Funerary inscription (ISic001293)

Apparatus criticus

Text after Alessi and Kaibel;
line.2: Alessi: ΓΛΥΚυ... and ΓΛΥκυ...
line.3: [ἔζυ]|σας sic Alessi; ἔζη]|σας Franz; χαῖρ[ε ν’ ζή]|σασ’ ἔτη
line.4: ἔτη [ὑπό Alessi
line.5: N[εοκορύτ]|ος Alessi; Εὐ]|τύχης [πατὴρ ἴδι]|ος Franz
line.6: πεπ[ρωμενυς sic Alessi; πεπ[οίηκεν Franz

Physical description

Support

Description: A marble ?plaque, damaged or otherwise defaced on the right side
Object type: plaque
Object condition: No data
Dimensions: height: cm, width: cm, depth: cm

Material

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

Inscription

Layout: No data
Text condition: incomplete
Technique: chiselled
Pigment: No data
Lettering: No data
Letter heights: Line 1: mm
Interlinear heights: Interlineation line 1 to 2: mm

Provenance

Place of origin: Catina medium certainty
Provenance found: Found several years before 1833 near to the drinking trough/fountain between the Palazzo Rizzari and Palazzo di Mazza, to the north of the porta Stesicorea
Map

Current location

Not seen since the 19th century, presumed lost.

Date

Imperial (CE 1 - CE 300)

Evidence: No data

Text type

funerary

commentary

This is an epitaph for a woman named Daphne, preceded by an invocation to the chthonic gods. The deceased is described with an attribute (ll. 2–3 γλυ[κυ]|τάτη) that is quite common, followed by a greeting and the verb ζάω in the second person singular, with a direct address to the deceased made even more effective by the greeting formula. The age has been lost in a lacuna. The final part of the epitaph is very fragmentary: Kaibel suggests lines 5-6 likely to be consolatory epithets (e.g. τύχης ... πεπρωμεν), rather than e.g. name of a male relative responsible for the building of the monument (as Alessi and Franz believed, since the first supplied at ll. 5-6 Ν[εοκορύτ]|ος πεπ[ρωμένυς, the second at ll. 4-6 Εὐ]|τύχης [πατὴρ ἴδι]|ος πεπ[οίηκεν), and notes a suggestion of Willamowitz that the final part might have been in verse (iambic trimeter), and even the whole, if the age were a single syllable (e.g. Δάφνη γλυ[κυ]|τάτη χαῖρ[ε ν´ ζή]|σασ’ ἔτη).

Bibliography

Digital editions

Printed editions

Citation and editorial status

Editor

Jonathan Prag

Principal contributor