The Priest of Zeus Idrieus and Hera at Iasos and the City’s Transition from the Hekatomnid to the Hellenistic Period

The existence of a priest of Zeus Idrieus and Hera in Iasos is known from a fragmentary honorific decree issued by the institutions of the city sometime after Alexander’s conquest of Asia Minor (I.Iasos 52). This paper intends to build upon the recent debate about this document and to highlight some aspects of the ideological implications of Zeus’ epithet which have not yet been fully explored by previous studies. The epithet Idrieus helps us better appreciate the political programme developed by the Iasian pro-Macedonian elite in order to face the challenges raised by Alexander’s conquest of Karia. The unparalleled appearance of this epithet and its sudden disappearance from Iasian records can be read against this background as a religious and ideological sign of the transition from the period of the Hekatomnid dominion over Karia to the incorporation of the region in the political scenario of the Diadochi wars.