Dedication to Apollo

IGCyr127500

Trismegistos ID: 738822

Source Description

Repository

Cyrene Museum, 230.

Support

White marble rectangular block, broken off at right and left, also lacking the upper surface (0.21; 0.25;0.08).

Layout

Inscribed on the face.

Letters

0.02-0.025; very carefully cut with serifs; still slanting sigma.

Place of Origin

Findspot.

Date

Probably second half of third century B.C. (lettering)

Findspot

Found before 1979 at Cyrene : 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

( vac. ) [---]  [---]  [Ζ]ωίλω [---]  [---]  [Κάλ]λ̣ις Κυλ[ία ---]  [---]  Ἀπόλλ[ωνι ---]  [---] ΓΕΙ ἐκ χ̣[ιλίων?] 5[δραχμῶν? Ἀλεξα]νδρείο[υ ἀργυρίου]. (vac. 2 lines)

Apparatus

4-5 χ̣[ιλίων?] | [δραχμῶν?] : (or) χ [δραχμῶν] | [---] 

French translation

[Untel] fils de Zôilos, [Untel fils d'Untel], Kallis fils de Kylias, (ont consacré) [---]  à Apollon  [---]  d'une valeur de 1000 [drachmes d'argent] d'Alexandre.

English translation

[So-and-so] son of Zoilos, [So-and-so son of So-and-so], Kallis son of Kylias, (dedicated) [---]  to Apollo  [---]  worth 1000 [drachmas] of Alexander's [silver].

Italian translation

[Il tale] figlio di Zoilos, [il tale figlio del tale], Kallis figlio di Kylias, (hanno dedicato) [---]  ad Apollo  [---]  del valore di 1000 [dracme d'argento] di Alessandro.

Arabic translation

.[فلان] بن زويلوس و[فلان بن فلان] وكاليس بن كيلياس، (أهدوا) [---] لأبولو [---] قيمة 1000 [دراخما] من عملة الإسكندر [الفضية]

Commentary

This monumental inscription is clearly a dedication to Apollo (l. 3), whose name was perhaps preceded by the article. The object of the dedication should stay at lines 3-4, whereas lines 4-5 mention the value of the offering in drachms of Alexander's silver (or νομίσματος 'currency'), like at IGCyr010800 l. 8, IGCyr095150, IGCyr125600 and IGCyr127500. The faint hints of a letter that may only be a chi before the break at line 4 show that the number was 1000, either expressed through the letter chi alone or written in full.

As a consequence of the place of the vestiges of names there should be probably three dedicants mentioned at lines 1-2, with more space left after them at line 2, which might be filled with a participle mentioning perhaps an office or the accomplishment of a religious duty. The verbe of dedication, if expressed, would not be placed before the name of the god.

The offering should have been mentioned at lines 3-4. We are considering a word at the accusative at the end of line 3. What survives at line 4 seems to be the end of a dative, perhaps a formula like σύν τῶι/τῆι (the omicron at line 5 shows that the text was in koine). However the word ending with -γει, either a neutre in -γος or a masculine in -γεύς is not easy to guess.

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