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

Abstract

N. Eda Akyürek Şahin and Hüseyin Uzunoğlu have recently published an interesting dedica-tion to Zeus Bronton from the 2nd-3rd century A.D. 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, though it comes from about 200 km away and employs somewhat different vocabulary. More broadly, I argue that the text is to be situated within a wider genre of miracle narrative or aretalogy that is particularly prominent in the epigraphic evidence from Anatolia, but far from unique to it.

Keywords

• zeus bronton
• bithynia
• phrygia epiktetos
• “confession stelai”
• miracle narrative
• aretalogy
• eulogy
• zeus bronton
• bithynia
• phrygia epiktetos
• itiraf stelleri
• mucize anlatısı
• aretaloji