Inscribed Stele Fragment: Votive Stele Dedication to a Goddess
- Date
- 2nd–3rd century AD?, Roman
- Sardis or Museum Inv. No.
- IN67.043
- Material
- Marble, Stone
- Object Type
- Stele, Inscription
- Inscription Type
- Religious Inscription
- Inscription language
- Greek
- Inscription Text
[ - ]Ι̣ανὴ εὐαμ̣[ένη ?] [ - ]ι̣ θεᾷ Ανδ[- ] [ὑπ]ὲρ τ⟦υ̣⟧ῆς ὁλο[κληρί]- 4 [ας] ἀνέθηκα. vacat
- Inscription Translation
- “I, [- -]ane, after having made a vow, have dedicated (the stele) to the goddess And[- -] for my health.”
- Inscription Comment
- Site
- Sardis
- Sector
- Syn
- Trench
- Syn 67
- Locus
- Syn FC Above Floor
- B-Grid Coordinates
- E108 / N1.26 *96.33
- Findspot
- Synagogue, Forecourt.
- Description
Fragment of a stele of white marble; the original width is preserved, but the beginning and the end of the lines are damaged. On the upper side there are remains of a molding. The script runs between guidelines. Squared lunate sigma.
- Dimensions
- H. 0.30, W. 0.30, Th. 0.08, H. of letters 0.017–0.02.
- Comments
Herrmann’s supplements. Commentary mostly after Herrmann:
1 The vertical stroke is separated from the following ANH by a larger spatium: I or T? - εὐχ̣αμ̣[ένη ?]: X is written, perhaps under the influence of Latin “X,” over a deleted letter. Intended was probably εὐξαμένη.
1–2 Herrmann considers the supplement [Μη/τρ]ὶ θεᾷ Ἀνδ[ίσσῃ] (he refers to MAMA VI 398 [Midas City] and J. and L. Robert, BE 1939, 415). If this is correct the dedication was made to the Mother Goddess Angdistis (for her cult in Sardis, see no. 434, 11); her name is transmitted in many variants; see J. Keil, ÖJh 18 (1915), pp. 73–76, and L. Robert, Asie Min., pp. 236–40, amongst which Ἀνδισσι, Ἀνδισσῃ, Ἀνδιξεος, Ἀνδξι (Robert, op. cit., p. 239). Her cult is also known in the neighboring city of Philadelpheia, TAM V 3, 1539, 51.
Other candidates are θεὰ Ἀνδηνή, who is known from the area of Maionia (SEG 56, 1253 and Malay and Petzl, New Religious Texts, no. 193); also Μήτηρ Ἀνδιρηνή, μάκαιρα θεά, ἡ θεός, from Karakoca near Taza(?), northeastern Lydia, to whom the poetical confession inscription Malay and Petzl, op. cit., no. 188, is addressed.
3 τ⟦υ̣⟧ῆς: the Y, which was presumably written erroneously, is deleted.
3–4 ὁλοκληρία and related terms replace the word ὑγίεια in the second–third century AD, see L. Robert, Hellenica X, pp. 96–103 and Petzl, Beichtinschriften, no. 62, 4–6 comm.
- See Also
- Bibliography
- Unpublished. Herrmann, ms.
- Author
- GP