Epitaph of Nike
created: Transcription from photograph (CDL).
source date: Year 63 in Actian era, i.e. AD 32/33, more precisely October 26th 32
language: ar; en; fr; de; grc; grc-Latn; el; he
availability: CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 Deed Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. 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. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/)

New in [...].

[...], n. 1, pp. 54-58, figg. 3-4.

ἔτους γξ Χοιαχι ι

Νικὴ ἐγὼ τλήμων Κυρηνάω ἀνδρὸς ἀποίκω
κῖμαι ὀεϊζυρῷ δαίμονι κεκλιμένα
καὶ τρί´ ἐν ὀρφανίῃ μογερῇ φίλα τέκνα λιποῦσα
καὶ γαμέτην ὀλοῷ πένθει τιρόμενον,
Κυρήνης πολιῆτις ἀγακλιτοῖο θυγάτερ
Ἑρμάου ἀθανάτα, παισὶ θεῶν ἰκέλα,
ἐν τρiσσαῖς δ´ἐτέων δεκάσιν θάνον· ὧ ξέν´, ἐπίστας
οἰκτίσον ἐν κώφαι κῶφος ἰδὼν σπιλάδι·
ἀλλὰ, φίλα μάτηρ, ἐλαφρῶς τ´ἐνέκαι φέρε κούφως·
πᾶσι γὰρ ἀνθρώποις κοῖνος ὅδ´ ἔστ´ Ἀΐδης.

Νίκη Ἑρμαίου ἐτῶν λ

τρί´ἐν ὀρφανίῃ μογερῇ[^a1]

[^a1: τρί´ἐν ὀρφανίῃ μογερῇ | τρί´ ἔνθ´ ἐφάνη μογερή]

An 63, le 10 Khoiakhi.

Moi, l'infortunée Nikè, épouse d'un colon cyrénéen,

repose, abattue par un destin lamentable

et laissant ici trois enfants chéris à l'état misérable d'orphelins,

ainsi qu'un époux déchiré par un chagrin funeste,

moi, citoyenne de Cyrène, du fameux Hermaios

la fille immortelle, égale aux enfants des dieux;

mais je suis morte avant l'achèvement de ma troisième dizaine d'années. Etranger, arrête-toi

et prends pitié, en jetant un regard muet sur moi dans cette pierre muette.

Quant à toi, mère chérie, allons, supporte cela d'un coeur serein, avec légèreté,

car Hadès que voici est le lot commun de tous les hommes.

Nikè fille d'Hermaios, âgée de 30 ans.

Year 63, Choiakhi 10th.

I unfortunate Nike, wife of a Cyrenaean colonist,

lie, laid down by a dreary fate

and leaving here three dear children in grievous orphanhood,

as well as a husband distressed by deadly grief,

I she-citizen of Cyrene, of the famous Hermaios

immortal daughter, equal to divine children;

but I died within three tens of years. Stranger, stop

and have pity, glancing dumbly at me in this dumb stone.

And you, dear mother, please, light-hearted bear it lightly,

for this Hades is common to all humans.

Nike, daughter of Hermaios, 30 years old.

Anno 63, 10 di Choiakhi

Io, Nike, sfortunata moglie di un colono cireneo,

giaccio abbattuta da un miserevole destino

lasciando tre figli nella infelice condizione di orfani

e uno sposo logorato da un dolore funesto,

io, cittadina di Cirene, dell’illustre Hermaios

figlia immortale, pari ai figli degli dèi,

sono morta entro la terza decade di anni. Straniero, fermati

e abbi compassione, a questa pietra muta volgendo muto lo sguardo.

Quanto a te, cara madre, con cuore sereno sopporta e con leggerezza,

poiché comune a tutti i mortali è questo Ade.

Nike figlia di Hermaios, di 30 anni

The careful layout and cutting and the traditional formulation do not hide the evolution of the contemporary language, with confusion between EI and I (the well-known iotacism), also between E and H in θυγάτερ, standing for a nominative and the loss of I in Κυρηναῖος, Ἑρμαῖος the latter so at line 11, but correctly spelled at line 21.

There is a similar contrast between the findspot, in a rather modest place of the country, and Nike priding herself about her quality of she-citizen, her father being 'famous' and her husband an ᾰποικος. The latter is ambiguous, as it may refer to the first settlers who founded Cyrene in the seventh century BC or to a Roman colonus. However, the distribution of plots by the Roman authorities is attested only after the Jewish revolt of AD 117, so that this explanation seems anachronistic and there are other instances of priding oneself on descending from the first colonists. Combined with the unique public inscription found at Mghernes (IRCyr2020 M.245), it shows a good level of social activity and a vivid relation with the city of Cyrene for the dwellers of that part of the countryside.

Metrical commentary: on the whole, those five elegiac couplets are quite regular. For the prosody, we note some lenghtenings for metrical reasons in the first syllable of ἀθανάτα as usually, of Κυρήνη and its ethnic (for which see [...], p. 26) and also for the second syllable of θυγάτηρ, which is very unusual and really awkward with this anomalous spelling. Conversely μάτηρ with the long second syllable necessary for the metre, is here used as a vocative.