Dedication of a hecatomb by Hermesandros
created: Transcription from previous editors and photograph (CDL).
source date: Last third of third century BC (Rosamilia)
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/)

[...], 161; [...], pp. 272-273, whence [...], 38.1898; [...] 023. Cf. [...], pp. 454-455; [...], p. 351; [...], pp. 188-189, 331 (ph.); [...], esp. pp. 26-29, whence [...], 41.1695; [...], pp. 143-148, whence [...], 46.2209; [...], p. 340, whence [...], 49.2357; [...], pp. 206-201, whence [...] 68.1745; [...], pp. 385-386, number 114 (text). Also L. Gasperini in [...], p. 34 (translation); [...], pp. 92-94 (archaeological context); [...], p. 133 (report of 1930 excavations); , 1930, p. 128.

Μνᾶμα τόδ’ Ἑρμήσανδρος ὑπὲρ κράνας ὁ Φίλωνος
θῆκε θεᾶι θύσας Ἀρτέμιτος τελετᾶι,

βοῦς ἑκατὸν κατάγων καὶ ἴκατι· τῶν τάδε κεῖται
κόσμος καὶ μνάμα καὶ κλέος εὐδόκιμον

The restorations are secured by the duplicate GVCyr054

μνάμα[^a1]

[^a1: μνάμα | μνᾶμα]

Ce monument, Hermésandros fils de Philon l'a consacré au-dessus de la fontaine (ou source?), après avoir sacrifié à la déesse en faisant descendre au sanctuaire pour la fête d'Artémis cent vingt boeufs. D'eux restent ces mots, qui sont à la fois un ornement, un souvenir et un noble titre de gloire.

[trad. Fr. Chamoux modifiée]

This monument Hermesandros son of Philon dedicated above the fountain (or spring?), once he had sacrificed to the goddess, after leading down into the sanctuary for Artemis' festival hundred and twenty oxes. Of them these words remain as ornament and keepsake and glorious fame.

Questo monumento Hermesandros figlio di Philon al di sopra della fonte (o sorgente?) pose dopo che, spinti giù nel santuario cento e venti buoi, li ebbe sacrificati alla dea in occasione della festa di Artemis. Dei quali queste parole rimangono per ornamento e per ricordo e per fama gloriosa.

[trad. L. Gasperini at [...], con modifiche]

Thanks to a communication by Enzo Catani of Pernier's notebooks, we know more precisely than for the first edition the findspot of this inscription: it was found in a room of the Lower Terrace of the Sanctuary, together with IGCyr104300 and IGCyr137300. This shows that after having been replaced by GVCyr054, the stone was still kept in Apollo's sacred area.

Gasperini had shown that GVCyr054, which has the same text but a later lettering, should correspond to the repairing of Hermesandros' dedication. [...], pp. 272-273, who did not take the chronological span into account, thought that there were several monuments dedicated at the same time. Furthermore in 1991 he compared the two epigrams with some bronze images of oxes or cows known elsewhere and related them with τάδε at line 3 (translated 'ces offrandes'). On this point he was followed by Gasperini, who translated 'images'. Both related τῶν with τάδε. However this plural neuter more probably refers to the very words inscribed on the stone, like the common γράμματα of so many epigrams. τῶν should be related to the oxen mentioned at the end of the preceding sentence.

Laronde argued that ὑπὲρ κράνας, in accordance with the findspot, refers to places in the rock-wall along the rock-cut way leading down (κατάγων) from the upper city to the sanctuary and taken by the sacred processions.

One hundred and twenty oxen is even more than a hecatomb, thus a very prestigious sacrifice. S. Ensoli related this dedication to the series of drinking-troughs with a frieze in relief showing drinking oxen, formerly named 'Fountain of Eurypylos' oxen' by Stucchi, in relation with one episode of Cyrene's myth. Since then, the name 'Fountain of Hermesandros' has been used. This is an interesting theory, since both belong to the same area. However, one should remain cautious because no device has been found 'above' the drinking-troughs for fixing the inscribed block(s). The Greek word κράνα is in fact ambiguous, meaning both '(natural) spring' and '(built) fountain', but it is not clear whether this may extend on to animals' use. Yet all preceding commentators of the inscription thought of the spring and its basin known as 'Spring of Apollo'.

No sure prosopographical link can be established for this Hermesandros son of Philon. A priest of that name is mentioned at IGCyr081200, but without his father's name and the inscription seems earlier than the present dedication.

The poem interestingly keeps the typical features of the dialect, although line 4 has a purely traditional poetical clausura. As for the name of the goddess, this unique form is a mixture of dialectal Ἀρτάμιτος and common Ἀρτέμιδος.

Metrical analysis: we have here two elegiac couplets. At verse-line 3, for καὶ ἴκατι Gallavotti curiously mentions a shortening in hiatus of καί which does not happen, inasmuch as ἴκατι has lost an initial Ϝ: we have both a penthemimeric and a bucolic caesurae in a well constituted hexameter.