Dedication of the Propylaeum

IGCyr098200

Trismegistos ID: 738499

Source Description

Repository

Cyrene Museum, 342+359.

Support

Two adjacent white marble panels recomposed from numerous fragments, the left one (a) nearly complete, (0.705; 0.30;0.065); the right one (b) having lost about one half at right (width 0.34).

Layout

Inscribed in two lines on front face.

Letters

0.10; xi with vertical central stroke, slanting sigma, calice-shaped upsilon.

Place of Origin

Findspot.

Date

Ca. 325 B.C. (prosopography)

Findspot

Found by G. Oliverio in 1932 at Cyrene : Sanctuary of Apollo , Greek Propylaeum .

Later recorded Location

Seen by Pugliese Carratelli in 1960 in Shahat : Cyrene Museum .

Last recorded Location

Stones seen by C. Dobias-Lalou in 1976 in the Museum. A cast has been placed in the South architrave of the Greek Propylaeum .

Text constituted from

Transcription from stone (CDL).

Bibliography

SECir , 129, and Laronde, 1987 , pp. 106-107, 118, 190-191, whence SEG , 38.1893. Cf. Ensoli in Bonacasa-Ensoli, 2000 , p. 128 with further bibliography at p. 218; Luni, 2014 , pp. 135-141.

Text

Πραξιάδας Εὐ[κλείδα] ἱαριτεύων ἀν[έθηκε].

Apparatus

Laronde, 1987  Εὐ[κλείδα] : SECir  Εὐ[---] 

French translation

Praxiadas fils d'Eukleidas a consacré (ce monument), pendant sa prêtrise.

English translation

Praxiadas son of Eukleidas dedicated (this monument) while being priest.

Italian translation

Praxiadas figlio di Eukleidas ha dedicato (questo monumento) quando era sacerdote.

Commentary

At SECir , Pugliese Carratelli cited part of the then unpublished 'Report of excavations during summer 1933' in posession of the Antiquities Department of Cyrene with the following description: «Tempio di Apollo. Propilei preromani che il sacerdote Praxiade figlio di Eu--- offrì ad Apollo (…) Nel mezzo dell' architrave era incastrata la lastra di marmo iscritta, che ricorda Praxiade, rinvenuta in numerosi frammenti». In fact, before having identified the function of the building, Oliverio had already discovered the fragmentary inscription in 1932, as the recent publication of the series of Reports demonstrates (see Luni, 2014 , p. 135 for 1932 and p. 141 for 1933).

Laronde, 1987 , pp. 107, 191 has convincingly dated the inscription at the beginning of the fourth quarter of the fourth century B.C. He has also argued that his proposed restoration of the father's name fitted exactly the space available at line 1, allowing to place this priest into a well-known family.

A cast of the inscription has been inserted into the Propylaeum, restored in a status dated with archaeological arguments at the beginning of the third century.

Both opinions are not irreconciliable if we accept the idea that Praxiadas' benefaction did not happen at the ultimate stage of elaboration of the passage between the Upper Terrace and the Sanctuary proper, the more so that the restored placement of the dedication is too high to let it be easily readable.

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