Dedication to Apollo
IGCyr125600
Trismegistos ID: 738805
Source Description
Repository
Cyrene Museum, 126.
Support
Fragment of a white marble panel, broken off on all sides (0.10; 0.20;0.017).
Layout
Inscribed in four lines on the face; a taller alpha, cut at the top so lightly that it does not appear on the squeeze, is probably a later graffito and will not be taken into account.
Letters
0.012, carefully cut, without serifs; alpha with low bar, slanting sigma.
Place of Origin
Findspot.
Date
Fourth century B.C. (lettering)
Findspot
Probably found before World War II at Cyrene pleiades; HGL : plausibly from the Sanctuary of Apollo .
Last recorded Location
Seen by C. Dobias-Lalou in 1979 in Shahat : Cyrene Museum .
Text constituted from
Transcription from stone (CDL).
Bibliography
Not previously published.
Text
Apparatus
French translation
[---] s étant prêtre, [---] [avec les revenus des] chiots [---] [le sacrifice a été fait] à Apollon pour une valeur de [---] drachmes d'Alexandre.
English translation
[---] s being priest, [---] [from the revenues of the], puppies [---] [was/were sacrificed] to Apollo at the value of [---] drachmas of Alexander.
Italian translation
[---] s quando era sacerdote, [---] [dai proventi dei] cuccioli [---] [il sacrificio è stato fatto] ad Apollo per un valore di [---] dracme di Alessandro.
Arabic translation
.[---] فترة الكاهن ، [--- من عائدات بيع]، الجراء [--- كان قد قدم] إلى أبولو بقيمة [---] دراخما من عملة الإسكندر
Commentary
By lettering and matter, this inscription recalls IGCyr020800 and IGCyr020900, two dedications made 'thanks to the revenues of puppies and birds'. However, only the word for 'puppies' is here preserved and the formulation is more elaborate, as it mentions Apollo as recipient.
Although the non-dialectal epsilon in ἱερι- is surprising at this date, the restoration seems unescapable: with iota as last letter, it can only be a form of the verb 'to be priest', generally used at the participle in a dating formula. Τhe ending -υς, belonging to a name in -ης, allows to restore the usual formula at the genitive case.
L. 2, as puppies were not offered to Apollo, we must infer that we have the same formulation as in the above-mentioned inscriptions, explaining the origin of the money spent for the offering, the word being at the genitive case, with or without ἀπό.
L. 3 before the mention of Apollo, the ending -η should belong to a passive aorist. Our restoration is exempli gratia .
At l. 4 a personal name would not fit in the construction with the passive verb. An alternative is offered by comparison with IGCyr095150 and IGCyr127500. For the adoption of Alexander's silver drachma, see Laronde, 1987 Laronde, A., 1987, Cyrène et la Libye hellénistique. Libykai historiai de l’époque républicaine au principat d’Auguste, Paris - see in bibliography , p. 240. About Alexander's silver, see Knoepfler, 1997 Knoepfler, D., 1997, Alexandreion nomisma. L'apparition et la disparition de l'argent d'Alexandre dans les inscriptions grecques. Quelques réflexions complémentaires, Topoi. Orient Occident, 7.1, 33-50 - see in bibliography .
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