IGCyr2 | GVCyr2
Inscriptions of Greek Cyrenaica | Greek Verse Inscriptions of Cyrenaica

Epitaph

EpiDoc XML: IGCyr0268002
Trismegistos ID: 738276

Source description

Support: White marble base with plain mouldings above and below, the upper one badly chipped; left side broken off (w: 0.59 × h: 0.35 × d: 0.65).

Layout: Inscribed on the face between the mouldings (w: 0.575 × h: 0.16 × d: 0.40), with each line well centered, the letters pressed together in the middle, with large margins on both sides.

Letters: 0.05; carefully cut and apicated letters.

Date: End of second or beginning of first century BC (lettering).

Findspot: Found at an unknown date at Cyrene: Necropolis, probably North Necropolis (Thorn).

Place of origin: Findspot.

Last recorded location: Cyrene Museum, inv. number unknown. Seen by C. Dobias-Lalou in 1979 in Shahat: in front of the ancient Sculpture Museum and again in 1997 in Shahat: Cyrene Museum.

Text constituted from: Transcription from stone (CDL).

Bibliography

Oliverio 1933-1936, p. 116, n. 112, fig. 68, whence SEG, 9.224; IGCyr 026800 . Cf.Beschi 1970, p. 200 and fig. 55 (discovery), p. 204 (date of the base); Thorn – Thorn 2009, p. 138 (probable provenance); Belzic 2022, catalogue B.91.

Text

Interpretive

Ψαφὼι
Διονυσίω

Diplomatic

ΨΑΦΩΙ
ΔΙΟΝΥΣΙΩ

French translation

Psaphô fille de Dionysios.

English translation

Psapho daughter of Dionysios.

Italian translation

Psaphò figlia di Dionysios.

Arabic translation

بسافو بنة ديونيسيوس

Commentary

Beschi dates the base of 2nd half of III or beginning of II BC. However the script is clearly lower (so also Fraser – Matthews 1987, pp. 137, 488, following J.M. Reynolds' opinion).

Beschi shows an archive photograph proving that the base was found in the same undefined tomb as IGCyr0259002 together with the mourning half-figure n. 7 of his catalogue, although the latter matches none of the bases.

As the Thorns put it, the only Necropolis where the Italians made some excavations before World War II is the Northern one.

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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.

Maps

Cyrene general plan

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Cyrene north necropolis

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