Dedication to the Eumenides
IGCyr114000
Trismegistos ID: 738693
Source Description
Support
Rock-cut altar with two compartments and a sort of platform to the right (total dimensions not registered).
Layout
Inscribed in two lines on the rocky front wall below the platform, in a smoothened panel (0.32; 0.14;).
Letters
0.05, regular letters, slanting sigma.
Place of Origin
Findspot.
Date
Perhaps ca. 300 B.C. (lettering, context)
Findspot
Found by J.-S. Caillou (French mission) on September 5th, 2004 in the Port of Cyrene, later Apollonia pleiades; HGL : to the North and at bottom of the so-called Kallikrateia Rock .
Last recorded Location
Seen by C. Dobias-Lalou in situ at the time of discovery and again in 2010.
Text constituted from
Transcription from stone (CDL).
Bibliography
C. Dobias-Lalou in Caillou, 2010 Caillou, J.-S., 2010, La zone sacrée de Callicrateia à Apollonia de Cyrénaïque, in M. Luni (ed.), Cirene e la Cirenaica nell'Antichità, Monografie di archeologia libica30, Cirene Atene d'Africa: attività delle missioni archeologiche internazionali a Cirene e in Cirenaica3, Roma, 175-85 - see in bibliography , p. 181, fig. 10, n. 22, whence SEG Supplementum Epigraphicum Graecum, Leiden, then Amsterdam, 1923-1971, then 1979- - see in bibliography , 60.1830; Dobias-Lalou, 2012 Dobias-Lalou, C., 2012, Prendre la mer et se confier aux dieux: une nouvelle épigramme grecque du port de Cyrène, in J.Chr. Couvenhes et alii (éd.); L'hellénisme, d'une rive à l'autre de la Méditerranée. Mélanges offerts à André Laronde, Paris, 225-238 - see in bibliography , pp. 230-231 and fig. 5..
Apparatus
2 Εὐ(μενίδων) : Caillou, 2010 Caillou, J.-S., 2010, La zone sacrée de Callicrateia à Apollonia de Cyrénaïque, in M. Luni (ed.), Cirene e la Cirenaica nell'Antichità, Monografie di archeologia libica30, Cirene Atene d'Africa: attività delle missioni archeologiche internazionali a Cirene e in Cirenaica3, Roma, 175-85 - see in bibliography ΕΥ
French translation
Kallis; (autel) des Euménides.
English translation
Kallis; (altar) of the Eumenides.
Italian translation
Kallis; (altare) delle Eumenidi.
Commentary
A personal name inscribed in front of a rock-cut altar is usual in Cyrenaica, showing the place where the man worships a deity. Usually, there are no father's names. In this occurrence, it might be possible that ευ would be the abbreviated form of the father's name, as many names in Eu- are common in Cyrenaica.
More convincing however is the idea of an abbreviation of the name of the Eumenides, who were also worshipped at other places in similar contexts. At Ain Hofra there is no instance of so short an abbreviation (see IGCyr030900 and followings), whereas the same one occurs at an unidentified place near Cyrene: IGCyr064600.
Alternatively, it might even be a full-word εὖ in a formula of good wish: 'Kallis, good luck', but this seems less probable because of the presence of the altars.
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