Dedication of a hecatomb by Hermesandros
GVCyr023
Trismegistos ID: 738916
Source Description
Support
Small rectangular block of marble, broken into two adjacent fragments, also broken off at left (dimensions unknown).
Layout
Inscribed on the face in four lines (one line of script for one line of verse), all aligned along the lost left edge.
Letters
Height unknown, carefully cut with very slight serifs; smaller round letters, slanting mu and sigma, slightly curved upper part of upsilon.
Place of Origin
Findspot.
Date
End of fourth or beginning of third century B.C. (lettering)
Findspot
Found in 1930 at Cyrene pleiades; HGL : on the Fountain Terrace , area of the Spring of Kyra (see commentary).
Present Location
Already lost when G. Pugliese Carratelli prepared the publication in 1960. Known only from a photograph.
Present Location
Not seen by GVCyr team.
Text constituted from
Transcription from previous editors and photograph (CDL).
Bibliography
SECir Oliverio, G., Pugliese-Carratelli, G., Morelli, D., 1961-1962, Supplemento Epigrafico Cirenaico, Annuario della Scuola Archeologica di Atene e delle Missioni Italiane in Oriente (ASAA)39-40 (= n.s. 23-24), 219-375 - see in bibliography , 161; Chamoux, 1975 Chamoux, F., 1975, L'épigramme d'Hermésandros à Cyrène, Živa Antika (ŽAnt)25, 272-273 - see in bibliography , pp. 272-273, whence SEG Supplementum Epigraphicum Graecum, Leiden, then Amsterdam, 1923-1971, then 1979- - see in bibliography , 38.1898. Cf. Gallavotti, 1963 Gallavotti, C., 1963, Una "defixio" dorica e altri nuovi epigrammi cirenaici, Maia15, 450-463 - see in bibliography , pp. 454-455; Gasperini, 1985 Gasperini, L., 1985, Fasi epigrafiche e fasi monumentali: contributi alla storia e all’archeologia di Cirene greca e romana, in G. Barker, J. Lloyd, J. Reynolds (eds.), Cyrenaica in Antiquity (papers presented at the Colloquium on Society and Economy in Cyrenaica held at Newnham College, Cambridge, in March/April 1983), BAR International Series236, Society for Libyan Studies occasional papers1, Oxford, 349-355 [= , 169-178] - see in bibliography , p. 351; Laronde, 1987 Laronde, A., 1987, Cyrène et la Libye hellénistique. Libykai historiai de l’époque républicaine au principat d’Auguste, Paris - see in bibliography , pp. 188-189, 331 (ph.); Chamoux, 1991 Chamoux, F., 1991, La génisse d’Herculanum. Un aspect de la sculpture animalière chez les Grecs, Monuments et mémoires publiés par l'Académie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres, Fondation Eugène Piot (MMAI)72, 9-32 - see in bibliography , esp. pp. 26-29, whence SEG Supplementum Epigraphicum Graecum, Leiden, then Amsterdam, 1923-1971, then 1979- - see in bibliography , 41.1695; Gasperini, 1996 Gasperini, L., 1996, Note di epigrafia cirenea, in L. Bacchielli, M. Bonanno Aravantinos (eds.), Scritti di Antichità in memoria di Sandro Stucchi, I, Studi Miscellanei29, Roma, 143-156 [= , 361-386] - see in bibliography , pp. 143-148, whence SEG Supplementum Epigraphicum Graecum, Leiden, then Amsterdam, 1923-1971, then 1979- - see in bibliography , 46.2209; Gentile, 1999 Gentile, L., 1999, L'epiteto ΚΑΤΑΓΩΓΙΣ e l'uso del verbo ΚΑΤΑΓΩ in ambito religioso, Rivista di Filologia e Istruzione Classica (RFIC)127, 334-343 - see in bibliography , p. 340, whence SEG Supplementum Epigraphicum Graecum, Leiden, then Amsterdam, 1923-1971, then 1979- - see in bibliography , 49.2357. Also L. Gasperini in Bonacasa-Ensoli, 2000 Bonacasa, N., Ensoli, S., et al. (eds.), 2000, Cirene, Centri e monumenti dell'antichità, Milano - see in bibliography , p. 34 (translation); Ensoli Vittozzi, 1996 Ensoli Vittozzi, S., 1996, I rifornimenti idrici del Santuario cireneo di Apollo dal IV sec. a.C. alla fine dell'età tolemaica, in L. Bacchielli, M. Bonanno Aravantinos (eds.), Scritti di Antichità in memoria di Sandro Stucchi, I, Studi Miscellanei29, Roma, 79-110 - see in bibliography , pp. 92-94 (archaeological context); Luni, 2014 Luni, M., 2014, Attività di Carlo Anti, Luigi Pernier e Gaspare Oliverio (1923-1938), in M. Luni (ed.), La scoperta di Cirene. Un secolo di scavi, 1913-2013, Monografie di archeologia libica37, Cirene Atene d'Africa8, Roma, 123-156 - see in bibliography , p. 133 (report of 1930 excavations).
Text
| [Μνᾶ]μα τόδ’ Ἑρμήσανδρος ὑπὲρ κράνας ὁ Φίλωνος | [θῆ]κ̣ε θεᾶι ⸢θ⸣ lapis: ούσας Ἀρτέμιτος τελετᾶι,
Apparatus
The restorations are secured by the duplicate GVCyr054
4 Chamoux, 1975 Chamoux, F., 1975, L'épigramme d'Hermésandros à Cyrène, Živa Antika (ŽAnt)25, 272-273 - see in bibliography μνάμα : SECir Oliverio, G., Pugliese-Carratelli, G., Morelli, D., 1961-1962, Supplemento Epigrafico Cirenaico, Annuario della Scuola Archeologica di Atene e delle Missioni Italiane in Oriente (ASAA)39-40 (= n.s. 23-24), 219-375 - see in bibliography , Gallavotti, 1963 Gallavotti, C., 1963, Una "defixio" dorica e altri nuovi epigrammi cirenaici, Maia15, 450-463 - see in bibliography μνᾶμα
French translation
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)English translation
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.
Italian translation
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 Bonacasa-Ensoli, 2000 Bonacasa, N., Ensoli, S., et al. (eds.), 2000, Cirene, Centri e monumenti dell'antichità, Milano - see in bibliography , con modifiche)Commentary
Gasperini has shown that GVCyr054, which has the same text but a later lettering, should correspond to some repairing of Hermesandros' dedication. Chamoux, 1975 Chamoux, F., 1975, L'épigramme d'Hermésandros à Cyrène, Živa Antika (ŽAnt)25, 272-273 - see in bibliography , 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 word inscribed on the stone, like the common γράμματα of so many epigrams. τῶν should be related to the three nouns at the end of the 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 of 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: all preceding commentators mentioned two elegiac couplets. However, line 3 cannot be a hexameter: in καὶ ἴκατι Gallavotti mentions a shortening in hiatus of καί, but the rhythm of ἴκατι is –⏑⏑ and this leads to a dead end in this verse. We take this phrase with a crasis , producing the first dactyl of the second hemistich in a pentameter.
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.
