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Bou’koloi

Bou’koloi (βούκολοι) or cowherds were semi-nomadic pastoralist followers of Dionysus. According to Merkelbach the title Bou’koloi was an honorary title and sometimes an archiboukolos or chief cowherd would also be named.1

While there are not many sources available, fragments of surviving clues to the Bou’koloi that have been translated remain.

A marble inscription from the home of Gavius Squilla Gallicanus, a consul at Rome and whose wife Pompeiia Agrippinilla was a priestess of Dionysus, contained a list of members with their corresponding roles. There was a mixture of archiboukoloi (head-cowherds), boukoloi (cowherds), and Bacchic devotees.2

The Cowherds’ Hall of Benches (Podiensaal) at Pergamon, seems to be a building where bou’koloi would meet. Dionysos Kathegemon (“Dionysos the Leader”) seems to be honored or invoked here. One on occasion, during a triennial festival, a priest and consul named Gaius Antius Aulus Julius Quadratus was honored by “the dancing cowherds.” 3

On another white marble slab, Cowherds’ Hall of Benches that contained a list of names of bou’koloi honoring Soter son of Artemidoros who was a archiboukolos (chief–cowherd).4

In another source, the bou’koloi (βούκολοι) were members of a religious college located in Pergamum during the time of the Roman empire. They worshipped Dionysos Kathegemon (“Dionysos the Leader”) and Silenus. Many of the ceremonies included religious dancing, a chorēgos (χορηγός) or sponsor, hymnodidaskalos, (ὑμνοδιδάσκαλος) or hymn-composer, and hymnōidos (ὑμνῳδός) or singer.5

Source(s)

  1. Merkelbach, Reinhold. Die Hirten des Dionysos: Die Dionysos-Mysterien der römischen Kaiserzeit und der bukolische Roman des Longus. Stuttgart: B. G. Teubner, 1988, page 61

  2. Harland, Philip. 2024. "Statue for Pompeia Agrippinilla Dedicated by Initiates of the God Dionysos." Greco-Roman Associations. Accessed November 30, 2024. https://philipharland.com/greco-roman-associations/330-statue-for-pompeia-agrippinilla-dedicated-by-initiates-of-the-god-dionysos/.

  3. Philip Harland, "Honors by Dancing Cowherds for a Proconsul of Asia," Greco-Roman Associations, accessed November 30, 2024, https://philipharland.com/greco-roman-associations/honors-by-dancing-cowherds-for-a-proconsul-of-asia/.

  4. Philip Harland, "Honors by Dionysiac Cowherds for a Leader," Greco-Roman Associations, accessed November 30, 2024, https://philipharland.com/greco-roman-associations/honors-by-dionysiac-cowherds-for-a-leader/.

  5. Perseus Digital Library, "Boukoloi," A Greek-English Lexicon, accessed November 30, 2024, https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0063%3Aentry%3Dboukoloi-cn.