ISic004498: Epitaph of Aischylos
No image available
Edition
Apparatus criticus
- Text after photograph in Scerra 2018
Physical description
Support
- Description
- No data
- Object type
- stele
- Object condition
- complete
- Dimensions
- height: 97 cm, width: 55 cm, depth: 23 cm
Material
- Description
- limestone
Inscription
- Layout
- No data
- Text condition
- incomplete
- Technique
- chiselled
- Pigment
- No data
- Lettering
- No data
- Letter heights
- Line 1-3: mm
- Interlinear heights
Provenance
- Place of origin
- Hybla Heraea medium certainty
- Provenance found
- Found in Contrada San Martino, on the left bank of the Irminio, near San Giacomo (c.5km north-west of Ragusa), close to a small group of artificial rock-cut tombs.
- Map
Current location
- Place
- ,
- Repository
- Autopsy
- None
Date
Late 6th to early 5th century BCE (525 BCE - 491 BCE)- Evidence
- No data
Text type
commentary
The inscription follows a funerary formula characteristic of Greek Sicily, consisting of the name of the deceased in the genitive, the first-person verb εἰμί and the patronymic. The three lines are separated by horizontal incised rules, an unusual feature in early lapidary inscriptions, as is the spelling -ου for the long close vowel /oː/, especially given the context. The letters tend towards vertical alignment. The semicircular gamma, rho with a descending appendage and cross-shaped chi support a date between the end of the sixth and the beginning of the fifth century BCE. The slab was found close to a group of artificial rock-cut tombs and probably served as the closing slab of one of them. Scerra interprets the inscription as evidence for the adoption of Greek language and funerary practices within the indigenous settlement of Contrada San Martino.
Bibliography
- Digital editions
- TM: -
- EDR: -
- EDH: -
- EDCS: -
- PHI: -
- Printed editions
Citation and editorial status
- Editor
- Jonathan Prag
- Principal contributor
- Valentina Mignosa
- Contributors
- Last revision
- 7/31/2026