Support: Rectangular limestone stele (approximate dimensions estimated from photograph: w: 0.61 × h: 0.66).

Layout: Painted with red paint on two lines.

Letters: Regular letters (0.006 estimated); no serifs, horseshoe omega.

Date: Perhaps mid-fourth to mid-third century BC (lettering).

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

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: Transcription from photograph (CDL).

Apparatus

French translation

Epagô fille de Theodôros.

English translation

Epago, daughter of Theodoros.

Italian translation

Epagò, figlia di Theodoros.

Commentary

Cinalli's reading is not satisfactory because she was looking for a masculine name at the dative, which would be inconsistent with a funerary focus. In fact, the photograph allows to guess an epsilon at far left and shows as fourth letter gamma instead of the proposed pi, for there is no hasta at right. We have thus here the earliest occurrence of the woman's name Ἐπαγώι already known to us in the Roman imperial period. It is a short form of a compound name for which we know of three possibilities: Ἐπάγαθος, a well known name, which is attested in Cyrenaica in the imperial period; a hypothetical Ἐπαγομένος related to the birthday, if it one of the intercalated days (ἐπαγόμεναι) of the Greek-Egyptian calendar; or Ἐπάγατος, attested at Thera in the seventh century BC (IG XII 3, 764) and in Euboea on a coin about 170 BC. It seems impossible to choose between all three possibilities.

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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 igcyr136000 Epitaph

Maps