Support
Limestone base with a plain moulding on three sides only on top (0.785; 0.35;0.334).
Layout
Inscribed on front face along one guideline, beginning at 0.21 from left edge and 0.256 from right edge (0.665; 0.185;).
Letters
0.045-0.055; much worn out and difficult to read; smaller dotted theta.
Place of Origin
Findspot.
Date
Second half of second century B.C. (context, lettering)
Findspot
Found in 2005 at Cyrene pleiades; HGL : Southern Extra-Mural Sacred Zone , in the naos of the Extra-Mural Temple of Demeter .
Present Location
Not seen by IGCyr team.
Text constituted from
Transcription from stone (SMM).
Marengo, 2011 Marengo, S.M., 2011, Inscriptions du sanctuaire de Déméter, Comptes rendus des séances: Académie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres (CRAI)2011, 247-258 - see in bibliography , pp. 247-249, fig. 11 AB, whence SEG Supplementum Epigraphicum Graecum, Leiden, then Amsterdam, 1923-1971, then 1979- - see in bibliography , 61.1553.
À la déesse.
To the goddess.
Alla dea.
The most convincing parallels mentioned by Marengo of the use of the simple θεά are IGCyr002100 and IGCyr002300 from Taucheira, also for Demeter. The same name in IGCyr093200 is probably a different case.
The discovery of the base in the naos suggests that it is the cult statue; the statue of a single seated deity ( Cellini, 2010 Cellini, G.A., 2010, Le sculture rinvenute nella cella del tempio di Demetra a Cirene, in M. Luni (ed.), Cirene nell'antichità. Un cinquantennio di attività a Cirene della Missione Archeologica Italiana dell'Università di Urbino "Carlo Bo", Monografie di archeologia libica29, Cirene Atene d'Africa: attività delle missioni archeologiche internazionali a Cirene e in Cirenaica2, Roma, 101-115 - see in bibliography ) rules out the reading as a nominative plural θεαί. It is likely that the main deity of a sanctuary may be simply called 'the goddess'.
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.