Monday, November 07, 2022

 

Epitaph of Kyros

Christian Marek, Stadt, Ära und Territorium in Pontus-Bithynia und Nord-Galatia (Tübingen: Ernst Wasmuth Verlag, 1993 = Istanbuler Forschungen, 39), p. 144, number 28 of "Katalog der Inschriften von Pompeiopolis" (click once or twice to enlarge):
I don't have access to Marek's photograph of the stone.

Reinhold Merkelbach and Josef Stauber, Steinepigramme aus dem griechischen Osten, Bd. 2: Die Nordküste Kleinasiens (Marmarasee und Pontos) (Munich: K.G. Saur, 2001), p. 322 (10/05/04, from Pompeiopolis in Paphlagonia; click once or twice to enlarge):
Transcription of the Greek (with some minor punctuation changes), followed by my translation:
χήροις ὦ παροδεῖτ', ὅσσον δ' ἐσορᾷς φάος ἠοῦς,
εὔφραινν' ἐν θαλίαισιν ἑὴν φρένα, τέρπες σεαὐτόν
εἰλαπίναις τε χοροῖς Κύπριδος τ' ἐραταῖσιν ἐπ' εὐναῖς,
εἰδὼς τοῦτο σαφῶς· ὁ θανὼν ὅτι τῶνδε λέλησται.
εἰ δὲ θέλις γενεήν τε καὶ οὔνομα τοὐμὸν ἀκοῦσαι,        5
οὔνομά μοι Κῦρος, πατρὶς δέ μοι Λάμψακός ἐστιν,
κεῖμαι δ' ἐν γαίῃ Πομπηίου, φῶς τόδε λείψας,
πολλὰ κοσμήσας θυμέλαις τὸν θεῖον Ὅμηρον,
ζήσας εἴκοσιπεντ' ἐπὶ τοῖς ΕΙ[             ] λυκαβάντας,        10
σῆμ[α δὲ τοὐμὸν ἔ]τευξεν ἀρηίφιλος [ ⏑ ⏑ – – ]
τερπνὸς Ὁμη[ριστὴς (?)    ] ὃς δίχ' ἐν Υ[           ]
[ ]λλους εἰ [                          ]νω[


Greetings, o passerby! As long as you see dawn's light,
gladden your heart in the festivities, delight yourself
with banquets and dances and on the lovely beds of Kypris,
knowing this clearly, that he who has died has forgotten these things.
If you wish to hear my origin and my name,
my name is Kyros, my fatherland is Lampsakos,
I lie here in the country of Pompey, having left this light,
having honored divine Homer often on the stage,
having lived 25 years [...]
One dear to Ares made my memorial [...]
a delightful actor of Homeric scenes [...] who asunder in [...]
[....]
Could Ἀρηίφιλος be a personal name? See Lexicon of Greek Personal Names, vols. 4 and 5b, s.v. Ἀρηΐφιλος (3 examples, but not this one).



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