Dedication to Hekate
IGCyr102920
Trismegistos ID: 738541
Source Description
Support
Limestone altar with two compartments (0.555; 0.105;0.35).
Layout
Inscribed on front face.
Letters
0.01 to 0.017.
Place of Origin
Findspot.
Date
End of sixth or beginning of fifth century B.C. (lettering)
Findspot
Found in 1929 or 1930 at Cyrene pleiades; HGL : West of the Strategeion, in the so-called Agora of the Gods .
Last recorded Location
Seen by D. Morelli in 1960 in situ.
Present Location
Not found by IGCyr team.
Text constituted from
Transcription from previous editor.
Bibliography
Morelli in SECir Oliverio, G., Pugliese-Carratelli, G., Morelli, D., 1961-1962, Supplemento Epigrafico Cirenaico, Annuario della Scuola Archeologica di Atene e delle Missioni Italiane in Oriente (ASAA)39-40 (= n.s. 23-24), 219-375 - see in bibliography , 219 (no image); Dobias-Lalou, 2000 Dobias-Lalou, C., 2000, Le dialecte des inscriptions grecques de Cyrène, Karthago25, Paris - see in bibliography , p. 13. Cf. Parisi Presicce, 2007 Parisi Presicce, C., 2007, Apobomios, epibomios, probomios: indagini sul culto di Apollo a Cirene, in L. Gasperini, S. Marengo (eds.), Cirene e la Cirenaica nell'antichità: atti del convegno internazionale di studi, Roma-Frascati, 18-21 dicembre 1996, Ichnia9, 491-524Tivoli, - see in bibliography .
Apparatus
1 hεκάτα : SECir Oliverio, G., Pugliese-Carratelli, G., Morelli, D., 1961-1962, Supplemento Epigrafico Cirenaico, Annuario della Scuola Archeologica di Atene e delle Missioni Italiane in Oriente (ASAA)39-40 (= n.s. 23-24), 219-375 - see in bibliography Ἡκάτα (!)
French translation
Hécate.
English translation
Hekate.
Italian translation
Ecate.
Commentary
Morelli gave neither image nor precision about the characters. He only expressed some surprise at the first letter being an eta.
On the one hand, if the lettering allowed to place this inscription at the end of the sixth or the beginning of the fifth century, eta would stand for [he] in a period when its new value of [e:] was not yet quite customary. On the other hand, most altars with compartments seem to belong rather to the Hellenistic period; eta would then be erroneous for epsilon. We choose nevertheless the former reading which seems more sensible.
Another queer point is the use of the nominative, for most other altars have the genitive, which mentions the god (or goddess) as owner of the altar. See however a possible instance at IGCyr103000.
Creative Commons Attributions-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
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.
