Dedication to Demeter and Kore

IGCyr107500

Trismegistos ID: 738604

Source Description

Repository

Cyrene Museum (Storeroom of the American excavations), 74-426.

Support

Fragment of fluted column of large-grained white marble (0.17; 0.14; -; diameter 0.055); broken along the edges and chipped on the surfaces.

Layout

Inscribed within two of the surviving flutes.

Letters

0.025; no serifs, dissymmetrical nu.

Place of Origin

Findspot.

Date

Fifth or fourth century B.C. (lettering)

Findspot

Found in 1973 at Cyrene : Enclosed sanctuary of Demeter and Kore : area E12/13, E, 2.

Present Location

Not seen by IGCyr team.

Text constituted from

Transcription from previous editor.

Bibliography

Reynolds, 2012 A.1 (no image).

Text

[---]  [Δάμ?]α̣τ̣ρι ( vac. ) [καὶ? Κόραι? ---] φ̣ορος ἀν[έθηκε]

Apparatus

2 ἀν[έθηκε] : Reynolds, 2012  ἀν[έθηκε?]

French translation

[---]  [---] phoros [a consacré?](ce monument) à [Dèm?]èter [et Korè?].

English translation

[---]  To [Dem?]eter [and Kore? ---] phoros [dedicated?].

Italian translation

[---]  A [Dem?]etra [e a Kore? ---] phoros [ha dedicato?].

Commentary

Although incomplete, the two first letters of line 1 were possibly alpha and tau, so that Δάματρι is very plausible; καὶ Κόραι may have followed, if the gap was only of one letter, but this is not compulsory.

At l. 3 Reynolds' idea that the verb stood at the end is quite convincing, as well as her idea that it was preceded by the name of the dedicator; what survives of the latter's mention might be either the end of a man's name (not followed by his father's name), e.g. Nikephoros as in IRCyr C.50 or of a title such as τελεσφόρος, which would correspond to the many dedications by τελεσφορέντες already known at Cyrene for Apollo and Artemis. It should be stressed that the compound adjective may be either a masculine of a feminine and would thus be appropriate also for Demeter and Kore's cult. However, if ever it is the adjective, that means that a large part has been lost at left and it is difficult to imagine what stood at the beginning of line 1.

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