Dedication, plausibly to Demeter and Kore
IGCyr107600
Trismegistos ID: 738605
Source Description
Repository
Cyrene Museum (Storeroom of the American excavations), 73-445.
Support
Bottom right-hand corner of block of coarse-grained white marble (0.115; 0.09; -; diameter 0.135).
Layout
Inscribed on the face which is encrusted.
Letters
0.015 to 0.02; without serifs; circular letter smaller than the rest, dissymmetrical nu, slanting sigma.
Place of Origin
Findspot.
Date
Perhaps fifth or fourth century B.C. (lettering)
Findspot
Found in 1974 at Cyrene pleiades; HGL : Enclosed sanctuary of Demeter and Kore : area C15/16, 1, 1.
Present Location
Not seen by IGCyr team.
Text constituted from
Transcription from previous editor.
Bibliography
Reynolds, 2012 Reynolds, J.M., 2012, Appendix: the inscriptions on stone and lead, in D. White (ed.), The extramural sanctuary of Demeter and Persephone at Cyrene, Libya, final reports VIII: the sanctuary’s imperial architectural development, conflict with Christianity, and final days, Philadelphia - see in bibliography A.2 (no image). Cf. Dobias-Lalou, Bulletin Épigraphique Dobias-Lalou, C.Bulletin Épigraphique in Études Grecques (REG)1987- - see in bibliography , 2013.480.
Apparatus
French translation
[---] Theano [---] en qualité d' hyperdikos .
English translation
[---] Theano [---] acting as hyperdikos .
Italian translation
[---] Theanò [---] in qualità di hyperdikos .
Commentary
The feminine name Θεανώ may be in the nominative or accusative case, thus naming either the dedicant or the woman whose statue was dedicated. Too much is lost to decide.
For line 2 we accept and develop a suggestion of J.M. Reynolds: one example of the corresponding aorist participle survives in a complete dedication in the same sanctuary (IRCyr C.451) and one of the present participle at Arsinoe-Taucheira, also in a sanctuary of Demeter and Kore (IRCyr T.25). Other mentions of ὑπέρδικος and the related verb mean 'pleading for, advocate' and the context is generally judicial. In IRCyr C.451 a woman is mentioned as having been hyperdikos and priestess, but it is not clear whether she was both at the same time or successively. J.M. Reynolds suggests that this woman's role might be to plead for other women wanting to be initiated. She would be a kind of intercessor.
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