Repository
Cyrene Museum, no inv. number.
Support
Upper and lower part of a white carefully polished marble naiskos; the upper part (1.13; 0.10; -) has a low triangular pediment with acroteria at each angle (the left one broken off), surmounting a small plain moulding of eggs and darts and a plain architrave (the right end of which is broken off). The lower part (0.94; 0.22;0.31) is constituted of a rectangular low base with four moulded feet; on the base rested a sculptured group of which the only vestiges are at both front angles the legs of a kneeled person and in the middle two webbed feet of an animal, perhaps a swan.
Layout
Very lightly inscribed on the architrave below the gable, the letters being then painted alternately in yellow, red and blue; the very frail epidermis of the marble is lost at some places and the reddish color due to a long stay in the local earth makes the reading difficult if not under low light.
Letters
0.045; space between each letter 0.05; small circular letters, slantering sigma, higher stroke for phi, slightly curved triangular letters.
Place of Origin
Date
Second half of third century B.C. (lettering)
Findspot
Found before 1983 at Cyrene pleiades; HGL : to the South of the city, in the area of the Wadi El-Aish .
Last recorded Location
Seen by C. Dobias-Lalou in 2001 in Shahat : Cyrene Museum .
Text constituted from
Transcription from stone (CDL).
Mohamed-Reynolds, 1997 Mohamed, F.A., Reynolds, J., 1997, New funerary incriptions from Cyrene, Libya Antiqua (LibAnt)n.s. 3, 31-45 - see in bibliography , pp. 36-38 n. 9 (dr.) (cf. Dobias-Lalou, Bulletin Épigraphique Dobias-Lalou, C.Bulletin Épigraphique in Études Grecques (REG)1987- - see in bibliography , 1999.623), whence SEG Supplementum Epigraphicum Graecum, Leiden, then Amsterdam, 1923-1971, then 1979- - see in bibliography , 47.2185. Cf. Cinalli, 2016 Cinalli, A., 2016, Painted and charcoal inscriptions from the territory of Cyrene. Evidence from the underworld, in R. Benefiel, P. Keegan, Inscriptions in the private sphere in the Graeco-Roman world, 9, 181-212 - see in bibliography , p. 184.
1 Dobias-Lalou, Bulletin Épigraphique Dobias-Lalou, C.Bulletin Épigraphique in Études Grecques (REG)1987- - see in bibliography Φιλοθάλε̣υς : Mohamed-Reynolds, 1997 Mohamed, F.A., Reynolds, J., 1997, New funerary incriptions from Cyrene, Libya Antiqua (LibAnt)n.s. 3, 31-45 - see in bibliography Φιλοθάλους (the epidermis of the marble has been dropped on a rectangular zone exactly corresponding to the shape of an epsilon, which gives the awaited dialectal ending)
Theukhrestos fils de Philothalès.
Theuchrestos son of Philothales.
Theuchrestos figlio di Philothales.
The first editors, although conscious of the typological uniqueness of this monument, admitted its funerary nature on the idea that it was found in Wadi el-Aish, a small valley tributary of the Wadi Bil Gadir where a great part of the South Necropolis developed. However, other objects said to come from there were undoubtedly items having formerly been exposed in the sanctuary of Apollo (see IGCyr109200 and IGCyr109300).
So it is much more probable that this monument was a votive offering. We should wait at least some additional mention with the deity (probably Apollo) to whom the monument was offered. Whereas no inscription can be seen on the base, it is possible that something was written on the sides, that are now lost.
The dating of the lettering 'probably fourth century' by the first editors is not convincing. And, given that Θεύχρηστος is a very common name at Cyrene, the possible prosopographic link cautiously put forward with the well-known Mnasarchos' family is impossible, although one argument against it, the situation of the tomb, seems now out of the question.
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