Thursday, November 29, 2012
A Gift for Pan
Georg Kaibel, Epigrammata Graeca ex Lapidibus Conlecta (Berlin: Reimer, 1878), p. 326, no. 802 (Rome, Julian Basilica, 2nd century A.D.):
My rough translation of the Greek as printed by Kaibel:
Cf. the Latin translation in Ed. Cougny, Epigrammatum Anthologia Palatina cum Planudeis et Appendice Nova Epigrammatum Veterum ex Libris et Marmoribus Ductorum, Vol. III (Paris: Firmin-Didot, 1890), p. 33, #214:
In line 5, Kaibel attributes the supplement [ἐν τεκέ]εσσιν ἐμοῖς (among my children) to E. Curtius. There have been a number of other proposals to fill the gap:
The inscription is in Luigi Moretti, Inscriptiones Graecae Urbis Romae, I (Rome: Istituto Italiano per la Storia Antica, 1968), pp. 165-167, no. 184, whence the following image of the stone (p. 166; click to enlarge):
Thanks to Karl Maurer for some corrections.
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Σ]οὶ τόδε, συρικτά, ὑ[μνη]πόλε, μείλιχε δαῖμο[ν,There is a similar text, also by Kaibel, in Inscriptiones Graecae XIV = Inscriptiones Italiae et Siciliae (Berlin: Reimer, 1890), p. 268, no. 1014.
ἁγνὲ λοετροχόων κοίρανε Ναϊάδων,
δῶρον Ὑγεῖνος ἔτε[υξε]ν, ὃν ἀργαλέης ἀπὸ νούσου
αὐτὸς, ἄνα[ξ], ὑγιῆ θήκαο προσπελ[ά]σ[ας·
πᾶσι γὰρ [ἐν τεκέ]εσσιν ἐμοῖς ὰνα[φ]ανδὸν ἐπέστης 5
οὐκ ὄναρ, ἀλλὰ μέσους ἤματος ἀμφὶ δρόμους.
My rough translation of the Greek as printed by Kaibel:
For you, player on the pipes, composer of songs of praise, gentle god,In the last line, "as a dream" is possible, but Liddell-Scott-Jones also give an adverbial meaning for ὄναρ = "in a dream".
holy leader of the Naiads who pour water for bathing,
Hygeinos made this gift. From a painful disease
you yourself, lord, cured him when you came near;
for among all my children you appeared openly,
not in a dream, but in the middle course of the day.
Cf. the Latin translation in Ed. Cougny, Epigrammatum Anthologia Palatina cum Planudeis et Appendice Nova Epigrammatum Veterum ex Libris et Marmoribus Ductorum, Vol. III (Paris: Firmin-Didot, 1890), p. 33, #214:
Tibi hocce, fistulator, hymnos-tractans, placide deus,I haven't seen J. Bousquet, "Epigrammes romains," Klio 52 (1970) 37–40, but according to Georges Daux, "En marge des Mélanges Klaffenbach," Bulletin de Correspondance Hellénique 95 (1971) 267-275 (at 269-272), Bousquet proposed the supplement Π[ὰν αἰ]πόλε (goatherd Pan) for ὑ[μνη]πόλε (composer of songs of praise) in the first line. Daux p. 270: "La lettre Π, déchiffrée dans le premier vers par J. Bousquet sur la reproduction photographique, est un gain assuré; les restes visibles excluent tout autre signe, alors que les éditeurs successifs adoptaient une lecture Y (d'où ύ[μνη]πόλε), sans hésitation ni réserve."
pure lavacra-fundentium rex Naiadum,
donum Hyginus (i. est Valentinus) fecit, quem gravi ex morbo
ipse, princeps, validum fecisti accedens:
omnes enim inter liberos meos palam adstitisti
non somno, sed medium diei per cursum.
In line 5, Kaibel attributes the supplement [ἐν τεκέ]εσσιν ἐμοῖς (among my children) to E. Curtius. There have been a number of other proposals to fill the gap:
- H. van Herwerden, "Coniecturae Epigraphicae," Mnemosyne 10 (1882) 386-399 (at 394), conjectured [ἐγγενέ]εσσιν ἐμοῖς (to my kinsmen), because he found the preposition ἐν otiose.
