DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.9840#0204
VIII.]
PLUTO CALLED AGESILAUS.
153
Insult not this my tomb, O passer by,
Lest thou incur Agesilas's wrath,
And stern Phersephone's: but, passing nigh,
Say, to Arate, "on thee lie light the earth!"
The name Agesilas is here bestowed on Pluto, to whom
it is also given by Aeschylus, and other authors28.
The inscription was incorrectly copied, several centuries
ago, and is published in Gruter29. In the Epagesime,
which, owing to the carelessness of the transcriber, was
found at the end of the second verse, the sagacity of
Bentley detected the Aeschylean epithet of Pluto ; and the
conjecture of " Cam's mighty Aristarch", €7r Ayea'iXa,
all but restored the true reading of the inscription30.
Ruhnken, retaining ^vlar], which Bentley had changed
into mrjvlao, suggested that the eiri was separated from
its case croi, and that 'AyealXas must have been the
original word of the epitaph31: an ingenious and happy
conjecture, which receives a more complete proof of its
truth, by my copy of the inscription, than can ordi-
narily be obtained by any piece of conjectural criticism.
<$>epcre(p6va. tc Kopa AapaTEpo?' dWd -rrapepirwv
einrov 'ApaTiio' Taiav eyois eXacppav.
With the concluding words the reader may compare the well-known letters of
Roman sepulcral inscriptions, S. T. T. L. Sit tibi terra levis, and many
passages of ancient poets. Ovid, Amor. in. 10. 67.
Ossa quieta, precor, tuta requiescite in urna
Et sit humus cineri non onerosa tuo.
Persius, i. 37-
Non levior eippus nunc imprimit ossa!
28 athenaeus, iii. p. 99. B. 075a S' otl kcu St/iooytojjs ttov 6 7tohjt?)s
dpLCTTapyov elire tov Ata, /cat A.l<jyy\oi tov "AiSriv dyriaiKaov. CaLLIMA-
chus, Bath of Pallas, v. 130.
Kat p.ovo'i, evTe ddvy, ireirvvfievos ev venvecrcriv
<poiTa<rei, p.eyd\uj Tifiw? 'Ayea-iXa.
See Jacobs, Anthologia Graeca, Tom. xn. p. 339. On the words Pher-
sephone and Persephassa, applied to the daughter of Demeter, see Hesy-
chius, in Qepvefpoveia : Spanheim, on Aristoph. Nub. 683. Heindorf,
on Plat. Cratyl. p. 404. Koch, Antonin. Liberal, p. 234: and on the ety-
mology of the name of Phersephone, and its application to Aphrodite, see
Welcker, Sylloge Epigramm. Graec. p. 261. fol.
29 Gruter, p. mcxxx. No. 9.
30 Bentley, on Callimachus, 1. c. Tom. n. p. 13. ed. Ernest.
31 Ruhnken, Epistol. Crit. p. 113. Hemsterhuis also read 'Ayeo-i'Xas.
PLUTO CALLED AGESILAUS.
153
Insult not this my tomb, O passer by,
Lest thou incur Agesilas's wrath,
And stern Phersephone's: but, passing nigh,
Say, to Arate, "on thee lie light the earth!"
The name Agesilas is here bestowed on Pluto, to whom
it is also given by Aeschylus, and other authors28.
The inscription was incorrectly copied, several centuries
ago, and is published in Gruter29. In the Epagesime,
which, owing to the carelessness of the transcriber, was
found at the end of the second verse, the sagacity of
Bentley detected the Aeschylean epithet of Pluto ; and the
conjecture of " Cam's mighty Aristarch", €7r Ayea'iXa,
all but restored the true reading of the inscription30.
Ruhnken, retaining ^vlar], which Bentley had changed
into mrjvlao, suggested that the eiri was separated from
its case croi, and that 'AyealXas must have been the
original word of the epitaph31: an ingenious and happy
conjecture, which receives a more complete proof of its
truth, by my copy of the inscription, than can ordi-
narily be obtained by any piece of conjectural criticism.
<$>epcre(p6va. tc Kopa AapaTEpo?' dWd -rrapepirwv
einrov 'ApaTiio' Taiav eyois eXacppav.
With the concluding words the reader may compare the well-known letters of
Roman sepulcral inscriptions, S. T. T. L. Sit tibi terra levis, and many
passages of ancient poets. Ovid, Amor. in. 10. 67.
Ossa quieta, precor, tuta requiescite in urna
Et sit humus cineri non onerosa tuo.
Persius, i. 37-
Non levior eippus nunc imprimit ossa!
28 athenaeus, iii. p. 99. B. 075a S' otl kcu St/iooytojjs ttov 6 7tohjt?)s
dpLCTTapyov elire tov Ata, /cat A.l<jyy\oi tov "AiSriv dyriaiKaov. CaLLIMA-
chus, Bath of Pallas, v. 130.
Kat p.ovo'i, evTe ddvy, ireirvvfievos ev venvecrcriv
<poiTa<rei, p.eyd\uj Tifiw? 'Ayea-iXa.
See Jacobs, Anthologia Graeca, Tom. xn. p. 339. On the words Pher-
sephone and Persephassa, applied to the daughter of Demeter, see Hesy-
chius, in Qepvefpoveia : Spanheim, on Aristoph. Nub. 683. Heindorf,
on Plat. Cratyl. p. 404. Koch, Antonin. Liberal, p. 234: and on the ety-
mology of the name of Phersephone, and its application to Aphrodite, see
Welcker, Sylloge Epigramm. Graec. p. 261. fol.
29 Gruter, p. mcxxx. No. 9.
30 Bentley, on Callimachus, 1. c. Tom. n. p. 13. ed. Ernest.
31 Ruhnken, Epistol. Crit. p. 113. Hemsterhuis also read 'Ayeo-i'Xas.