Il culto di Zeus Agoraios nell'isola di Creta : un riesame delle attestazioni archeologiche ed epigrafiche note

The available documentation concerning the cult of Zeus of the agora – a deity usually worshipped in agorai and re- sponsible for the protection of citizens’ assemblies – on the island of Crete is of interest for at least two reasons. The first is the chronological continuity of this cult on the island, judging from the known contexts (Dreros, Gortyna, Itanos, Axos and Kantanos), which is documented from the early archaic period (late 7th century BC/early 6th cen- tury BC) to the early Roman imperial period (late 1st century AD). The second is given by the conspicuous number of oaths and dedications that are addressed to Zeus Agoraios, both in official and private spheres, as evidenced by the dedication to the deity by a private citizen named Ithaimenes, attested in the epigraph found in Kantanos. The contribution, therefore – after briefly framing the general characteristics of the Zeus Agoraios in the Greek world – aims to carry out a reconsideration of the documentation from the urban contexts of the Cretan Island where it has been possible to trace the presence of the god’s cult, in order to outline its development over the centuries, un- der the sign of temporal continuity.