Dedication to ?Apollo
created: Transcription from the stone and from the photograph (Reynolds).
source date: Second-third century 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://inslib.kcl.ac.uk/

Bibliography

From a copy by Reynolds [...], 215-218, whence [...], 1977.591, [...] 26.1830, [...] 324724; republished [...], 113-4, whence [...] 31.1576, [...] 324542

δε[...]ν Ἀντίπατροϲ ἱερώμενοϲ [...] ἐκ προϲόδων ἱερῶν νηοὺϲ Μ [...]ια [...] εὐτυχῶϲ Κορακίῳ

Translations

Daileon Antipatros, essendo sacerdote, puli, [prelevando i soldi] dai fondi dei templi, gli ambienti interni del manteion, secondo il responso favorevole del corvetto

De[- . . . ] Antipatros, serving as priest [ . . . ] from sacred income, the temples [ . . . ]. With good fortune for Korakios!

Commentary

Stucchi (art. cit.) interprets this text as a query to the oracle, and interpreted the area as a Mithraeum; but Gordon (loc. cit.) argued strongly agains this.

Line 1: We should expect name and patronymic here, but Ἀντίπατρος is in the nominative; it is perhaps relevant, in view of the possibly Mithraic character of the Cave of the Priests, that in the Mithraeum at Dura Europos ἀντίπατρος seems to be used as a title, perhaps indicating a transitory grade preceding that of πατήρ (The Excavations at Dura-Europos, seventh and eighth seasons, Yale, 1939, pp. 119 and 124).

Line 1 This would normally indicate a Priest of Apollo, but if the subject was a Mithraic initiate, may here be used for a priesthood within the Mithraic cult.

Line 2 Apollo's funds, normally used for building and maintenance within the Sanctuary, are otherwise always described as αἱ Ἀπόλλωνος προσόδοι.

Line 4 Probably a name or signum; it may be that it indicates a connexion with the Mithraic grade of κόραξ, but we have found no parallel to support such a suggestion. Dobias-Lalou suggests a reference to the epithet Korax of Apollo (see IGCyr 001000).