Epitaph of Berenika

Bibliography

Agnew, 1840 Agnew, H.C., 1840, Remarks on some remains of ancient Greek writings on the walls of a family catacomb at Alexandria, Archaeologia or Miscellaneous Tracts relating to Antiquity, Society of Antiquaries of London28, 152-170 - see in bibliography , n. A, pp. 168-169, plate XIII, fig. a and Welcker, 1842 Welcker, F.T. (alias F.G.), 1842, Spicilegium Epigrammatum Graecorum, Rheinisches Museum für Philologie, 1, 201-221 - see in bibliography , p. 209, n. 17, whence CIG Corpus Inscriptionum Graecarum, I-IV, Berlin, 1828-1877 - see in bibliography , p. 362, n. 5362b; Froehner, 1897 Froehner, W., 1897, Musée de Marseille, Catalogue des Antiquités grecques et romaines, Paris - see in bibliography , n. 107.

Cf. Field, 1877 Field, F., 1877, Notes on inscriptions at Alexandria, The Journal of Philology, 7, 89-90 - see in bibliography , p. 90; Kaibel, 1878 Kaibel, G., 1878, Epigrammata graeca ex lapidibus conlecta, Berlin - see in bibliography , n. 260; Wilamowitz-Moellendorff, 1927 Wilamowitz-Moellendorff, U. von, 1927, Hellenistische Dichtung in der Zeit des Kallimachos, Berlin - see in bibliography , p. 312; Peek, 1955 Peek, W., 1955, Griechische Vers-Inschriften, I-II, Berlin - see in bibliography , n. 1254 Morelli, 1963 Morelli, G., 1963, Una glossa di Esichio e due nuovi epitafi cirenaici, Maia, 15, 168-183 - see in bibliography , pp. 168-170; Roques, 1995 Roques, D., 1995, Tombeaux grecs, Paris - see in bibliography , pp. 133-134; Dobias-Lalou, 2014 Dobias-Lalou, C., 2014, Des pierres qui parlent en vers. A propos des épigrammes grecques de Cyrénaïque, in A. Delattre, A. Lionetto, La Muse de l'éphémère. Formes de la poésie de circonstance de l'Antiquité à la Renaissance, Paris, 319-331 - see in bibliography , p. 326.

Text

Apparatus

1 Froehner, 1897 Froehner, W., 1897, Musée de Marseille, Catalogue des Antiquités grecques et romaines, Paris - see in bibliography  Βερενίκας : Agnew, 1840 Agnew, H.C., 1840, Remarks on some remains of ancient Greek writings on the walls of a family catacomb at Alexandria, Archaeologia or Miscellaneous Tracts relating to Antiquity, Society of Antiquaries of London28, 152-170 - see in bibliography  Φερενίκας

3 Kaibel, 1878 Kaibel, G., 1878, Epigrammata graeca ex lapidibus conlecta, Berlin - see in bibliography , Froehner, 1897 Froehner, W., 1897, Musée de Marseille, Catalogue des Antiquités grecques et romaines, Paris - see in bibliography , Peek, 1955 Peek, W., 1955, Griechische Vers-Inschriften, I-II, Berlin - see in bibliography  ἐ 'γ' ancient correction from: π : Agnew, 1840 Agnew, H.C., 1840, Remarks on some remains of ancient Greek writings on the walls of a family catacomb at Alexandria, Archaeologia or Miscellaneous Tracts relating to Antiquity, Society of Antiquaries of London28, 152-170 - see in bibliography  ἐπ᾿ : CIG Corpus Inscriptionum Graecarum, I-IV, Berlin, 1828-1877 - see in bibliography  ἐ 'ν' ancient correction from: π : Welcker, 1842 Welcker, F.T. (alias F.G.), 1842, Spicilegium Epigrammatum Graecorum, Rheinisches Museum für Philologie, 1, 201-221 - see in bibliography  ἐν || 'κ' ancient correction from: ιι αλυβοῖς (from photograph) : Agnew, 1840 Agnew, H.C., 1840, Remarks on some remains of ancient Greek writings on the walls of a family catacomb at Alexandria, Archaeologia or Miscellaneous Tracts relating to Antiquity, Society of Antiquaries of London28, 152-170 - see in bibliography , Welcker, 1842 Welcker, F.T. (alias F.G.), 1842, Spicilegium Epigrammatum Graecorum, Rheinisches Museum für Philologie, 1, 201-221 - see in bibliography , CIG Corpus Inscriptionum Graecarum, I-IV, Berlin, 1828-1877 - see in bibliography  καλύβοις : Froehner, 1897 Froehner, W., 1897, Musée de Marseille, Catalogue des Antiquités grecques et romaines, Paris - see in bibliography  Χαλύβοις : Peek, 1955 Peek, W., 1955, Griechische Vers-Inschriften, I-II, Berlin - see in bibliography   ' κ also consonant with χ ' ancient correction from: ιι αλυβοῖς

