Support: Two non-adjacent fragments of a white marble panel: fragm. a, broken off at top, at right and below (w: 0.21 × h: 0.24 × d: 0.05); fragm. b, broken off at top, at left and below (w: 0.045 × h: 0.16 × d: 0.05); the back of fragm. a is regularly smoothened but for a vertical strip of 0.045 about the supposed middle of the panel, which is protruding, as if intended for attachment.

Layout: Inscribed on the face (fragm. a w: 0.165 × h: 0.20).

Letters: 0.008; carefully cut with small serifs; broken-bar alpha, beta with loops that are not perfectly circular and look like a variation from kappa, oval omicron, pi with shorter right hasta, rho with very small loop, widely open upsilon, theta and omega smaller than omicron.

Date: Probably second half of third century BC (lettering).

Findspot: Found by the French mission at the Port of Cyrene, later Apollonia ➚: fragment a in 1998 as a surface find and fragment b in 2003 in excavations, below the so-called Kallikrateia Rock.

Place of origin: Probably findspot of fragment b.

Last recorded location: Apollonia Museum, Storeroom of the French Mission, not registered. Observed by C. Dobias-Lalou in 2004 and again in 2011 at Sūsah: Apollonia Museum, Storeroom of the French Mission.

Text constituted from: Transcription from stone (CDL).

Apparatus

French translation

a) [---] pesante [---] a grondé; et les [---] à travers la mer de Libye [---]; et des étrangers aux nombreux [---] deux fois ils ont voulu te [---] dans la [mer] peuplée de [poissons ---] aborder chez les dieux qui [---]; dieu, que Korônis enfanta secourable aux mortels sur terre et sur mer, [---], quant à cela, sur ma cavale, [---]; elles (scil. sont) [---] de stature, seigneur, celles-là; [---] et dissolvant le châtiment [---] tu viendras en auxiliaire de notre traversée [--- ont dé]dié [---] aux dangers [---].

b) [---] de la Grèce [---].

English translation

[---] heavy [---] roared; and the [---] through the Libyan sea [---]; and foreigners with many [---] twice they wanted to you [---] in the [sea] with many [fishes ---] to land at the gods' place who [---]; oh god, whom Koronis brought forth helpful for the mortals on land and sea, [---], as to this, upon my mare, [---]; they (scil. are) [---] in stature, lord, those; [---] and dissolving the retribution [---] you will come as auxiliary of our sailing [--- dedi]cated [---] the dangers [---].

b) [---] of Greece [---].

Italian translation

a)[---] pesante [---] mugghiò; e i [---] attraverso il mare della Libia [---]; e stranieri con molti [---] due volte vollero per te [---] nel [mare] dai molti [pesci ---] per approdare presso gli dèi che [---]; dio, soccorso per i mortali sulla terra e per mare, che Koronis generò, [---], quanto a questo, sulla mia cavalla, [---]; (scil. sono) [---] per statura, o signore, quelle; [---] e sciogliendo la pena [---] tu verrai in aiuto alla nostra navigazione [--- hanno dedi]cato [---] i pericoli [---].

b) [---] dell'Ellade [---].

Commentary

If the vertical strip at the back was intended for fixing the stone, it can be guessed from its plausible shape that the whole panel was about 0.31 wide and thus that at least one half of each line is lost. The rhythm is clearly dactylic, but no text line on fragment a may be the beginning of a verse line. Such a layout does not help to restore the lost parts.

At line 1, the adjective 'heavy' may be at any feminine case, so we leave it open.

At lines 7-8, with restorations that seem cautious enough, the son of the nymph Koronis, i.e. Asklepios, is mentioned as a saviour of humans on earth and sea. The latter role is surprising and may be related to the fact that the poem was exposed in the harbour of the city. In fact, dangers related to sailing are stressed in the preceding verses, with the mention of the Libyan sea, of the loudly roaring sea, of foreigners and of someone landing.

Both fragments were found at both ends of an area where multiple saviour gods were worshipped. The Western end, on and below Kallikrateia's rock is better known thanks to excavations made there, while no excavations took place on the acropolis. Between those points, a lot of rock-cut altars testify of cultic activities. This might explain the phrase 'landing at the gods' place'.

At l. 11, the letters are easily read, but their interpretation offers some difficulties. An ending -ταο occurs in epic language for the genitive of masculine nouns of the 1st declination. In τισιν, the first syllable should be metrically long. The dative plural of the indefinite pronoun being excluded, the accusative of the noun τίσις is more acceptable, the original short syllable being taken as long, either through a metrical lengthening and/or by confusion with τίνω, which has a long both in epic language and in the dialect. Even if so, the exact meaning of the phrase τίσιν τήκων is rather odd.

At l. 12, the god is called for help also by boarding people who implored his help for sailing. This recalls the dedication to Apollo Soter in IGCyr064100² by thearoi travelling to Delphi, which was also found in the Port of Cyrene. Here one traveller seems bound to take part into games with a horse (l. 9) but the dedicants of the ex-voto are multiple (l. 14).

Metrical analysis: many short dactylic segments are preserved and lines 7-8 have a full hexameter preceded by a segment that cannot belong to a pentameter. The whole poem was thus probably made of hexameters only. At line 6 it is necessary to take θεούς as one syllable, a synizesis that is not uncommon in epic poetry and later.

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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 gvcyr052 Dedication to Asklepios

Fig. 2. Squeeze of gvcyr052 Dedication to Asklepios

Maps