Epitaph of Arata
created: Transcription from editor.
source date: Late fourth or early third century BC
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/)

[...], pp. 257-258 fig. 102-102a and [...], whence [...], 9.362; [...], n. 1912; [...], n. 444 and p. 321; [...], n. 680; [...] 002. Cf. [...], p. 260, whence [...], 37.1714; [...], pp. 199 and 204-206, whence [...] 68.1745.

Ἀράτα ⋮ Καλλικράτευς Ἑσπεριτίς.

Πορθμίδος εὐσέλμου μεδέων γέρον, ὃς διὰ πάντα
νυκτὸς ὑπὸ σκιερᾶς πείρατα πλεῖς ποταμοῦ,

ἆρά τινα Ἀράτας ἄλλαν ἀρετὰν ἴδες, εἴ γε
τάνδ’ ὑπὸ λυγαίαν ἄγαγες ἀϊόνα;

Οὐκέτι τὰν ἁβρόπαιδα πάτραν σὰν Ἑσπερίδ’ ὄψηι,
οὐδὲ τὸν ἔἔστεργες σὸν πόσιν, οὐδὲ τέκνωι

στρώσεις νυμφιδίαν εὐνὰν τεῷ. Ἦ μάλα δαίμων,
Ἀράτα, κρυερὰν σοί τιν’ ἔδειξεν ἀράν.

ὂς[^a1] πάντα[^a2]

[^a1: ὂς | ἇς]

[^a2: πάντα | πάντᾳ]

ἄγαγες[^a3]

[^a3: ἄγαγες | ἄγαγ'ἐς]

τὸν ἕστεργες[^a4]

[^a4: τὸν ἕστεργες | τὸν Ἑσπερίδος | τὸν ἔστερίσας]

Arata fille de Kallikratès, d'Euhespérides.

Vieillard, maître de la barque aux bons bordages, qui dans ta navigation

franchis les limites du fleuve sous la nuit ombreuse,

as-tu jamais vu une vertu surpassant celle d'Arata, s'il est vrai que

tu l'as débarquée sur la rive sinistre?

Jamais plus tu ne verras ta patrie aux enfants délicats, l'Hespéride,

ni l'époux que tu chérissais, jamais pour ton enfant

tu ne prépareras la couche nuptiale. Ah vraiment, la divinité,

Arata, a fixé pour toi une glaçante malédiction!

Arata daughter of Kallicrates, from Euesperides.

Old man, master of the well-planked boat, who sails

through the limits of the river under the shady night,

did you ever see a virtue higher than that of Arata, if you did

bring her to the gloomy shore?

Never will you see again your country with delicate children, Hesperis,

nor will you see your beloved husband, nor will you for your child

prepare a bridal couch. Truly, a deity,

Arata, decided for you an icy malediction!

Arata figlia di Kallikrates, di Euesperides.

E tu vecchio, signore della barca dal robusto fasciame, che nella notte fosca

da una sponda all'altra percorri il fiume,

hai mai visto una virtù superiore a quella di Arata, se davvero

l'hai condotta alla riva oscura?

Né più mai la tua patria vedrai dai delicati fanciulli, l'Hesperis,

né il tuo sposo che amavi, né a tua figlia

preparerai il letto nuziale. Ah davvero, la divinità,

Arata, ti ha destinato una maledizione di ghiaccio!

أراتا ابنة كاليكراتيوس من يوسبيريديس. الرجل العجوز، سيد القارب ذو المجاديف الجيدة، الذي يبحر عبر حدود النهر تحت جُنح الظلام (الليل المظلم)، هل رأيت من قبل فضيلة أعلى (مرتبة) من فضيلة أراتا، إذا رأيت ذلك أحضرها إلى الشاطئ الكئيب؟ لن تري أبدًا بلدك، هيسبيريس، مرة أخرى بوجود أطفال حساسين (مرهفي الإحساس)، ولن ترين زوجك الحبيب ولا (يُمنكنك) تحضيرإو تجهيز أريكة الزفاف لطفلك. حقًا يا أراتا، المُؤله، قدر لك لعنه باردة (شديدة)!

Oliverio only mentioned Ptolemais as the provenance of the stele. Bazama-Reynolds attributed the stele to the small necropolis developed along the road issuing from the Northern gate of the city-wall at West, where they found a number of similar steles. Ptolemais was at the time not yet a city with that name, but only a harbour for Barka. The stele should be the most ancient inscription from this site.

This well made epigram develops the theme of malediction by playing on the name of the deceased woman 'Arata', which etymologically means 'accursed', directly through the use of ἀρά and indirectly through two puns based on the assonance with the interrogative particle ἇρα and with ἀρετά 'virtue'. More at [...].

This woman was from Euesperides and died at Ptolemais, where she was buried.

Metrical analysis: after a title (ll. 1-2), eight text-lines, which are so many verse-lines, forming four elegiac couplets. The space on the stone marks the limit between the two pairs of couplets, which is also the limit between two enunciation modes, the first part addressing Charon the ferryman, the second addressing the deceased Arata.