ISic001388: Greek dedication to Herakles
- ID
- ISic001388
- Language
- Ancient Greek
- Text type
- dedication
- Object type
- altar
- Status
- No data
- Links
- View in current site
Edition
Apparatus criticus
- Text after Orsi 1900;
- line.1: Orsi: .Ι ΗΡΑΚΛΕΙ
Physical description
Support
- Description
- Described by Orsi as a fragment of volcanic stone with a moulding around the top, intact above, below and on the right side, but broken on the left: the description is compatible with either a votive altar or a small base for a statue or other dedication. Orsi himself observed that the form of the stone with moulding along the upper edge is compatible either with the upper part of a stele/cippus, or as part of a small edifice.
- Object type
- altar
- Material
- volcanic
- Condition
- No data
- Dimensions
- height: 45 cm, width: 25 cm, depth: cm
Inscription
- Layout
- single line of Greek letters, only partly preserved
- Text condition
- No data
- Lettering
-
- Letter heights
- Line 1: mm
- Interlinear heights
- Interlineation line 1 to 2: NAmm
Provenance
- Place of origin
- Mendolito
- Provenance found
- The stone was first reported by Torremuzza (1769, p. 269 cl. 18 nr. 39, on the basis of a report from Nicolaus Capretti), and repeated in CIG III, 5736.
Current location
Lost.
Date
A date in the period 4th — 1st century BCE seems most likely, but it is impossible to be certain in the absence of further information (400 BC – 1 BC)- Evidence
- No data
Text type
commentary
Orsi reports a left leaning vertical hasta before the I at the left margin where the stone breaks off, which as he notes could either form a Ν with the vertical which he present as an Ι or else is part of a preceding letter, either Α or Λ. Given that, as Orsi notes, this is probably the end of the name of the individual making the dedication to Herakles (which was already the intuition of Franz in CIG III, 5736), N seems simplest. Kaibel in IG XIV, 569 unnecessarily assumed that the stone was incomplete at the right end also and proposed alternative restorations of a name in the genitive such as Ἡρακλεῖ[ου]: Orsi was quite explicit, from autopsy, that (a) the stone is intact at the right end; and (b) that the surviving traces at the left were incompatible with ypsilon.
It is impossible to date this text, in the absence of further information, although it is most likely to belong to the Hellenistic period.
Orsi states that ‘si sa che proviene dal Mendolito’, but does not explain why he knows this. Libertini (1932, p. 12) attributes the stone to the site at Mendolito (along with ISic002995, with reference to Orsi); Manganaro (1961, p. 132 n. 27) and Albanese (1991, p. 546 nr. 3) attribute the stone to contrada Polichello, south of Mendolito (again with reference to Orsi), but this appears to be the result of an overhasty reading of Orsi, who explicitly distinguishes Polichello from Mendolito, and attributes this stone to Mendolito.
Bibliography
- Digital editions
- Printed editions
- Gabriele Lancillotto Castelli principe di Torremuzza, Siciliae et objacentium insularum veterum inscriptionum nova collectio (Panormus: Excudebat Cajetanus Maria Bentivenga, 1769), http://arachne.uni-koeln.de/books/Castelli1769, at 269 cl. 18 no. 39
- Gabriello Lancellotto Castelli Principe di Torremuzza, Siciliae et objacentium insularum veterum inscriptionum nova collectio prolegomenis et notis illustrata, et iterum cum emendationibus, & auctariis evulgata, 2nd (1st is 1769) (Palermo: typis regiis, 1784), http://arachne.uni-koeln.de/books/Castelli1784, at 287 cl. 18 no. 39
- A. Boeckh et al., Corpus Inscriptionum Graecarum, 4 vols (Berlin: Ex Officina Academica, 1828), at 3.5736
- 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 14.0569
- Paolo Orsi, «Frammenti epigrafici sicelioti», Rivista di storia antica 5 (1900): 39–66, at 43 no.2
- S. P. Russo, Illustrazione storico-archeologica di Adernò (Atesa, 1911), at 47
- Giacomo Manganaro, «Iscrizioni di Adrano», La Parola del Passato 16 (1961): 126–35, at 132 n.27
- R.M. Albanese Procelli, «Mendolito», in Bibliografia topografica della colonizzazione greca in Italia e nelle isole tirreniche, a c. di G. Nenci e G. Vallet, vol. 9 (Pisa: Scuola Normale Superiore, 1991), 545–61, at 546 no.3
- J.R.W. Prag, «Epigrafia», in Museo Regionale Saro Franco di Adrano. Le Collezioni Archeologiche, a c. di Gioconda Lamagna e Nicola Franceso Neri, vol. 2, 3 voll. (Palermo: Regione siciliana, 2015), 315–30, at 319-320 no. E, fig. 3
Citation and editorial status
- Editor
- Jonathan Prag
- Principal contributor
- Jonathan Prag
- Contributors
- Jonathan Prag
- James Cummings
- James Chartrand
- Valeria Vitale
- Michael Metcalfe
- system
- Simona Stoyanova
- Last revision
- 2/17/2022