Description:
Marble
plinth, broken at the left side
(w:
0.60 x h:
0.07 x d:
0.32).
It carries a statue of a Muse.
Text: Inscribed on one face; The letters are so rough and small that it is difficult to believe that it was
more than a "shop-label" or even a graffito.
Letters: 0.02, ε.
Date: Second or third centuries CE
Findspot:
Cyrene,
House of Jason Magnus, south corridor of the peristyle, standing with
three other statues of Muses, without inscriptions; found in 1936.
Original location: Unknown
Last recorded location:
Findspot
English translation
Translation by: Charlotte Roueché
Thalia
Commentary
One of a set of the nine Muses for which a number of other bases survive but are uninscribed; by contrast a further group, found in Theatre 3, was professionally labelled: C.24, C.25, C.26, C.27, C.28, C.29 . If the building is correctly regarded as the official residence of the gymnasiarch (see C.57), the Muses were presumably chosen because of their connexion with παιδεία. .
Bibliography: Unpublished. For the staues see Mingazzini, 1966, 73ff, with Goodchild, 1966-67
Text constituted from: Transcription (Reynolds).
Images
Fig. 1. View with text (Joyce Reynolds, IV.79)
Fig. 2. View of the base (Joyce Reynolds, IV.79)
Fig. 3. View and background (1961, Joyce Reynolds, IV.79)