- W. Drexler, "Die Epiphanie des Pan," Philologus 52 (1894) 731-732 (at 732), suggested [εἰν ὀΐ]εσσιν ἐμοῖς (among my sheep), assuming that Hygeinos was a shepherd. Daux (op. cit.) approves this supplement, because the number of letters fills the gap precisely, but prefers a slightly different interpretation, with πᾶσι standing alone, not modifying ὀΐεσσιν. Daux translates (p. 272): "Tu t'es manifesté aux yeux de tous, présent au milieu de mes moutons; ce n'était pas un songe, cela se passait vers le milieu de la course du jour, en pleine lumière" (p. 272).
- Wilhelm Heinrich Roscher, Ephialtes. Eine pathologischmythologische Abhandlung über die Alpträume und Alpdämonen des klassischen Altertums (Leipzig: B.G. Teubner, 1900 = Abhandlungen der Philologisch-Historischen Classe der Königlich Sächsische Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften zu Leipzig. Philologisch-Historische Classe, XX, 2), pp. 45-47 (at p. 45), proposed either [ἐν κτήν]εσσιν ἐμοῖς (among my flocks) or [ἐν σκυλάκ]εσσιν ἐμοῖς (among my pups), assuming that Hygeinos was either a shepherd or a hunter.
- According to Daux (op. cit.), J. Bousquet suggested [υἱή]εσσιν ἐμοῖς (to my sons).
- According to Daux (op. cit.), Kurt Latte conjectured [ἐν παθέ]εσσιν ἐμοῖς (amid my sufferings). I don't know where Latte made the conjecture. Examination of photographs by W. Peek, "Epigraphische Lesefrüchte," Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik 31 (1978) 271-274 (at 273), tends to confirm Latte's supplement. Johannes Geffcken, Griechische Epigramme (Heidelberg: Carl Winter, 1916), p. 140, no. 351, had already suggested [οὖν παθέ]εσσιν ἐμοῖς as an alternative to Richard Wünsch's [οὖν ἄλγ]εσσιν ἐμοῖς.
- Someone else, whose identity is unknown to me, proposed [ἐν θυέ]εσσιν ἐμοῖς (as I was sacrificing), since that is the reading that appears in the Packard Humanities Institute's Searchable Greek Inscriptions.
Σ]οὶ τόδε, συρικτά, Π[ὰν αἰ]πόλε, μείλιχε δαῖμο[ν,My translation would change as follows:
ἁγνὲ λοετροχόων κοίρανε Ναϊάδων,
δῶρον Ὑγεῖνος ἔτε[υξε]ν, ὃν ἀργαλέης ἀπὸ νούσου
αὐτὸς, ἄνα[ξ], ὑγιῆ θήκαο προσπελ[ά]σ[ας·
πᾶσι γὰρ [ἐν παθέ]εσσιν ἐμοῖς ὰνα[φ]ανδὸν ἐπέστης 5
οὐκ ὄναρ, ἀλλὰ μέσους ἤματος ἀμφὶ δρόμους.
For you, player on the pipes, goatherd Pan, gentle god,I learned of the inscription from H.S. Versnel, "What Did Ancient Man See When He Saw a God? Some Reflections on Greco-Roman Epiphany," in Dirk van der Plas, ed., Effigies Dei: Essays on the History of Religions (Leiden: Brill, 1987), pp. 42-55 (at 48).
holy leader of the Naiads who pour water for bathing,
Hygeinos made this gift. From a painful disease
you yourself, lord, cured him when you came near;
For in the midst of all my sufferings you appeared openly,
not in a dream, but in the middle course of the day.
The inscription is in Luigi Moretti, Inscriptiones Graecae Urbis Romae, I (Rome: Istituto Italiano per la Storia Antica, 1968), pp. 165-167, no. 184, whence the following image of the stone (p. 166; click to enlarge):
Thanks to Karl Maurer for some corrections.