Support: On the wall of a rock-cut tomb, above a small niche inside room L (extent of the inscribed area w: 0.33 as from photograph).

Layout: Painted in red paint on one line above the niche.

Letters: Carefully painted letters (approximately 0.03 from photograph) with small apices, smaller omicron, non-slanting sigma; pi is written twice right-to-left.

Date: Probably second century BC (lettering).

Findspot: Inside the tomb investigated in 2006 by the team of the Chieti mission at Cyrene ➚: South Necropolis, tomb S147 Cassels, also called 'Carboncini Tomb'.

Place of origin: Findspot.

Last recorded location: Studied by Cinalli of the Chieti mission in 2006 in situ in the South Necropolis.

Text constituted from: Transcribed from photograph (CDL).

French translation

Euippion fils (ou fille?) d'Anaxéas.

English translation

Euippion son (or daughter?) of Anaxeas.

Italian translation

Euippion figlio (o figlia?) di Anaxeas.

Commentary

This inscription belongs to a special funerary device, first because it is painted; second because it is related to a niche, so small that it might have contained only the remains of a very young child, either a corpse or ashes in a small urn.

The name is puzzling, as most personal names with diminutive suffix -ιον were given to women, because of its familiar and sometimes pejorative meaning. However, there exist some instances of men's names with that suffix (see Réveilhac 2017, pp. 387-390). The careful and somewhat monumental lettering does not fit a familiar value. A diminutive value might rather be intended for an infant. As Εὔιππος reflects rather masculine interests and although the feminine Εὐίππα also exists, the dead infant was more probably a boy than a girl.

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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. View of igcyr135900 Epitaph

Maps