Caption

IGCyr112900

Trismegistos ID: 738670

Source Description

Repository

Cyrene Museum, Storeroom of the Italian missions, A94 L4 87.

Support

Fragment of the bottom of an Attic black-glazed ware open vase (0.042; 0.03; -).

Layout

Scratched on the inside of the bottom, to be read from the rim.

Letters

0.003-0.006.

Place of Origin

Findspot.

Date

Probably fourth quarter of the fifth century B.C. (context, lettering)

Findspot

Found in 1994 by A. Santucci at Cyrene : agora , West of the Temple of Demeter and Kore .

Last recorded Location

Observed by R. Leone between 1997 and 2005 in Shahat : Storeroom of the Italian missions .

Present Location

Not seen by IGCyr team.

Text constituted from

Editor's transcription from photograph.

Bibliography

Marengo, 2010 , p. 153, n. 23, fig. 4, 23 and p. 144, whence SEG , 60.1841.6.

Text

λάχος

Apparatus

French translation

Portion (i.e. tirée au sort) (ou )Légumes verts.

English translation

(i.e. Allotted) portion (or) Vegetables.

Italian translation

Parte (i.e. avuta dalla sorte) (o) Erbe.

Commentary

The rare word λάχος is ambiguous, because there are two homonyms. The best known word, related to the verb λαγχάνω, means 'allotted portion' and was commented by Marengo with reference to Xenophon's Anab. V, 3,9: τῶν θυομένων ἀπὸ τῆς ἱερᾶς νομῆς λάχος, the context showing that it referred to an 'allotted portion' of the sacrificial meat. There is no clear hint for bloddy sacrifices on the agora, but the meaning 'portion' does not necessarily imply 'of meat'.

As an alternative, the existence of another λάχος meaning 'vegetables' like the derived form λάχανον is now known from an inscription in Larisa (see Tziafalias-Helly, 2013 , p. 132, l. 51). Suc an offering would perhaps fit Demeter's function as goddess of agriculture. A. Santucci (private communication to C. Dobias-Lalou) informs that in spite of the vicinity the sherd was not related to the sanctuary of the Anax. However it is neither clear that it was related to the sanctuary of Demeter and Kore because such sherds were re-used as filling under the pavement of the agora.

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