Dedication to Persephone (ISic001275)

Apparatus criticus

Text of CIG (Franz);
line.1: Περσεφόνη Franz (ap. CIG III 5649f); Kaibel (ap. IG XIV 450); Περσεφόνῃ Manganaro
line.2: βασιλὶς Franz (ap. CIG III 5649f); βασίλισ[σα Kaibel (ap. IG XIV 450); Βασιλὶς Manganaro
line.3: ΚΑΤΑΝΑ Λ Gualtherus; κατ'[ὄ]να[ρ] Manganaro

Physical description

Support

Description: Described by Gualtherus as beneath a ceramic statue 1 cubit high (with a small drawing also)
Object type: base
Object condition: No data
Dimensions: height: cm, width: cm, depth: cm

Material

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

Inscription

Layout: No data
Text condition: No data
Technique: chiselled
Pigment: No data
Lettering: Gualtherus reports rhomboid omicron alongside standard four-bar sigma and quadrate epsilon
Letter heights: Line 1: mm
Interlinear heights: Interlineation line 1 to 2: mm

Provenance

Place of origin: Catina
Provenance found: First recorded by Gualtherus 1624 as being in the 'foro Trissini', in the possession of Fancisca Caruso

Current location

Lost.

Date

Late hellenistic or Roman imperial on the basis of the letter forms reported. (150 BCE - CE 200)

Evidence: lettering

Text type

dedication

commentary

The text is lost, but recorded by Gualtherus as being on the base of a clay statue one cubit high. There is much debate in the scholarship post-Gualtherus over whether the text and statue was a forgery or genuine. Kaibel and Franz both note that the existence of such a statue, and the accompanying text, at such an early date (pre-1624) is against the idea of a forgery. On the text of line 3, Gualtherus' presentation, is entirely compatible with the proposed reading of Franz and others, of a damaged final line (a gap for the iota, the lambda-like trace being the upper part of a rhomboid omega, and a lacuna following).

Βασιλίς is a cultic epithet of Aphrodite (cf. Hesych. 284 Latte s.v. βασιλίνδα), whose cult in the form of Ἀφροδίτη Βασιλίς is attested above all at Tarentum (SEG 40.898), perhaps imported from Sparta (cf. SEG 49.412). The epithet is, however, also applied to other divine entities (such as the deified Roma: IGUR III 1262, l. 4), whereas the form βασιλίσσα, supplemented by Kaibel (ap. IG XIV 450), who assumes a lacuna to the right, is more common and is used primarily for historical queens. By contrast, Manganaro (1988, 68 n. 346) suggests that the statue was dedicated to Persephone (reading a dative in l. 1) by a woman named Βασιλίς; for the name, attested in another fourth-century AD inscription from Catania, see IMusCatania 212 (= ISic000647). L. 3 seems to refer to the ethnic: Persephone would thus be queen of the inhabitants of Catania. It is also possible that the genitive referred to the entire Catanian people, who would have been responsible for the dedication, as in I.Akrai 65. Manganaro (1988, 68 n. 346), however, read κατ’ ὄναρ, hypothesizing a dedication carried out following a dream; another imperial-period parallel from Catania is attested in BE 1962.388 (= ISic003004). On the cult for Demeter and Persephones in Catania, see Amata 2016. The only basis for dating would be the limited evidence for letterforms, with rhomboid letters attested on the island from later C2 BCE onwards.

Bibliography

Digital editions

Printed editions

Citation and editorial status

Editor

Jonathan Prag

Principal contributor