ISic001276: Dedicatory epigram

I.Sicily with the permission of the Assessorato Regionale dei Beni Culturali e dell’Identità Siciliana - Dipartimento dei Beni Culturali e dell’Identità Siciliana
ID
ISic001276
Language
Ancient Greek
Text type
dedication
Object type
plaque
Status
No data
Links
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Apparatus criticus

  • Text based on photographs;
  • line.1: Ferrara, Franz (from Müller), Kaibel read [Φ]οῖβον
  • lines.3-4: After ση--- and after κόσμον, Ferrara read a Κ. After κόσμον the upper end of a vertical stroke can be observed (I, K, H). Franz: ση--- | κόσμον [φιλῇ εἶναι] (after ἱδρυσάμην the name of the dedicant follows: e.g. Σή[μων Ξενίου]); Kaibel Epigr. Gr.: Σή[μων], κόσμον [ἐμῇ] πατρ[ίδι]; Kaibel IG: σηκ[ῷ τ’ ἐπὶ] | κόσμον κ[αλὸν ἔθηκα]; Korhonen: σηκ[ῷ τ’ ἐπὶ] κόσμον .[αλὸν ἔθηκα?]. Another possibility can be σηκ[ῷ τ’ ἐπὶ] κόσμον .[αλὸν ἔτευξα?]
  • line.5: Franz, Kaibel Epigr. Gr.: πατρ[ίδι]; Kaibel IG, Korhonen: πατρ--- (name of the dedicant). The traces after πατρ--- suggest Β, Γ, Ε, Ι, Κ, Μ, Ν, Π.;
  • Korhonen assumed other lines missing after line 5

Physical description

Support

Description
Four joining marble fragments of a plaque damaged in the upper left corner and below; smooth behind. Combined dimensions given below (thicker towards the upper right). A further fragment from the upper left was seen by Kaibel and Tardia before him, but now lost.
Object type
plaque
Material
marble
Condition
fragments, contiguous
Dimensions
height: 50 cm, width: 44.5 cm, depth: 1.5-2.5 cm

Inscription

Layout
Lines 1-4 are more centred, and there is a space between lines 4 and 5.
Text condition
incomplete
Lettering

Letter heights
Line 1-5: 38-45mm
Interlinear heights
Interlineation line 1 to 2: not recordedmm

Provenance

Place of origin
Catina
Provenance found
Original discovery not recorded; probably from Catania.

Current location

Place
Catania, Italy
Repository
Museo Civico di Catania , 318
Autopsy
Observed by Ferrara among the inscriptions in the house of the Giuseppe Recupero
Map

Date

3rd century or possibly 4th century CE (Korhonen) (AD 201 – AD 400)
Evidence
No data

Text type

dedication

commentary

The epigram probably accompanied a statue of Apollo. It consisted of two hexameters (Kaibel’s interpretation in Epigr. Gr. of an elegiac distichon is to be rejected), after which the name of the dedicant in prose should follow (Πατρ---). The epigram has epic echoes, such as the formula Φοῖβον ἀκερσεκόμην at l. 1 (cf. e.g. Hom. Il. 20.39, Hymn.Ap. 134) and the formula ἑκατηβόλον Ἀπόλλωνα at l. 2 (cf. e.g. Hom. Il. 1.370, 5.444, 16.711, 17.333): especially the first formula recurs in the variant Φοίβῳ ἀκειρεκόμῃ in other dedicatory epigrams on stone, cf. IG 4/2, 1 no.433 (= Epigr.ded. 212 Cougny) from Epidaurus (4th CE) and IGUR I no.102b (= Epigr.ded. 247 Cougny) from Rome (2nd-3rd CE).

The inscription is dated palaeographically to the 3rd-4th cent. CE (Manganaro’s dating to the Hellenistic age is to be rejected) and comes probably from Catania, even if the provenance is doubtful, since it was found in a group of inscriptions, of which at least one comes from Syracuse (IG 14, no.58 = ISic000875).

Bibliography

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Citation and editorial status

Editor
Jonathan Prag
Principal contributor
Jonathan Prag
Contributors
Last revision
11/8/2021