Unclear graffito

IGCyr079200

Trismegistos ID: 738376

Source Description

Repository

Cyrene Museum, Storeroom of the American excavations, sherdboxes 23.3, 34.3 and 42.1.

Support

Three non-joining fragments of Attic black figure ware amphora, all from a flaring mouth of estimated diameter 0.20; presuming that the dimension given by the editor is the width, it is for fragment a 0.117, for fragment b 0.127, for fragment c 0.082.

Layout

Incised on the flat top of the rim, all three fragments form a single line.

Letters

Height unknown; alpha with inclined central bar, digamma, three-strokes iota, symmetrical lambda, + as khi.

Place of Origin

Findspot.

Date

Second quarter of sixth century B.C. (context)

Findspot

Found between 1969 and 1978 at Cyrene : Enclosed sanctuary of Demeter and Kore , area E11.

Present Location

Not seen by IGCyr team.

Text constituted from

Transcription from previous editor.

Bibliography

Moore, 1987 , n. 5 (ph.), whence SEG , 37.1703. Cf. Dobias-Lalou, 2015 , pp. 62-63.

Text

fragment a
[---] ον · χαρι̣[---] 
fragment b
[---]  ε Λοκρο[---] 
fragment c
[---] ΟΙ (vac.)

Apparatus

Fragm. b

b (Moore gives a diplomatic edition without any interpretation) SEG  [---]  +LOKRO[---]  (in Latin alphabet)

French translation

Intraduisible.

English translation

Not usefully translatable.

Italian translation

Intraducibile.

Commentary

The editor gave only a diplomatic transcription, from which SEG gave an inaccurate transcription into Ionic alphabet, and even into Latin alphabet for fragm. b!

The first letter of fragm. b being incomplete might be an epsilon or rather a digamma as Moore, 1987 proposes. The second letter cannot be anything but a lambda, with a shape that does not belong to the Attic archaic alphabet. The name of the Locrians seems to stay here either as an ethnic or as a personal name. If the digamma was sure, it would give a clue to its etymology. However, as no other document, in Locria or elsewhere, does confirm such a fact, it seems more cautious to admit here an epsilon, which would be the end of the preceding word.

The final letter of fragm. c and the last letter of fragm. a are three-stroke iotas.

Fragm. c is a good candidate for the end of a sentence, followed by a blank. Both other fragments might also be taken in order b-a.

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