Sunday, December 11, 2022
A Lost Ancient Wine Glass
Inscriptiones Graecae XIV 2576,9 (from Santanyí on Mallorca, my translation):
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Wine, the splendid pleasure.Inscriptiones Graecae: Inscriptiones Siciliae et Italiae. Additis Graecis Galliae Hispaniae Britanniae Germaniae Inscriptionibus = Inscriptiones Graecae, Vol. XIV, ed. Georg Kaibel (Berlin: Georg Reimer, 1890), p. 682 (under the heading Instrumentum Domesticum, V: Vascula Vitrea):
οἶνος ἡ λαμπρὰ ἡδονή.
ex parietinis Santagninii oppidi in Baleari maiore effossum vasculum vitreum caerulei coloris, tum apud Antonium Despuigium MAI. olim Palmae in oppido, nunc periisse dicitur HVEBN. Titulus circa medium vasculi ventrem per orbem scriptus, ut patet e Marini delineatione.I guess I'm just obtuse, because I don't understand why Kaibel called the inscription stupid. It would make a good label for a Mallorcan wine. My friend Eric Thomson points out:Marini Vat . 9128 f. 53 nescio unde; ex apographo Buenaventurae Serra, quod dederat Buverus, ed. Huebner Monatsber. der Berl. Akad. 1860 p. 440.
Verba οἶνος ἡ λαμπρὰ ἡδονή tam absurda, ut novicii potius quam antiqui philosophi esse conicias.
The medium of glass sheds some light on the choice of the adjective λαμπρὰ. Who has never held a wine glass up to the sun?
