Epitaph for Quinta (ISic000648)

Apparatus criticus

line.1: Κου[ίντα(?) Manganaro
line.2: οὔνομ[α ἦν μοὶ Manganaro; οὔνομ[α μοι Kaibel
line.5: τήνδε γονεῖς κά̣[μον(?)[- - ? - -] ταφὴν(?)] Manganaro
line.7: εὔχεσθε θεῷ[- - ? - -] Manganaro; εὔχεσθε θεῷ [ὑπὲρ αὐτοῦ Kaibel
line.8: ζῆν, ἐσορᾶν ὑ̣α̣[κίνθους(?)- - ? - -] Manganaro

Physical description

Support

Description: Marble plaque, broken on the right and below; parts of top and left margin intact. Now composed of 5 rejoined fragments, but only broken in two places at the time of Orsi.
Object type: plaque
Object condition: fragments, contiguous
Dimensions: height: 28 cm, width: 18.5 cm, depth: 2.4 cm

Material

Description: marble
Type > subtype: stone.marble > unspecified

Inscription

Layout: Eight lines of Greek letters, with the first two lines slightly indented compared to the rest, and a vacat below.
Text condition: incomplete
Technique: chiselled
Pigment: No data
Lettering: Deeply incised letters, slightly elongated. Alpha is extended at the top, with straight bar; epsilon is in form of a four-bar sigma with middle bar extended to match top and bottom strokes; zeta is regular Z; theta rhomboid with full middle bar; kappa has full length arms; mu has all strokes off vertical, with the middle strokes not fully descending; omicron is rhomboid; pi has overextended crossbar; rho has rounded and closed head; sigma is regular four-bar; omega is rhomboid but open at the base.
Letter heights: Line 1-4: 14mm; Line 5-8: 12-13mm
Interlinear heights: Interlineation line 1 to 2: 10mm; Interlineation line 2 to 6: 5-7mm; Interlineation line 6 to 7: 10mm; Interlineation line 7 to 8: 6mm

Provenance

Place of origin: Catina
Provenance found: Original discovery not recorded, from the collezione Coco, Catania, now in Magazzino B, cassette 41.

Current location

Place: Siracusa, Sicilia
Repository: Museo Archeologico Regionale Paolo Orsi; 8749
Autopsy: Prag 2015-10-22; Santini 2018-09-11
Map

Date

4th century CE (CE 301 - CE 400)

Evidence: No data

Text type

funerary

commentary

This inscription is dated to the 4th century CE as the palaeography suggests and is a Christian epitaph for a woman named Quinta. The verse inscription is made up of six hexameters, as reconstructed by Manganaro (1994, 94), who offers some restorations useful to comprehend the meaning of the inscription. The deceased was Quinta, who probably died after giving birth to Primus, having suffered much (l. 4 πόλλ’ ἔπαθο̣[ν], with an epic clause – cf. e.g. Hom. Il. 9.492, 14.67, 21.82 – reused in some literary funerary epigrams: AP. 7.714 v. 5, APl. 641 v. 2) and was buried by her parents (l. 5 τήνδε γονεῖς κά̣[μον(?)- - ? - -ταφὴν(?)]). They also prayed to the prophets to let her see the hyacinths in the after-world. For the image of prayers to the prophets, see the epitaph from Edessa published by Feissel 1983, 36-37 nr. 15.

Bibliography

Digital editions

Printed editions

Discussion

Denis Feissel, « Notes d’épigraphie chrétienne (VI) », Bulletin de Correspondance Hellénique 107 (1983): 601‑18, at 36-37

Citation and editorial status

Editor

Jonathan Prag

Principal contributor