Repository
Cyrene Museum, inv. number unknown.
Support
Sarcophagus of white marble with one long side sculpted with scenes of the myth of Phaedra and Hippolytus (dimensions not registered).
Layout
Inscribed on the opposite long side, inside a square tabula ansata between two young boys wearing chitons, who hold it (dimensions not registered); each line of script is centered along the vertical axis and two leafs are inserted at lines 2 and 3.
Letters
Height unknown; ornate lettering with serifs; alpha with dropped bar, two small oblique strokes as the central bar of epsilon, diamond shape omicron, non slanting sigma.
Place of Origin
Findspot.
Date
Beginning of the third century A.D. (context, lettering)
Findspot
Found in 2001 by the Mission of the University of Chieti at Cyrene pleiades; HGL : East Necropolis , in the sepulcral chamber of a large built tomb (so-called tomb C) on the edge of the upper plateau above the Ain Hofra valley.
Last recorded Location
Seen by C. Dobias-Lalou in 2001 in Shahat : Cyrene Museum
Text constituted from
Transcription from stone (CDL).
Not previously published. Mentioned in Italian translation by Fabbricotti, 2007 Fabbricotti, E., 2007, Il santuario di Ain Hofra, in C. Dobias-Lalou (ed.), Questions de religion cyrénéenne: actes du colloque de Dijon, 21-23 mars 2002, Karthago27, Paris, 93-100 - see in bibliography , p. 100. Cf. Fabbricotti, 2008 Fabbricotti, E., 2008, Venticinque anni di attività della Cattedra di Archeologia Classica e Numismatica Antica. Lo scavo di Iuvanum e la Missione in Libia, in O. Menozzi, M.L. Di Marzio, D. Fossataro (eds), IX Symposium on Mediterranean archaeology, Chieti (Italy), 24-26 February 2005 (SOMA 2005), Oxford, 13-21 - see in bibliography , pp. 16-17 (find).
Toi qui m'es cher, puisses-tu être heureux même dans les demeures d'Hadès !
You, dear to me, might you be happy even in Hades' houses!
Possa tu, mio caro, stare bene pur nelle dimore dell'Ade!
(E. Fabbricotti's translation with slight changes)This hexameter is a pastiche of Homer's Χαῖρέ μοι, ὦ Πάτροκλε, καὶ εἰν Ἀΐδαο δόμοισι at Il. XXIII.19 and 179. Instead of the dead's name, we have a laudatory epithet. So the invocation could be addressed to any person enclosed into the sarcophagus and the inscription, being part of the ornament, was prepared independently from the ordering person.
The change from imperative, which is usual in addresses to the dead, to optative is no commonplace, as this mood is rather used in epitaphs for addressing the passer-by who will read the inscription.
Metrical analysis: a very regular dactylic hexameter. Leaves are cut at the penthemimer main caesura and at the light break inside the fifth foot.
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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.