Waldstein, Charles: The Argive Heraeum (Band 1): General introduction, geology, architecture marble statuary and inscriptions (Boston [u.a.], 1902)

s

Sk

iave L

ltaett,

TV ■ ^>-
oodpfe

««School, ^ t
south, (a

tans, lft. 9^

J to the damaged^:
d line 1.

ukel, f. i'



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-itf

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INSCRIPTIONS ON STONE: NOS. III., IV.

203

lowing' numbers from the Anthology may also be cited for comparison : xiii. 5, 8, 14,
15, 16, 18, 19; xvi. (Planudea), 23, 24; vol. III. (Firmin-Didot), i. 23, 24, 30, 44, 50,
82, 89, 102, 106, 291; Addenda to vol. III. i. 86 b. Frankel, /. c, makes an inter-
esting conjecture, which would bring this inscription into connection with the house of
Theaeus of Argos, celebrated by Pindar in his tenth Nemean ode.

IV.

Found between the bases of the inner row of columns in the North Stoa (II, on the
Plan, Fig. 2, p. 9) and on a level with them, at a point about one third of the length of
the stoa, measured from the west end. The inscription is on a marble block measuring
10 in. by 10 in. by 3.6 in. The letters are about .7 in. in height. There is a round
hole in the top of the block 1.6 in. in diameter. Of the name of the former dedicator
of the two only a single upright bar of one letter is preserved.

N E © E TA

aveOirav

The name Hybrilas is found in a list of Proxeni, Bull. Gorr. Hell. 1891, p. 412, line
10 of the inscription, and in Bazin, Archiv. de Miss. Sclent. II. 369. On the suffix
-Xas see Fick, Griech. Personennamen, p. 123, and Pape-Benseler, Lex. p. xxx.

The really important feature in this inscription is the form [J = B. With the excep-
tion of a bronze plaque said to be from Hermione, but apparently of doubtful prove-
nience, the Argive inscriptions of early date give but one example of the letter B. This
occurs in the proper name Ropdayopas, which with others is inscribed on a stone that is
built into the foundation of the eastern tower of the ruined castle on the Larisa at Argos
((/. /. A. G. 30 = DialeM-Inschriften, 3260 = Roberts, Greek Epig. 73). Here our
copies give the form

The plaque from Hermione has been published by Frohner in the Revue AreMo-
logigue for 1891, n. pp. 50 ft'., and, with extended comment, by Robert in the Mbnu-
vienti Airfield, 1891, pp. 593 if. Here beta occurs twice (lines 2, 6) in the word tth A.
It should be observed that the upper lateral stroke is not at right angles with the verti-
cal stroke, as is the case with the example from the Heraeum. There is, however, no
essential difference in the forms. If the bronze plaque is not Argive, but represents a
form of the alphabet in use at Hermione, we must suppose, as Frohner has pointed out,
that there existed there almost simultaneously two forms of the early alphabet, that of
Argos (note the letter f- on the bronze plaque), and a form closely allied to the Lacedae-
monian (cf. Roberts, p. 284, and Kirchhoff, Studien,i p. 160). It is more probable that
the plaque is of immediate Argive origin, and this view, to which both Frohner and
Robert incline, is now shown to be almost certainly the correct one by the inscription
from the Heraeum. The resemblance of this form of beta to that of the letter in several
of the insular alphabets (C) and in the alphabet of Megara (J"1 ) has been remarked by
Robert, I. e.