Friday, October 04, 2024

 

A Tomb Inscription from Niksar, Turkey

Supplementum Epigraphicum Graecum 18:561 (Neocaesarea, 2nd century AD, my translation):
By gods and heroes and your own fathers, whoever you happen to be who possesses this land now and whoever will possess it later and everyone coming here, do not ever ruin the building of this monument or the stones or the mound or the columns or the statues over them; whoever disturbs any body of the ones resting in it or destroys any part of the monument either by having demolished or shattered or knocked it off, or having obliterated any of the letters inscribed on it, may his fatherland not be a home to him, may earth not bear fruit, may sea not be sailed, may women not give birth naturally, but may every evil man perish evilly, both himself root and branch and his children's children and his race and name and house's hearth and fathers' graves, with [these] pursuing and driving him: Helios who looks upon all things, and Olympian Zeus, and Pluto, and Demeter's daughter, and the hounds of Artemis Hecate, and the Furies, and Daeira, and Chthonian Hermes, and Imprecation eldest of spirits, and as many other gods as have care and consideration for good souls; the same curse [is] also upon the first person or persons, whoever commands another or initiates a resolution or recommends a resolution or assists with hands to disturb or take down any of these things; but to the one who guards over the place and honors and strengthens the ordinances, to him be many good things, both to himself and his fatherland and his house and his memory hereafter and his descendants.

πρὸς θεῶν καὶ ἡρῴων τῶν τε σεαυτοῦ πατέρων, ὅστις ὢν τυγχάνεις ὁ τὸν χῶρον τοῦτον νῦν τε ἔχων καὶ ὅστις ἔπειτα ἕξεις καὶ πᾶς ὁ δεῦρο ἰών, μή ποτε λυμήνῃ τοῦδε τοῦ σήματος ἢ τῇ δωμήσει τῶν λίθων ἢ τ̣ῶ χώματι τοῖς τε κίοσιν καὶ τοῖς ἐπ’ αὐτῶν ἀνδριᾶσιν· ὅστις δὲ ἢ σῶμα κεινήσειέ τι τῶν ἐν αὐτῶι κειμένων ἢ καθέλοι τι συνχέας ἢ συνθραύσας ἢ ἀποκρούσας τοῦ μνήματος ἢ ἐκκολάψας τι τῶν ἐπιγραμμάτων, τούτωι μὴ πατρὶς οἰκοῖτο, μὴ γῆ καρπὸν ἐκφέροι, μὴ πλέοιτο θάλασσα, μὴ γυναῖκες τίκτοιεν κατὰ φύσιν, κακὸς δὲ κακῶς ἀπόλοιτο πᾶς τε αὐτὸς πρόριζος καὶ παῖδες παίδων καὶ γένος καὶ ὄνομα καὶ οἴκου ἑστία καὶ τάφοι πατέρων, μετιόντων αὐτὸν καὶ ἐλαυνόντων Ἡλίου τε τοῦ πάντα ἐφορῶντος καὶ Διὸς Ὀλυμπίου, Πλούτωνός τε καὶ τῆς Δήμητρος Κόρης, τῶν τε Ἀρτέμιδος Ἑκάτης κυνῶν Ἐρινύων τε καὶ Δαείρας καὶ Ἑρμοῦ Χθονίου καὶ Ἀρᾶς τῆς πρεσβυτάτης δαιμόνων, ὁπόσοις τε ἄλλοις θεῶν ἐπιμέλειά τε καὶ φροντὶς ψυχῶν ἀγαθῶν· καὶ ἐπὶ πρώτωι δὲ καὶ ἐπὶ πρώτοις ἡ αὐτὴ ἀρὰ ὅστις ἢ ἑτέρωι προστάξειεν ἢ γνώμης ἄρξειεν ἢ γνώμηι συμβάλοιτο ἢ χερσὶν ὑπουργήσειεν κεινηθῆναί τι τούτων ἢ καθαιρεθῆναι· τῶι δὲ κατὰ χώραν φυλάττοντι καὶ τιμῶντι τὰ νενομισμένα καὶ αὔξοντι, πολλὰ καὶ ἀγαθὰ εἶναι τούτωι καὶ αὐτῶι καὶ πατρίδι καὶ οἴκωι καὶ τῆι ἔπειτα μνήμηι καὶ ἐκγόνοις.



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