Dedication to Hermes and Heracles implying a gymnasiarchos (?)

IGCyr065300

Trismegistos ID: 6190

Source Description

Support

Fragment of marble panel broken on all sides except on top (0.13; 0.145;0.045).

Layout

Inscribed on the face.

Letters

Height unknown. Small omega, sigma with parallel outer bars.

Place of Origin

Findspot.

Date

Second century B.C. (lettering)

Findspot

Found before 1937 at Cyrene (see commentary).

Present Location

Not found by IGCyr team.

Text constituted from

Transcription from previous editor.

Bibliography

Pugliese Carratelli-Oliverio, 1961 , p. 17, n. 4, fig. 10 (from †Oliverio's papers), whence SEG , 20.738; Robert, Bulletin Épigraphique , 1964.571.

Cf. Luni, 1976 , p. 240, n. 6.

Text

[Ἀρ]ίμμαν Ἀρι[---]  [γ]υ̣μνασιαρχ[---]  [.] η̣ς μείζονος̣ [---]  [.] Η̣ΝΣΥΝΩΣΤΗ[---]  5 [..] Γ̣ΗΝΣΑΝ[---]  (vac. 3)[---]  Ἑ̣ρ̣με̣ῖ Ἡρ̣[ακλεῑ](vac. 3)

Apparatus

2 Pugliese Carratelli-Oliverio, 1961  [γ]υμνασιαρχ[ήσαντα]

3 [.] η̣ς : Pugliese Carratelli-Oliverio, 1961  [τ]ῆς

6 Robert, Bulletin Épigraphique  Ἑ̣ρ̣με̣ῖ Ἡρ̣[ακλεῑ] : Pugliese Carratelli-Oliverio, 1961  Ε̣Ρ̣ΜΕ̣ΙΗ+

French translation

Arimmas fils d'Ari [---]  gymnasiarque  [---] , plus grand(e)  [---]  à Hermès, à Héraclès.

English translation

Arimmas son of Ari [---]  gymnasiarch  [---]  bigger  [---]  to Hermes, to Heracles.

Italian translation

Arimmas figlio di Ari [---]  ginnasiarco  [---] , più grande  [---]  a Hermes, a Eracle.

Commentary

This fragmentary inscription is very obscure.

At line 2, we may have a form either of γυμνασίαρχος or of γυμνασιαρχέω applying either to Ἀρίμμας, who was honoured, or to the honorand(s) mentioned as subject. The syntactic analysis is the more obscure because Ἀρίμμαν, normally an accusative, may be sometimes taken as a nominative case.

Pugliese Carratelli in editio princeps suggested that this man might be the same as the priest Arimman son of Arimman mentioned in IRCyr C.260, but too many personal names beginning with Ari- are attested in Cyrenaica to allow such a restoration.

At line 3, μείζονος might be either the comparative adjective or a personal name (father's name of  [---]  ης).

At line 4, this strange segment allows no direct interpretation. Very tentatively, one might think of a compound of σύν with some form derived from the root of ὠθέω, 'to push'.

At line 5, the photograph has clearly as first letter a gamma, so that it is impossible to get a feminine article. Amongst the rare words beginning with σαν- there is the word σανίς which means 'tablet' and sometimes 'painted panel', but this should not be pushed ahead.

At line 6 Robert's clever reading was probably already intended by Oliverio, but Pugliese Carratelli astonishingly did not write it down. Although spelled in koine, this mention recalls the lists of ephebes ending with a dedication to Hermes and Heracles, deities of the gymnasium. However, the koine touch is also perceivable through two possible feminine articles at ll. 3 and 4, but the rest escapes analysis.

Luni thought that this might be the fragmentary list of ephebes, the discovery of which had occurred in 1936 in what has been hypothetically the Roman gymnasium (later House of Jason Magnus). However this inscription can hardly be described as a list of ephebes, whereas other fragmentary lists might perhaps be the one in question.

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