD in this journal (Gephyra 23, 2022, 119-120 no. 19, with phs.). Following an attempt to further elucidate the text, this inscription is here identified as a narrative account of the power of Zeus Bronton. While the inscription finds a place in a growing number of documents about the worship of this god in Phrygia Epiktetos, it also reveals important parallels with the so-called “confession stelai” from Lydia. More broadly, the text is to be situated within a wider genre of miracle narrative—aretalogy or eulogy—that is particularly prominent in the epigraphic evidence from Anatolia.