Honours for the Syracusan Kleupatra
created: Editor's transcription from photograph (CDL).
source date: Perhaps between 180 and 100 BC (similar with inscriptions of Ptolemy's VIII reig
language: ar; en; fr; de; grc; grc-Latn; el; he
availability: Creative Commons Attributions-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. All citation, reuse or distribution of this work must contain a link back to DOI: http://doi.org/10.6092/UNIBO/IGCYRGVCYR and the filename (IGCyr000000 or GVCyr000), as well as the year of consultation. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/)

Bibliography

Never published before this edition.

Κλευπάτραν Συρακοσίαν Δημήτριος Ἀπολλωνίου ἀνέθηκε οὖσαν ἀδελφὴν καὶ γυναῖκα · ὁμολογεῖται Δημήτριος κέχρησται τὸν τόπον ὥστε ἐπιθεῖναι .[^a1]

[^a1: om. | Διονυσίου | αὐτοῦ]

Dèmètrios fils d'Apollonios a consacré la statue de Kleupatra, Syracusaine, qui est sa soeur et l'épouse de . Dèmètrios reconnaît que l'emplacement a été attribué par l'oracle (?) pour ériger le monument.

Demetrios son of Apollonios dedicated the statue of Kleupatra, a Syracusan, who is his sister and the spouse of . Demetrios acknowledges that the place was granted to him by the oracle (?) in order to erect the monument.

Demetrios figlio di Apollonios ha dedicato la statua di Kleupatra, siracusana, che è sua sorella e la sposa di . Demetrios riconosce che il luogo gli è stato attribuito dall'oracolo (?) per erigere il monumento.

Commentary

The provenance of this stone is up to now unclear. Hafed Walda's photographs, which are our only source, are registered as from Apollo's sanctuary, a normal place for honorific dedications. The erasure at line 4 does not look like other erasures, made either for a damnatio memoriae or for the partial re-use of an inscription. Irregular strokes have obliterated a section of the line corresponding to 7 characters at line 3 and 8 characters at line 5, including one iota. A restoration of even 9 characters including two iotas does not seem impossible. The end of the line seems to have been never inscribed. Two restorations occur to mind, which result in very different situations.

On one hand, it is tantalizing to identify this Demetrios son of Apollonios with a man bearing same name and father's name who was responsible for a dedication honouring the Cyrenaean Dionysios son of Hermias at Leontopolis in the Egyptian Delta about 164 BC ([...] 133). In that inscription, Demetrios is mentioned as 'cadet among the bodyguards', a rather low aulic title very similar to that mentioned in IGCyr097400, whereas Dionysios holds the office of strategos and the title of First Friend. He is honoured for his goodwill to the royal family and his beneficence towards the dedicant. The latter ground would be the more conceivable if Dionysios was his brother-in-law. Demetrios, when on duty at Cyrene, would have stressed his relationship with the high-rank officer Dionysios in his native city. If so, the reason why the latter's name was obliterated escapes us.

On the other hand, with a shorter restoration, αὐτοῦ would explain the erasure: if Demetrios had married his own sister, imitating some Lagid kings, this might well have caused disapproval and cancelling.

The alteration of -σθαι into -σται (line 6) is known in some Ptolemaic papyri. The only forms allowing a formulation with the passive are related to χράω 'to consult an oracle', whence at the perfect 'to be allotted by the oracle' (see at Hdt 2.139). We have only very scanty information about an oracle at Cyrene.