Caption for a relief and acclamation
GVCyr055
Trismegistos ID: 738944
Source Description
Repository
British Museum, 1127.77.
Support
Small marble relief representing from right to left: Apollo seated on rocks with lyre in left hand, right foot placed on the omphalos, then a large tripod, a seated gryphon and a bearded herm; broken off at the upper right angle, from Apollo's waist upwards (0.268; 0.222;0.09).
Layout
Inscribed in two lines on the lintel below the relief.
Letters
0.008-0.014, not very carefully cut, the first word of line 2 in larger letters; cursive epsilon, sigma and omega.
Place of Origin
Findspot.
Date
Probably third century A.D. (lettering)
Findspot
Found in 1860 by Smith and Porcher at Cyrene pleiades; HGL : Temple of Venus .
Last recorded Location
Observed by J.M. Reynolds at an unknown date in London : in the British Museum
Present Location
No autopsy by GVCyr team.
Text constituted from
Transcription from photograph and from J.M. Reynolds notes (CDL).
Bibliography
Hirschfeld-Marshall, 1916 Hirschfeld, G., Marshall, F.H., 1916, The collection of ancient Greek inscriptions in the British Museum: part 4: Knidos, Halikarnassos and Branchidae by Gustav Hirschfeld; supplementary and miscellaneous inscriptions by F.H. Marshall, IV, Oxford - see in bibliography , p. 1062. Cf. Smith-Porcher, 1864 Smith, R.M., Porcher, E.A., 1864, History of the recent discoveries at Cyrene, made during an expedition to the Cyrenaica in 1860-61, under the auspices of Her Majesty's government, London - see in bibliography , n. 72; BMCatSc Smith, A.H., A catalogue of sculpture in the Department of Greek and Roman Antiquities, British Museum, London, 1892-1904 - see in bibliography , n. 1438bis, fig. 11; Vitali, 1932 Vitali, L., 1932, Fonti per la storia della religione cyrenaica, Pubblicazioni della Facoltà di lettere e filosofia, Università di Padova1, Padova - see in bibliography , p. 29; Huskinson, 1975 Huskinson, J., 1975, Roman sculpture from Cyrenaica in the British Museum, Corpus signorum imperii Romani. Great Britain, II.1, London - see in bibliography , n. 15; Stucchi, 1981 Stucchi, S., 1981, Divagazioni archeologiche, I-II, Bibliotheca Archaeologica3-4, Roma - see in bibliography , p. 105.
Text
| καθαρὸν δίκαιον πισστὸν ἀλαθὲς | πνεῦμα θεοῦ
σωτῆρος Ἀπόλλωνος
Apparatus
French translation
Pur, juste, digne de confiance et véridique est le souffle du dieu sauveur Apollon.
English translation
Pure, righteous, trustworthy, true, the breath of saviour god Apollo.
(J.M. Reynolds' unpublished translation)Italian translation
Puro, giusto, fededegno, veridico è l'afflato del dio salvatore Apollo.
(trad. S. Stucchi leggermente modificata)Commentary
Smith and Porcher, commenting on the relief, mentioned the inscription as 'number 34'. However, this can be found neither in the chapter about the inscriptions nor in the plates showing drawings of all other inscriptions. The first reading was published by Hirschfeld-Marshall, 1916 Hirschfeld, G., Marshall, F.H., 1916, The collection of ancient Greek inscriptions in the British Museum: part 4: Knidos, Halikarnassos and Branchidae by Gustav Hirschfeld; supplementary and miscellaneous inscriptions by F.H. Marshall, IV, Oxford - see in bibliography , p. 1062.
The word πνεῦμα, in relation with the sculpture, hints at the prophetic function of Apollo.
Metrical analysis: tentatively, we suggest the following analysis. Verse line 1 is a iambic trimeter with a penthemimer caesura. The remainder consists of three substituted feet with no pure iamb left. This might be allowed on behalf of the divine name Ἀπόλλωνος.
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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.
