Support: Sarcophagus of white marble with one long side sculpted with scenes of the myth of Phaedra and Hippolytus, whereas the very fragmented lid evokes the Mithraic religion (dimensions not registered).

Layout: Inscribed on the lid, inside a square tabula ansata between two winged Victories, who hold it (dimensions not registered); each line of script is centered along the vertical axis; three large ivy leaves are inserted, two at both ends of line 3, one between words at line 2, and also a smaller one at end of line 1.

Letters: Height unknown; ornate lettering with serifs; alpha with dropped bar, two small oblique strokes as the central bar of epsilon, diamond shape omicron, non slanting sigma.

Date: Beginning of the third century AD (context, lettering).

Findspot: Found in 2001 by the Mission of the University of Chieti at Cyrene ➚: East Necropolis, in the sepulcral chamber of a large built tomb (so-called tomb C) on the edge of the upper plateau above the Ain Hofra vale.

Place of origin: Findspot.

Last recorded location: Cyrene Museum, inv. number unknown. Seen by C. Dobias-Lalou in 2001 in Shahat: Cyrene Museum.

Text constituted from: Transcription from stone (CDL).

Apparatus

French translation

Timios, mon cher, puisses-tu être heureux même dans les demeures d'Hadès !

English translation

Timios, dear to me, might you be happy even in Hades' houses!

Italian translation

Translation source: Fabbricotti 2007

Timios, mio caro, stare bene pur nelle dimore dell'Ade!

Commentary

This hexameter is a pastiche of Homer's Χαῖρέ μοι, ὦ Πάτροκλε, καὶ εἰν Ἀΐδαο δόμοισι at Il. XXIII.19 and 179.

Menozzi and others interpreted Τείμιε as a personal name. In IGCyr Dobias-Lalou was not quite convinced and opposed the following arguments: a personal name is not impossible, as Timius is attested as a cognomen in Rome. However, in that hypothesis, the name would have replaced the vocative Πάτροκλε without further change in the original formula. For that reason, she preferred to take it as a laudatory epithet. In this view, the invocation might be addressed to any person enclosed into the sarcophagus and the inscription, being part of the ornament, might have been prepared independently of the ordering person. This would have been especially convenient if the sarcophagus was not sculpted at Cyrene. She concluded then that the question should perhaps remain open.

Struffolino 2022 now adds a decisive fact: line 1 was not cut with the same tools as the other lines. If that line was added on the sarcophagus after it was purchased, the probability that the added element is a personal name seems much higher. Struffolino also recalls that Τίμιος is related to names already in use in Cyrenaica, such as Τιμοκλῆς and the feminine Τιμώι.

The change from imperative, which is usual in addresses to the dead, to optative is no commonplace, as the former mood is normally used in epitaphs for addressing the passer-by who will read the inscription.

Catenacci – Domenicucci – Menozzi 2022 provide a detailed analysis of the iconography and its possible relations with the inscription.

Metrical analysis: a very regular dactylic hexameter. Leaves are cut at the penthemimer main caesura and at the light break inside the fifth foot.

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All citation, reuse or distribution of this work must contain a link back to DOI: https://doi.org/10.60760/unibo/igcyrgvcyr2 and the filename (IGCyr000000 or GVCyr000), as well as the year of consultation.

Images

Fig. 1. Face of gvcyr051 Funerary invocation

Maps