Thursday, October 06, 2022

 

Inscription on a Gemstone

Inscription on a 1st century BC gemstone (Leiden, Royal Coin Cabinet, inv. 1948), tr. John R. Clarke, Looking at Lovemaking: Constructions of Sexuality in Roman Art, 100 B.C.-A.D. 250 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998), p. 40:
Leopard—drink, live in luxury, embrace!
You must die, for time is short.
May you live life to the full, O Greek!

Παρδαλᾶ, πεῖνε, τρύφα, περιλάμβανε. θανεῖν σε δεῖ· ὁ γὰρ χρόνος ὀλίγος. Ἀχαιὶ ζήσαις.
See the old Corpus Inscriptionum Graecarum 7299:
The inscription isn't in Searchable Greek Inscriptions. In translating, I would keep Pardalas as a proper name. I don't have access to Marianne Maaskant-Kleibrink, Catalogue of the Engraved Gems in the Royal Coin Cabinet, The Hague. The Greek, Etruscan and Roman Collections, 2 vols. (Wiesbaden: Franz Steiner, 1978).

A photograph of the gemstone:



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