<rs type="textType">Funerary</rs> inscription for Theseus

Charlotte M. Roueché and Gabriel Bodard2007

Creative Commons licence Attribution 2.5 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5/)

All reuse or distribution of this work must contain somewhere a link back to the URL http://insaph.kcl.ac.uk/

Originally published in McCabe (1993).

 English French German Ancient Greek Transliterated Greek Modern Greek Italian Latin Spanish Turkish AsiaTurkeyAphrodisiasGeyre 2007-02-08Charlotte TupmanHand tidiedGBhand tidied 2005-12-13Elliott HallBatch converted Word2XML
Description of Monument

White marblesarcophagus front: 'Marble slab with incised panel, broken on right and chipped below' (0.515 x 0.185 x no depth given) (MAMA)

Description of Text

Inscribed on the face.

Letters

0.01-0.0175

Date

No indication

Edition Θησσεὺς κτηνείτης ὁ λαλούμενος ἐνθάδε κεῖται ὅς πάσης ἀρετῆς ὢν ἀκροδικαιότερος ὦ παροδεῖτα μή με παρέλθῃς πρίν σε μαθεῖν στήλης τὰ γεγραμμένα ὡς ζῇς εὐφραίνου ἔσθιε πεῖνε τρύφα περιλάμβανε τοῦτο γὰρ ἦν τὸ τέλος χρησάμενος
Translation

Theseus the ostler, much-talked of, lies here, who, being a man of every virtue, was most particularly just. Oh passerby, do not pass me by before you have learnt what is written on the stele. Make merry, eat, drink, get possession of luxuries; for this (the tomb) was the end ...]

Commentary

Robert discussed this text at some length (Hellenica 13, 184-192). He showed that the term κτηνείτης refers to a man in charge of beasts of burden or pack-animals - so 'ostler' gives the best sense (189-92). He suggested that ὁ λαλούμενος should be read as 'popular', with perhaps a pun on the famous name of the deceased; perhaps also his job made him 'well-known'. He pointed out (184-5) that ἀκροδικαιότερος is unparalleled, and is the comparative of a rare adjective, which does occur occasionally in Christian authors; perhaps it refers here to a virtue which Theseus showed in his business dealings, and which was unusual in such a man. For the rest, Robert showed that the terminology is paralleled in many other funerary texts (185-189)

Locations

City, Village; 'In a garden wall' MAMA' Unknown Findspot

Text Constituted From

Publications

History of Recording

Recorded by the MAMA expedition; not reported subsequently

Bibliography

Published by Cormack from the MAMA records, MAMA 8, no. 569, whence Hellenica 13, 184-192, McCabe PHI Aphrodisias 398 , BE 1966.409, Steinepigramme 02/09/32

Photographs

None