-
Inscribed Stele (©Archaeological Exploration of Sardis/President and Fellows of Harvard College)
Inscribed Stele: Verse Funerary Inscription for Matis
- Date
- 4th to mid-3rd century BC (Hanfmann and Polatkan); perhaps mid-3rd century BC (Robert); “about 300 or slightly later” (Clairmont); “um 250 v.Chr.” (Merkelbach and Stauber)., Hellenistic
- Museum
- Manisa, Archaeological and Ethnographic Museum, 390
- Museum Inventory No.
- 390
- Sardis or Museum Inv. No.
- Manisa 390
- Material
- Marble, Stone
- Object Type
- Stele, Inscription
- Inscription Type
- Funerary Inscription
- Inscription language
- Greek
- Inscription Text
Ματις μέμ μοι τοὔνομ᾿ ἔφυ, πατρὶς δὲ Κελαιναί. Ἀνδρομένης δὲ πόσις τεῦξ᾿ ἔπι σῆμα τόδε, ὧι καὶ φιτύσασα λίπον τρεῖς παῖδας ἐν οἴκωι 4 θηλυτέρην τε μίαν, τοὺς ἔλιπον φθιμένα.
- Inscription Translation
- “Matis was my name, my homeland was Kelainai, and Andromenes my husband set up this stone over me; I bore for him and left behind me in our home three sons and one daughter. I left them (still living) when I died” (Clairmont).
- Inscription Comment
- Findspot
- Found in 1958 in a field ca. 1 km west of the Pactolus bridge, ca. 20 m south of the old İzmir-Ankara highway.
- Description
Stele of marble with pediment and acroteria. The inscription is under the pediment (no indentation of the pentameters). Below, there is a relief in a recess depicting a sitting woman on the right who takes some jewellery from a chest that is presented to her by a smaller standing woman, perhaps her daughter or a servant.
- Dimensions
- H. 1.56, W. 0.51, Th. 0.19, H. of letters ca. 0.008–0.015.
- Comments
1 Antiochos I replaced Kelainai with the foundation of Apameia; the former name continued to be used (Robert, Noms indig., p. 338 with n. 3).
3 ὧι καὶ φιτύσασα: The use of active instead of middle voice is noteworthy; LSJ, s.v. φιτύω: “sow, plant, beget…–Med., of the woman, bear.” Robert, Noms indig., p. 338: “notre épigramme montre que la règle n’est pas absolue.” Was φοιτήσασα intended? See LSJ, s.v. φοιτάω, I 3 (A. Chaniotis).
The stele is also mentioned in Hanfmann, Letters, p. 48, fig. 29; id., From Croesus to Constantine (1975), p. 59, fig. 121.
- See Also
- See also: R2, No. 134.
- Bibliography
- cf. Malay, Manisa Museum, p. 81, no. 214 (no text); G. M. A. Hanfmann and K. Z. Polatkan, AJA 64 (1960), pp. 49–52 (archaeology); Robert, ibid., pp. 53–56 (inscription), pls. 9:1–3 and 10:5; an extended version of these pages, concerning primarily onomastical questions: L. Robert, Noms indig., pp. 337–51 (Clairmont, Gravestone and Epigram, p. 163, no. 87; Pfuhl and Möbius, Ostgr. Grabrel. I, p. 247, no. 969, pl. 145). Hanfmann and Ramage, R2, pp. 114–15, no. 134, figs. 267–68; SPRT, p. 89, fig. 171. (Herrmann, ms.; R. Merkelbach and J. Stauber, Steinepigramme aus dem griechischen Osten 1 [1998], p. 407, no. 04/02/10, with photos).
- Author
- GP