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

INSCRIPTIONS ON STONE: NOS. XL, XII.

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1APA/

•j



We have here simply a list of names, some in the nominative and some in the accusa-
tive. On the left, where the original edge of the stone is preserved, we seem to have an
accusative at the beginning of each line. In the first instance in which we have two
consecutive names, line 12, the second name is in the nominative. In line 14 it is the
same, and so on apparently to the end. We cannot determine whether the third name
is an accusative, thus making a regular alternation, until we reach line 21. This line,
however, is peculiar in having a little blank space each side of the preserved letters. It
is possible that before Svpa an accusative stood, separated from it by an interval slightly
greater than usual. UcuovCs (which has a space after it for more than two letters),
is doubtless an epithet of %vpa, and so does not break the alternation. Line 23 is the
only one which seems to do this, since -xeros is probably the ending of a name in the
nominative; and KXeoVoXt?, which follows, seems to be a second name in the nominative.
It is also difficult to get a name short enough to precede ~\k€tos supposing this were the
ending of an accusative, when only seven letters in all are lacking.

The inscription may be a record of emancipation of slaves, with the slaves' names in
the accusative, and the owners' names in the nominative. In such documents, at
Delphi and elsewhere, women's names generally outnumber men's names by more than
two to one.1 In this list the proportion of women's names is even larger.

While some of the names are unusual, none of them are strange enough to be remark-
able. ' £l<f>e\i,cov is interesting as occurring again in different shape in No. xiv. It is
perhaps a favorite in Argolis, as it appears in Dialeld-Inschr'iften, 3269, 3341, 3401.

The use of the digamma in &.ifa>vvo-\_iav~\, which occurs twice, and the Doric ending a
for the first declension names, show some retention of old style, and caution us against
assigning too late a date to the inscription.

XII.

Found towards the close of the excavations of 1894. Of irregular shape, about .40 m.
Ions' and .19 m. broad, .08 m. thick. Letters of the same size as those of Nos. xi., xni.
(.005 m. to .007 m.), and almost of the same form.2 The surface is so badly worn away
that but little can be made of the inscription, and that little only on the left side.

Only a few proper names result from the most careful scrutiny, hardly enough to
make it profitable to add a transcription in small letters. Since the differences between
the letters of this inscription and those of Nos. xi., xni., were at first hardly discernible,
and since this stone had no original edge preserved, it seemed as if it might belong to
the same inscription. The thickness of the stone would not be an insuperable objection,
as both fragments are extremely uneven at the back. Furthermore, while most of the
names which can be made out with certainty are in the nominative, we have Xapwra in
line 13 and an accusative ending apparently at the beginning of line 20. Even the two
consecutive nominatives in line 5, which may be regarded as certain, although this is
one of the most worn places of the stone, are paralleled in No. xi., as Ave have seen.
Some of the names are also the same, as 'A/3io-r6VoX.is (5), 'AydOoiv (14), perhaps
KX.e0770X.ts (19, 21), and in different form 'O^eXXiow (20).

But even the slight differences in the letters mentioned above, taken together with the
different thickness of the stones, make it safer to treat the two pieces as belonging to
different inscriptions.

Smith, Diet. ofAntiq II. 01*.

- M is somewhat broader, with the upright bars more
perpendicular. O is somewhat smaller.