ISic001344: Funerary inscription for Agathe

Apparatus criticus

• Lines.1-2: An eleven-point star is engraved between lines 1 and 2
  
• Line.4: The first letter on the stone is ε; in place of τε͂ς one would expect ταῖς
  
• Line.8: χάρις οὗ Kaibel, Ferrua; χάρις οὗν Agnello

Physical description

Support

Description

A circular disc of marble, with the reverse cut to form a lid or cover. It is unclear if this is original, or a sign of later reworking. There is some damage / material lost from the lower right edge.

Object type

lid or cover (of an urn?)

Material

marble

Condition

No data

Dimensions

height: 24.5 cm, width: 24.5 cm, depth: 1.5-3.9 cm

Inscription

Layout

The text is set out over nine lines, complete apart from the very ends of lines 9 and 10. Chi-rho symbols are set to the left of line two and the right of line three, and a star is set in the middle between lines one and two. There is some crowding in the final two lines. The text is approximately centred on the disc and the crowding at the end of line 8 in particular suggests that the stone was cut to this circular shape prior to engraving.

Text condition

No data

Lettering

Letter heights

Line 1-9: 8-21mm

Interlinear heights

Interlineation not recorded: mm

Provenance

Place of origin

Catina

Provenance found

Found in 1720 during excavation of the foundations of the church of S. Caterina da Siena dei Padri Domenicani, corner of via S. Agata and via Pulvirenti (the convent is now the site of the Archivio di Stato of Catania).

Map

Current location

Place

Catania, Italy

Repository

Museo Civico di Catania , 719

Autopsy

Display, Voci di pietra no.30

Map

Date

Evidence

No data

Text type

funerary

commentary

Although the text is clearly Christian, the names of the days are those of the Hebrew tradition. Both the vocabulary and the formulae are relatively unusual. Agathe (and Agathon) was a popular name in both Catania and Siracusa in the early Christian period, presumably in part at least because of the cult of Saint Agathe (see ISic000964 inv. no.231). The stone has been cut to form a cover for an urn; however, while it is possible that the cutting of the reverse is a result of later re-use, the layout of the text (see above) shows that the face of the stone was already circular before it was engraved.

Bibliography

Digital editions

• TM: 492952
• EDR: -
• EDH: -
• EDCS: 39101717
• PHI: 140841
• PHI: 316255
• PHI: 333753

Printed editions

• A. Boeckh et al., Corpus Inscriptionum Graecarum, 4 vols (Berlin: Ex Officina Academica, 1828), at 4.9476
• 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 14.0524
• Adolf Wilhelm, Beitraege zur griechischen Inschriftenkunde (Vienna: Alfred Hoelder, 1909), at 202 no.175
• ‘Supplementum Epigraphicum Graecum’, Supplementum Epigraphicum Graecum, 1923, http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1607583, at 31.0831
• S.L. Agnello, Silloge di iscrizioni paleocristiane della Sicilia (Rome, 1953), at no.46
• Denis Feissel, « Notes d’épigraphie chrétienne (V) », Bulletin de Correspondance Hellénique 105 (1981): 483‑97, at 497 n.85
• Antonio Ferrua, Note e giunte alle iscrizioni cristiane antiche della Sicilia (Vatican, 1989), at no.435
• Kalle Korhonen, Le iscrizioni del Museo civico di Catania : storia delle collezioni, cultura epigrafica, edizione (Helsinki: Societas Scientiarum Fennica, 2004), at 173

Citation and editorial status

Editor

Jonathan Prag

Principal contributor

Jonathan Prag

Contributors

• Jonathan Prag
• James Cummings
• James Chartrand
• Valeria Vitale
• Michael Metcalfe
• Serena Agodi
• system
• Simona Stoyanova

Last revision

1/19/2021