Tuesday, January 10, 2023
Epitaph of Apollophanes
Inscriptiones Graecae Urbis Romae III 1159 (2nd-3rd century AD; non vidi) = Werner Peek, Griechische Vers-Inschriften, Bd. I: Grab-Epigramme (Berlin: Akademie-Verlag, 1955), p. 398, number 1333 (my translation):
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Standing here, you wonder who lies beneath this tomb;Georg Kaibel, Epigrammata Graeca ex Lapidibus Conlecta (Berlin: Reimer, 1878), pp. 254-255, number 621, on the last line:
a man who lived well for thrice ten years,
Apollophanes by name, great in trustworthiness and in reputation besides,
who proclaims to mortals: partake of good cheer.
One whom he raised as a son set up the little sepulchral tribute for him:
by name and skill this one was Diodoros (gift of Zeus).
ἑστὼς διστάζεις, [τίς] ὕπεστιν τῷδ' ὑπὸ τύμβῳ·
ἀνὴρ εὖ ζήσας τρῖς ἐτέων δεκάδας,
τοὔνομ' Ἀπολλοφάνης, πίστει μέγας ἠδ' ἔτι δόξῃ,
ὃς προλέγει θνατοῖς εὐφροσύνης μετέχειν.
τὴν δ' ἐπιτυμβίδιον τούτῳ θῆκεν χάριν ὃν τρέφε παῖδα·
τοὔνομα καὶ τέχνην ἦν Διόδωρος ὅδε.
nomine et arte dei erat donum, nam tam perfecta in eo ars erat ut ab ipso deo donata videretur.
