ISic000964: Funerary inscription for Agathon
- ID
- ISic000964
- Language
- Ancient Greek
- Text type
- funerary
- Object type
- plaque
- Status
- No data
- Links
- View in current site
Edition
Apparatus criticus
Physical description
Support
- Description
- No data
- Object type
- plaque
- Material
- marble
- Condition
- No data
- Dimensions
- height: 19.7 cm, width: 38.9 cm, depth: 1.8-2.3 cm
Inscription
- Layout
- No data
- Text condition
- No data
- Letter heights
- Line 1: 5-22mm
- Interlinear heights
- Interlineation line 1 to 2: not measured
Provenance
- Place of origin
- Catina
- Provenance found
- Probably from Catania: it was in the Museo dei Benedettini before 1769 and the form and content make a Catania provenance most likely.
Current location
- Place
- Catania, Italy
- Repository
- Museo Civico di Catania , 231
- Autopsy
- Display, Voci di pietra no.31
- Map
Date
Probably 4th century CE (AD 301 – AD 400)- Evidence
- No data
Text type
commentary
The first four lines are in verse, and express ideas typical in pagan funerary inscriptions; the chi-rho symbols and the latter part of the text show that this is clearly a Christian epitaph. It is rare to mention the date of birth, especially in Greek Christian texts, and most parallels are for infants, as here. The closest parallel is the famous epitaph of Julia Florentina from Catania (now in the Louvre, Paris: Ma2994), an infant who was buried before the shrine of the martyrs, perhaps including St. Agatha. The significance of the final line of the text is debated, but it appears to be a prayer to Saint Agatha, in which case this provides the earliest contemporary evidence for the cult of St. Agatha at Catania, of similar date to that for St. Lucia at Siracusa in the epitaph for Euskia (Museo Archeologico Regionale Paolo Orsi, inv.14600).
Bibliography
- Digital editions
- Printed editions
- A. Boeckh et al., Corpus Inscriptionum Graecarum, 4 vols (Berlin: Ex Officina Academica, 1828), at 4.9475
- Association pour l’encouragement des études greques, « Bulletin épigraphique », Revue des études grecques, 1888, http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/797735566, at 1982.0506
- G. Kaibel, Inscriptiones Graecae Siciliae et Italiae, additis graecis Galliae Hispaniae, Britanniae, Germaniae inscriptionibus, Inscriptiones Graecae consilio et auctoritate Academiae Litterarum Regiae Borussicae Editae. Volumen XIV., XIV (Berlin: Georgius Reimerus, 1890), at 14.0525
- ‘Supplementum Epigraphicum Graecum’, Supplementum Epigraphicum Graecum, 1923, http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1607583, at 31.0830
- S.L. Agnello, Silloge di iscrizioni paleocristiane della Sicilia (Rome, 1953), at no.106
- Denis Feissel, « Notes d’épigraphie chrétienne (V) », Bulletin de Correspondance Hellénique 105 (1981): 483‑97, at 494 no.xv
- C. Wessel, Inscriptiones Graecae Christianae Veteres Occidentis, Inscriptiones Christianae Italiae (Bari: Edipuglia, 1989), at 1042
- Kalle Korhonen, Le iscrizioni del Museo civico di Catania : storia delle collezioni, cultura epigrafica, edizione (Helsinki: Societas Scientiarum Fennica, 2004), at 174
Citation and editorial status
- Editor
- Jonathan Prag
- Principal contributor
- Jonathan Prag
- Contributors
- Jonathan Prag
- James Cummings
- James Chartrand
- Valeria Vitale
- Michael Metcalfe
- Serena Agodi
- Simona Stoyanova
- system
- Last revision
- 1/19/2021