Support: Limestone altar with two compartments, each of which having a double notch in front (w: 0.69 × h: 0.16 × d: 0.425); some traces of reddish paint; now broken into two adjacent pieces.

Layout: Inscribed on front face, in correspondence with the fore left angle of each compartment (a and b).

Letters: 0.03 to 0.04; deeply cut letters, alpha with low bar, spool-shaped zeta.

Date: Perhaps fourth century BC (lettering).

Findspot: Found in 1933 by G. Oliverio at Cyrene ➚: Sanctuary of Apollo, West of the Wall of Nicodamos.

Place of origin: Findspot.

Last recorded location: Seen by D. Morelli in 1960 at findspot in the Sanctuary of Apollo. Seen in situ by C. Dobias-Lalou in 1983 and again in 2010, when the two pieces had been detached.

Text constituted from: Transcription from stone (CDL).

French translation

(scil. Autels de) Z(- - -)(eus?)(?) et d'A(pollo?)(?).

English translation

(scil. Altars of) Z(- - -)(eus?)(?) and of A(pollo?)(?).

Italian translation

(scil. Altari di) Z(- - -)(eus?)(?) e di A(pollo?)(?).

Commentary

Morelli hesitantly suggested the expansion of the abbreviations. E. Rosamilia now points out that the names of Athena or Aphrodite would also be possible readings. The former is at some places associated with Zeus and the latter is also mentioned on some altars in the sanctuary. On the other hand, Apollo is the most important god in this sanctuary. The question should necessarily remain open.

About the clearance of the area and the discovery of the group of altars (IGCyr102800², IGCyr102900², IGCyr103000², IGCyr103200², IGCyr103300², IGCyr103400²) see Luni 2014, p. 141.

CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 Deed Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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. Left part of igcyr103430 Dedication to Zeus (and Apollo)

Fig. 2. Right part of igcyr103430 Dedication to (Zeus and) Apollo

Maps