The Matter of the Palmyrene 'modius'

This contribution centres on disentangling the term 'modius', which has been used to describe the Palmyrene priestly hat for almost a century. The word 'modius' has a long history, originating in a term used for an ancient unit of measure. Such measuring units were later introduced as attributes that were carried on the heads of a variety of deities, some of whom, such as Sarapis, were associated with prosperity, in the Hellenistic and Roman world. The term was introduced to describe the Palmyrene priestly hat by Harald Ingholt in 1923. Ingholt never explained what he meant by using this term in relation to the hat, which does not, in fact, resemble a modius measuring unit beyond the fact that it is cylindrical. Nonetheless all scholars concerned with Palmyrene religious iconography and the priests from Palmyra have since adopted the term, colouring the way in which the priestly hat has been perceived in scholarship. This contribution traces the research history of the term in a Palmyrene context and raises the question of why it is important to revisit terminology used by scholars, which might not have had anything to do with the ancient name given to the object.