Support: Two non adjacent fragments of a white marble sculpted panel depicting an architrave surmounted by a Doric frieze with antefixes, possibly part of a naiskos; the left and right ends are lost; what remains is as follows: fragment a, broken off at left, right and below, has part of the metope number ii (w: 0.17 × h: 0.135 × d: 0.05); fragment b, broken off at right, has part of the frieze from metope iv to metope vii and the corresponding architrave, with a part missing at right (w: 0.44 × h: 0.19 × d: 0.05); estimated width of the complete panel at least 0.95.

Layout: Inscribed in one broken line within the metopes and in presumably four columns of two lines each on the architrave below.

Letters: 0.01; no serifs, broad alpha, slanting mu and sigma, slightly dissymmetrical nu, smaller circular letters, open omega.

Date: Late fourth or early third century BC (lettering).

Findspot: Found before 1993 in a votive depot South of Cyrene ➚: in the area of the Wadi el Aish.

Place of origin: Cyrene ➚: exact place unknown.

Last recorded location: Cyrene Museum, inv. number unknown. Seen in 1993 by C. Dobias-Lalou in Shahat: Cyrene Museum.

Text constituted from: Transcription from stone (CDL).

Apparatus

French translation

Au cours de leur télesphorie (scil. ce monument a été consacré) à A[.. ? ..]n, par [Untel fils d'Untel], Iasôn fils de Kharitimos, Pratomèdès fils de Lys[---], [Untel fils d'Untel].

English translation

During their telesphoria (scil. this monument was dedicated) to A[.. ? ..]n by [So-and-so son of So-and-so], Iason son of Charitimos, Pratomedes son of Lys[---], [So-and-so son of So-and-so].

Italian translation

Durante la loro telesphoria (scil. questo monumento è stato dedicato) ad A[.. ? ..]n [dal tale figlio del tale], da Iason figlio di Charitimos, da Pratomedes figlio di Lys[---], [dal tale figlio del tale].

Commentary

The layout of this monument looks like the dedication of the Strategeion (see IGCyr098500²) in reduced size and with inverted order of the parts of text inscribed on the metopes and the architrave.

If the model of the Strategeion was followed completely, one more metope, not inscribed, might have stood at each end. However, contra Mohamed – Reynolds – Dobias-Lalou 2007, followed at IGCyr, this would not allow two more columns of names to stay at ll. 2 and 3. On the whole, there were four (or six) dedicators for this monument. Rosamilia 2023 argues that the number of dedicants should be uneven, i.e. five, seven or nine, because the mention of Iason son of Charitimos begins under the metope corresponding to the centre of line 1. There seems to be a bias in his argument.

The god's name is far from complete and offers a difficult dilemna since the editio princeps. Either Ἀπό|λλω|νι or Ἄμ|μω|νι are possible. Apollo was eventually preferred by the first editors and again for IGCyr by C. Dobias-Lalou, because this seemed more plausible within the framework of a telesphoria. In fact, the other dedications related to the telesphoria do not mention Apollo as a recipient, except for IGCyr126800², but their findspot and Callimachus'mention of the telesphoria induce to suppose that it was especially dedicated to him. In addition, some dedications by telesphoroi mention the festivals of Karneia or Artamitia, which are related to the sanctuary of Apollo and to the two civic deities.

As a matter of fact, the votive depot of the Wadi El Aish clearly contains objects from various provenances and namely a series of items related to Ammon.The alternative possibility of that god had also been discussed and dropped by edd. prr. Now Rosamilia 2023, in relation with IGCyr109300², has new arguments for the presence of Ammon in the area. Therefore he would accept the idea of telesphorentes offering a dedication to Ammon.

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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 fragment b of igcyr108500 Dedication with telesphoria

Fig. 2. Squeezes of all fragments of igcyr108500 Dedication with telesphoria

Maps