DOI article:
Buck, Carl Darling: Discoveries in the Attic Deme of Ikaria, 1888
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.8678#0114
INSCRIPTIOXS FROM IK ARIA.
99
447 B. c. and the archonship of Eukleides, when the Ionic alphabet
was officially introduced. The lower bar of the agma is often nearly
horizontal, but this is an individual peculiarity of the stone-cutter.
There is not a single instance of encroachment of the Ionic alphabet
such as we meet with in No. 8, though there are four cases of omission
of the rough breathing, namely, in lines 6, 11, 27, 29. But such
omissions are very common in this period ;3 and the two words in
which the breathing is omitted in this inscription, rj/xepa and eoprrj,
are especially liable to this.4 In line 14, we have an almost certain
instance of a dative in —oiai, which may serve to date the inscription
more accurately within the period above suggested. Even in the
earliest inscriptions there is a fluctuation in the use of — otcri and -ot?,
and they continue to be used with about equal frequency until 444
is. c, after which date there are only two occurrences of —ouri, one in
an Athenian decree of 434, and the other in a decree of the Plotheian
deme inscribed in the Ionic alphabet, a remarkable instance of rural
conservatism.5 All points considered, I am disposed to place the date
of our inserijition between 447 and the beginning of the Pcloponne-
sian war. A few orthographical questions remain to be noted before
we consider the subject-matter of the inscription.6 In 1. 4, are we to
regard the nit of ovriva as omitted owing to a blunder of the stone-
cutter? This is not the kind of mistake most frequently made;
3 Cf. Roberts, An Introduction to Greek Epigraphy, p. 105.
4 Particularly, ij/ie'pa, which in pre-Eukleidean inscriptions is more often written
without the aspirate than with it. In looking hastily through C.I.A., i and IV, I
have found 1G cases of the word without the rough breathing, against 9 cases with it
and 6 cases in which a preceding surd mute is made aspirate, as xa6' fj/xepav. Cf.
KATHAAEPAN on a fourth-century inscription found at the Peiraieusand published
in Bull. Corr. Ilcllen., 1887, p. 131. These facts show that the rough breathing was
very weak in this word, a circumstance which should not be overlooked by those who
discuss its etymology.
[Since writing this, I note that Bauxack (Sludien auf dem Gcbiele des grieeh. und
der arisehen Sprachen, i. 2, p. 240) cites, from the dialects, examples of this word with-
out aspirate, and explains the processes by which this and other words may have
acquired a secondary aspirate.]
6 Cf. Meisterhans<2), ?47, b; Catjer, De dialecto Attica, p. 410.
°[The following is suggested as an alternative for lines o-O, the first letter of line
4 not being certain :
KaTa eros] ray 8r}/xoTav Kal twv lKa[pi&v 5vo rbv A-
iovihtov ay~\uva xopvyelrwif wtiv' i.v \KaTaaraQTjTO-
v xop-nyw''] avTih'oaiv 5e tlvai tuiv xp\.V^70ivy ^v 7r°-
vrti, M t~\ov S-npidpxov tlKoai rjfxipav. . . .—A. C. M*l
99
447 B. c. and the archonship of Eukleides, when the Ionic alphabet
was officially introduced. The lower bar of the agma is often nearly
horizontal, but this is an individual peculiarity of the stone-cutter.
There is not a single instance of encroachment of the Ionic alphabet
such as we meet with in No. 8, though there are four cases of omission
of the rough breathing, namely, in lines 6, 11, 27, 29. But such
omissions are very common in this period ;3 and the two words in
which the breathing is omitted in this inscription, rj/xepa and eoprrj,
are especially liable to this.4 In line 14, we have an almost certain
instance of a dative in —oiai, which may serve to date the inscription
more accurately within the period above suggested. Even in the
earliest inscriptions there is a fluctuation in the use of — otcri and -ot?,
and they continue to be used with about equal frequency until 444
is. c, after which date there are only two occurrences of —ouri, one in
an Athenian decree of 434, and the other in a decree of the Plotheian
deme inscribed in the Ionic alphabet, a remarkable instance of rural
conservatism.5 All points considered, I am disposed to place the date
of our inserijition between 447 and the beginning of the Pcloponne-
sian war. A few orthographical questions remain to be noted before
we consider the subject-matter of the inscription.6 In 1. 4, are we to
regard the nit of ovriva as omitted owing to a blunder of the stone-
cutter? This is not the kind of mistake most frequently made;
3 Cf. Roberts, An Introduction to Greek Epigraphy, p. 105.
4 Particularly, ij/ie'pa, which in pre-Eukleidean inscriptions is more often written
without the aspirate than with it. In looking hastily through C.I.A., i and IV, I
have found 1G cases of the word without the rough breathing, against 9 cases with it
and 6 cases in which a preceding surd mute is made aspirate, as xa6' fj/xepav. Cf.
KATHAAEPAN on a fourth-century inscription found at the Peiraieusand published
in Bull. Corr. Ilcllen., 1887, p. 131. These facts show that the rough breathing was
very weak in this word, a circumstance which should not be overlooked by those who
discuss its etymology.
[Since writing this, I note that Bauxack (Sludien auf dem Gcbiele des grieeh. und
der arisehen Sprachen, i. 2, p. 240) cites, from the dialects, examples of this word with-
out aspirate, and explains the processes by which this and other words may have
acquired a secondary aspirate.]
6 Cf. Meisterhans<2), ?47, b; Catjer, De dialecto Attica, p. 410.
°[The following is suggested as an alternative for lines o-O, the first letter of line
4 not being certain :
KaTa eros] ray 8r}/xoTav Kal twv lKa[pi&v 5vo rbv A-
iovihtov ay~\uva xopvyelrwif wtiv' i.v \KaTaaraQTjTO-
v xop-nyw''] avTih'oaiv 5e tlvai tuiv xp\.V^70ivy ^v 7r°-
vrti, M t~\ov S-npidpxov tlKoai rjfxipav. . . .—A. C. M*l