Epitaph of a man and his wife
created: Transcription from photograph and J.M. Reynolds' notes (CDL).
source date: Third century AD or later
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. 191-204 (ph.) and [...] 047, whence [...] 67.1499.

[...] εἴκοσ᾿ ἅπαξ ζήσας ἐνιαυτοὺς
ἐνθάδε κεῖται [...] ὃς τέλος ἤνυσε μύρης
[...] ἐκ πολέμου τριάκοντα λελονχώς ❧.
[...] κεῖται δάμαρ ἣ γλυκὺ φένγος
ἡελίοιο ἐείκοσι πέντε δὶς εἶδ' ἐνιαυτούς ❧

ζῇ.

εἴκοσ' ἅπαξ[^a1] τριάκοντα λελονχώς[^1] ἐείκοσι πέντε δὶς[^2]

[^a1: εἴκοσ' ἅπαξ | ἐείκοσ' ἅπαξ [ΚΑΠΑΞ on the stone]]

[^1: ΛΛΕΛΟΝΧΩΣ on the stone]

[^2: [...]ΕΔΙΣ on the stone]

a) [...], ayant vécu une fois 20 ans, repose ici, lui qui a accompli jusqu'au bout sa destinée, [...] ayant reçu de la guerre pour lot 30 [...].

[...] repose son épouse, qui a vu la douce lumière du soleil pendant deux fois 25 années.

b) Il (elle) vit !

a) [...], having lived once 20 years, rests here, who fully accomplished his destiny, [...] having received as his lot from war 30 [...].

[...] rests his wife, who saw the gentle light of sun for twice 25 years.

b) He (she) is alive!

a) [...], avendo vissuto una volta 20 anni, riposa qui, lui che ha condotto completamente a termine il suo destino, [...] avendo avuto in sorte dalla guerra 30 [...].

[...] riposa sua moglie, che ha visto la dolce luce del sole per due volte 25 anni.

b) Vive!

We follow the date cautiously suggested by J.M. Reynolds. However, it should be noted that the reading μύρης for μοίρης would show a rather later date. The same phonetic change might suggest to read at line 3 ΠΟΛΕΜΥΟ as πολέμοιο. However this would not fit the rhythm of the following word. So we prefer to interpret this form as the classical one with the erroneous spelling of two inverted letters.

An oddity of this verse inscription consists in numerals of the alphabetic system being cut instead of the respective words that should be spelt out at lines 1, 3 (and thus 5). Together with the opposition between ἅπαξ 'once' at line 1 and δίς 'twice' at line 5, it may be described as a sort of mathematical enigma. At line 5 the numeral ending with ε (meaning 5) should match the rhythm and, once doubled, give a plausible age for the widow who outlived her husband. The only possibility meeting all the requests is 25.

The numeral 30 at line 3 does not indicate an age, but something obtained from war by this young man: was he wounded 30 times? Or victorious 30 times? Did he lead 30 men? It would be hazardous to choose between such guesses.

All supplements are C. Dobias-Lalou's, who did not keep some suggestions communicated privately by W. Peek to J.M. Reynolds, for neither of those scholars did recognize the spelling of the numbers.

The names of the dead man and woman were plausibly lost in the gaps of lines 2 and 4.

Metrical analysis: five dactylic hexameters.