Support: Small marble relief representing from right to left: Apollo seated on rocks with a lyre in his left hand, his right foot placed on the omphalos, then a large tripod, a seated gryphon and a bearded herm; broken off at the upper right angle, from Apollo's waist upwards (w: 0.268 × h: 0.222 × d: 0.09).

Layout: Inscribed in two lines on the lintel below the relief.

Letters: 0.008-0.014, not very carefully cut, the first word of line 2 in larger letters; cursive epsilon, sigma and omega.

Date: Probably third century AD (lettering).

Findspot: Found in 1860 by Smith and Porcher at Cyrene ➚: Temple of Venus.

Place of origin: Findspot.

Last recorded location: British Museum, 1127.77. Observed by J.M. Reynolds at an unknown date in London: in the British Museum. No autopsy by GVCyr team.

Text constituted from: Transcription from photograph and from J.M. Reynolds notes (CDL).

French translation

Pur, juste, digne de confiance et véridique est le souffle du dieu sauveur Apollon.

English translation

Pure, righteous, trustworthy, true, the breath of saviour god Apollo.

Italian translation

Translation source: Stucchi 1981

Puro, giusto, fededegno, veridico è l'afflato del dio salvatore Apollo.

Arabic translation

النقي، العادل، الجدير بالثقة، الحقيقي، نَّفَس (روح) الْمؤلَّه المُنقذ، أبولو. (ترجمة جويس رينولدس غير المنشورة).

Commentary

Smith and Porcher, commenting on the relief, mentioned the inscription as 'number 34'. However, this can be found neither in the chapter about the inscriptions nor in the plates showing drawings of all other inscriptions. The first reading was published by Hirschfeld – Marshall 1916, p. 1062.

The word πνεῦμα, in relation with the sculpture, hints at the prophetic function of Apollo.

Metrical analysis: tentatively, we suggest the following analysis. Verse line 1 is a iambic trimeter with a penthemimer caesura. The remainder consists of three substituted feet with no pure iamb left. This might be allowed on behalf of the divine name Ἀπόλλωνος.

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Images

Fig. 1. View of gvcyr055 Caption and acclamation

Maps