Description: Limestone altar, moulded above and below
(w:
0.50 x h:
1.00 x d:
0.35);
one of a set of six altars, C.323, C.324, C.325,
C.326, C.327, C.328.
Text: Inscribed on one face. a is on the upper moulding, b on the face below.
Letters: Probably second century, 0.08; lunate epsilon.
Date: Probably second century
Findspot:
Cyrene:
Fountain Terrace: Found probably in 1931,
collected together, the inscriptions were turned face inwards, near the rock face, beside the Byzantine lime kilns.
Original location: Unknown.
Last recorded location:
Findspot.
a: [Ἥ]ρᾳ SECir, 1961-1962; Ἑρ[μᾶι] Dobias-Lalou, 2000; ?[Κύ]ρᾳ Catani, 2007
English translation
Translation by: Charlotte Roueché
. . . ]ra, of many ways.
Commentary
All the altars in this set that are legible contain unusual elements. There is a discussion by Pugliese-Carratelli (1963).
a.line 1 This is now completely destroyed, but the one letter Ρ is visible on the photograph; Oliverio recorded a second sloping letter (Α or Λ), and Pugliese Carratelli restored [Ἥ]ρᾳ̣. Other possibilites are [Ἑ]ρ[μαῖ]/Hermes, who has the epithet in Homeric Ηymn IV,13 (at Perseus); [Ἄ]ρ[ει]/Ares on the analogy of Ἄρης πολυπάλαμος in C.324; or the local nymph Kyra, [Κύ]ρᾳ.
Bibliography: SECir, 1961-1962, 156.3, fig 117 (drawing only, from T. XXI, 7-10), whence Robert, Bulletin Épigraphique, 1964.570; Dobias-Lalou, 2000, whence SEG 50.1637; Catani, 2007, 3 whence SEG 57.2020, Dobias-Lalou, Bulletin Épigraphique, 2008.604.
Text constituted from: Transcription (Reynolds).
