Saturday, December 04, 2021

 

A Drunken Butterfly

Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum II 2146 (from Porcuna, Spain = Roman Obulco, 1st or early 2nd century A.D., now in the Museo Arqueológico de Porcuna, inv. no. 45; tr. Eric Thomson):
Marcus Porcius, son of Marcus … I also command my heirs to sprinkle my ashes with wine, in order that my inebriated spirit might flutter over it like a butterfly. May grass and flowers cover my bones. If someone halts before the inscription of my name, let him say 'may that which was left by the voracious fire, which, once the body was released, turned itself into ashes, rest peacefully.'

M(arcus) Porcius M(arci) --- / heredibus mando etiam cinere ut m[eo vina subspargant ut super eum] / volitet meus ebrius papilio ipsa ossa tegant he[rba et flores] / si quis titulum ad mei nominis astiterit dicat [id quod reliquit] / avidus ignis quod corpore resoluto se vertit in fa[villam bene quiescat].
Images of the stone:
For papilio meaning soul of a dead person see the Oxford Latin Dictionary, sense 2, which cites only this inscription. Cf. Greek ψυχή in Liddell-Scott-Jones, sense VI: "butterfly or moth, Arist. HA 551a14, Thphr. HP 2.4.4, Plu. 2.636c."

See Javier del Hoyo, Concepción Fernández, and Rocío Carande, "Papilio Ebrius Volitans," Exemplaria Classica 10 (2006) 113-126, 505-506 (at 113-122), with the following Spanish translation on p. 122:
Marco Porcio, hijo de Marco... Ordeno también a los herederos que rocíen con vino mis cenizas, para que sobre él revolotee (como mariposa) mi espíritu ebrio. Que las hierbas cubran mis huesos. Si alguien se detiene ante el epitafio de mi nombre, diga: aquello que dejó el voraz fuego que — una vez disuelto el cuerpo — lo transformó en pavesas, descanse felizmente.
See also Concepción Fernández Martínez, Carmina Latina Epigraphica de La Bética Romana. Las Primeras Piedras de Nuestra Poesía (Sevilla: Universidad de Sevilla, 2007), pp. 220-224 (nº J15).



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