Impiety in Epigraphic Evidence

The aim of this paper is to highlight several features of the concept of impiety (asebeia) and of its use in inscriptions. Two main types of epigraphic texts mention impiety: 1. preventive laws, where formulations such as asebes esto, asebeito and enokhos esto asebeiai have a double effect inasmuch as they categorize an offence as an impiety and, in addition, they give a culprit the status of impious and 2. reports of trials or of past wrongs. Being regarded as impious entails other consequences on the relationship between the culprit and gods but also between the culprit and the human community – the main issue being that these consequences are seldom explicitly mentioned. Moreover, instead of a single law or text defining impiety or proceedings to take place in case of impiety, there is an array of texts in which impiety appears, the sum of which forms what a community would legally recognize as an impiety.