Funerary inscription
created: Transcription (Reynolds).
source date: Probably between 70 and 115 CE
language: ar; en; fr; de; grc; grc-Latn; el; he
availability: Creative Commons licence Attribution UK 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/uk/) All reuse or distribution of this work must contain somewhere a link back to the URL http://insaph.kcl.ac.uk/

Bibliography

[...], 36, p.55,, whence, with new readings by Reynolds, [...] 20.771, [...] 324522, [...], 1964.593; [...], 42.a, whence [...] 33.1475, [...] 324649.

ἕκτη Μεϲορὴ τέθνηκεν ὁ ποθητὸϲ Ἄδωνιϲ Ὑάκινθοϲ ἐτῶν δεχεπτὰ κ’ οὐδ’ ὅληϲ ἡμέραϲ ἄουε εὐψύχι τέκνον Ὑάκιν θε

Apparatus

[^a1: at 1: Ἕκῑω, τεθν[η] [, corr. Reynolds, ap. SEG]]

[^a2: at 2: π[ο]θητὸς, Ἄδω[ν]ις [, corr. Reynolds, ap. SEG]]

[^a3: at 5: vac.. [εὐ]ψύχι [, corr. Reynolds, ap. SEG]]

[^a4: at 6: vac. Ὑάκιν[θ]o(ς) [, corr. Reynolds, ap. SEG]]

Translations

Am sechsten Mesore starb der beklagte Adonis Hyakinthos, siebzehn Jahre, und nicht einamal einen ganzen Tag mehr; ave, lebe wohl, Kind Hyakinthos

On the sixth of the month Mesore [30 July] died the much-loved Adonis, Hyakinthos. aged 17 years and not even a whole day (more). Ave, live well, child Hyakinthos.

Commentary

No other inscribed tombs have been uncovered in this quarry, but a number of seven branched candesticks have been reported there, of which one was seen in 1968; this should mean that it was a Jewish cemetery.

Line 2: Adonis: Perhaps in the sense of "darling", as in Anth. Pal. V. 113, 1.3, available at Perseus, but see also Robert, Hellenica VIII. 45 f. where it is stressed that the implied comparison could recall both the beauty and the early death of the subject.

Line 4: Κ perhaps for καί; it may have been the intention to state that he did not live for a whole day more than his seventeen years but the text is too obscure for certainty.

Line 5: The formula is rare in Cyrenaica but is common elsewhere and does occur in Jewish Cemeteries, eg. at Tell el Yehudieh, CIJ II, 1477.

Line 6: The cutter has avoided a fault in the stone.