4 Peek, 1955 Peek, W., 1955, Griechische Vers-Inschriften, I-II, Berlin - see in bibliography  ἐστερόμαν τῶν : Agnew, 1840 Agnew, H.C., 1840, Remarks on some remains of ancient Greek writings on the walls of a family catacomb at Alexandria, Archaeologia or Miscellaneous Tracts relating to Antiquity, Society of Antiquaries of London28, 152-170 - see in bibliography  ἀστερομάντων : Welcker, 1842 Welcker, F.T. (alias F.G.), 1842, Spicilegium Epigrammatum Graecorum, Rheinisches Museum für Philologie, 1, 201-221 - see in bibliography  ἂ στερόμαν τῶν

5 Agnew, 1840 Agnew, H.C., 1840, Remarks on some remains of ancient Greek writings on the walls of a family catacomb at Alexandria, Archaeologia or Miscellaneous Tracts relating to Antiquity, Society of Antiquaries of London28, 152-170 - see in bibliography  Φιλοξένωι : Welcker, 1842 Welcker, F.T. (alias F.G.), 1842, Spicilegium Epigrammatum Graecorum, Rheinisches Museum für Philologie, 1, 201-221 - see in bibliography  Φιλοξένῳ

French translation

Contemple, passant, le remarquable portrait de Bérénika

la malheureuse, que renferme ce tombeau:

moi qui, naguère sous le dais nuptial et maintenant en route vers l'Achéron,

me suis vue priver prématurément de ma chambre nuptiale,

ne laissant que des lamentations à mon père Philoxénos, qui fit faire

cette image de jeune femme et l'érigea en souvenir.

English translation

See, wayfarer, the notable portrait of Berenika

the hapless, whom this tomb keeps:

I who, being formerly under the virgin chamber and now on my way to the Acheron,

was prematurely deprived of my bridal room,

leaving only woes to my father Philoxenos, who had

this image of young woman made and erected it as a memorial.

Italian translation

Guarda, passante, il pregevole ritratto di Berenika,

sventurata, che questo sepolcro racchiude:

io dapprima nella stanza nuziale, ora invece sulla via dell’Acheronte,

anzitempo sono stata privata del talamo della sposa,

null'altro che lamenti al padre lasciando, a Filoxenos, che questo simulacro

di giovane donna fece costruire e pose come ricordo.

Commentary

The stone was in Marseilles Museum when Froehner published his guidebook in 1883, whereas it was not mentioned in an earlier catalogue dating 1876. After enquiry in the Museum it seems to be now lost and the original glass negative is also lost. Fortunately enough, thanks to Prof. Hallof, we could get a reprint of this photograph kept in the archive of the late Prof. Peek at Berlin.

At l. 3, apart from Froehner, who read Χαλύβοις, name of a people near the Black Sea, all commentators rightly preferred the rare and poetical word καλυβός, a masculine typically Cyrenaican variant of καλύβη also attested at GVCyr008 and GVCyr009. Morelli pointed out that the Cyrenaean occurrences vindicate a glossa of Hesychios' unduly corrected by his editors.

At l. 4, πρίν is a preposition with genitive with the article anteceding it, as attested elsewhere.

Field commented in 1877 on Agnew's publication without knowing Welcker's proposals of 1842, which he echoed on most points. In addition he wanted to put a comma before νύμφας and not after it; this is not necessary for the syntax nor for the meaning and would be metrically harsh, for the caesura is at the hemistich.

Metrical analysis: three elegiac couplets without any problem of prosody; at l. 5, the long ending of Φιλοξένωι is shortened before the vocalic beginning of the following word.

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