Papers of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens (5.1886-1890)

40

A NEW SIKYONIAN INSCRIPTION.

brownish color, fairly hard and of coarse grain. It is broken on the
right-hand side, whence the loss of one or more letters in every word
except the first and third. The characters, as will be noticed in the fac-
simile, are neatly formed and arranged nearly aroi^Bov. I made acopy
of the inscription at the time, as did also Dr. Merriam, to whom I ex-
hibited the new find before my return to Ki&to; and, on December 22,
I took a squeeze, on which the facsimile is chiefly based.

I will now consider the inscription from an epigraphical standpoint.
The reading, as given in the facsimile, is quite certain; but the first and
sixth letters in the second name, the seventh letter in the fourth, and
the seventh letter in the sixth are somewhat defaced. The inscription,
when complete, was apparently as transcribed above.

As regards the characters, we observe: first, the angular form and
small size of the 0, except in the first line (cf. Roehl, I. G.A., 27a
Add.); secondly, the four-barred sigma; thirdly, the angular form
of the rho; fourthly, the form of the chi, as contrasted with that (+) of
the Caere inscription (I. G. A., 22; Roberts, G. E., No. 95); fifthly, the
forms of mu and nu4; sixthly, the form X = e. On this last, special
stress is to be laid, as being a point of the greatest importance.

That X — e was a form peculiar to Sikyon, is not recognized by
Roehl, nor does Roberts lay it down as a fixed principle, while Kirch-
hoff" (Stud.* 104-5) still retains under the head of Corinth the inscrip-
tion of the Caere vase G.A., 22; Roberts, No. 95), in which this
sign occurs four times. I shall endeavor to show that not only have
we no proof that the sign X was employed in the Corinthian alpha-
bet, but that, in view particularly of the present inscription, the first
one found ipso loco containing this sign, we seem warranted in assum-
ing that it was peculiar to the Sikyonian alphabet, which appears to
have been pretty sharply defined, and to have developed with con-
siderable regularity as well as conservatism.

The fact that no inscription has been found at Corinth, or to be
with certainty traced to Corinth, containing this form of eps'don, when
viewed in connection with the fact that e in the early alphabet of
Corinth, as well as in that of her colonies, appears as & or B (this
form being also employed for the 77, and ei being usually written as
E5), goes a long way toward a demonstration of the non-existence
of the form X = e in the Corinthian alphabet. The proximity of
Corinth and Sikyon is nothing in favor of influence one way or the

4 Of.I. G.A., SI, 22 (Roberts, Nos. 94,95) with I.O.A., 2Ga Add. (Roberts, No. 93).
6 Of. Roberts, p. 134.