Greek Epigraphy

Between 2012 and 2016, Ruprecht Schleyer travelled throughout Anatolia, photographing the remains of the most celebrated archaeological sites in Asia Minor. He took with him 19th century archaeological pictures of these places, and photographed the sites from exactly the same place and perspective as the ones made two centuries ago. From the acqueduct at Aspendos to the Sphinx Gate in Galatia, to the Temple of Artemis in Lydia, Schleyer’s beautifully diligent photographs record the contemporary condition of these archaeological wonders. Reproduced alongside the astonishing 19th century pictures, these photographs allow you not only to compare the wear of history on these remains, but they also vividly reflect the culture of Orientalism. In some places, grass has grown over the masonry, or a fully grown tree towers over a courtyard, in others a column or statue have disappeared, while sites such as the Roman theatre at Hierapolis, appear scrupulously restored. Schleyer’s photographs form such exact comparisons, you can trace the patina of time on actual stones and, standing back, on whole landscapes.
Ruprecht Schleyer writes about his experiences photographing these sites, and relates the history of those who preceeded him in the 19th century. The exotically dressed figures who stand in these earlier pictures are more than living providers of scale; as Wolfgang Filser explores in his essay, they are actors in the 19th century's Orientalist imagination.

The volume collects thirty-three essays honouring professor Mario Infelise. The variety of topics proposed by the authors shows the range and depth of the discussions that Mario Infelise’s work has provoked over the years: the history of books, printing and publishing, the history of information and censorship, and cultural history, always intertwined with the great history of the Modern Age.

Full article available here: https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-hellenic-studies/article/cretan-way-of-war-status-violence-and-values-from-the-classical-period-to-the-roman-conquest/D430EF78564AA3E79EB5E6ABC50A8FA2

The tactics of Cretan citizen armies differed markedly from those utilized in most regions of the Classical and Hellenistic Greek world: instead of fighting in phalanxes, Cretans fought in open order, specializing in archery, skirmishing, ambushes and night actions. These tactics (and the cultural attitudes that went with them) were disparaged by mainland Greeks such as Polybios and explained in terms of moral deviancy: a sign of the duplicitous nature of the Cretans. This article demonstrates that these descriptions of Cretan tactics and behaviours are factual, but argues against the idea that they derive from moral deviancy. Rather, they represent the outcome of a different line of historical development than that followed in mainland Greece. Cretan tactics and attitudes stand far closer to those described by archaic poets (especially Homer, Archilochos and Kallinos); in this regard, Cretan city states displayed strong continuities with archaic social practices and values, detectable in other areas of Cretan society and culture. The stability of Cretan sociopolitical organization from the late seventh century down to the Roman conquest fostered the endurance of such practices and attitudes, leading to cultural divergence from mainland Greece and, accordingly, a generally hostile representation of Cretans in our main historiographical sources.

Öz: Karadeniz Ereğli Müzesi’ndeki epigrafik çalışmalarımız kapsamında Zonguldak ili Gökçebey ilçesi Asartepe mevkiinden müzeye getirilen yazıtlı bir adak taşı ile karşılaştık. Ön yüzündeki yazıtından, “Meter Theon
Lykokhorites (Lykokhorion’un Ana Tanrıçası) huzurunda/nezdinde Hosios Dikaios (Aziz/Kutsal ve Adil) Aleksandros’a” adandığı anlaşılmıştır. Yüzeyinin zarar görmüş olmasından dolayı yazıtının bazı satırları ve alt
kısmı okunamaz durumdadır. Hosios Dikaios, Anadolu’da çokça belgelenmiş ve halen niteliği tartışılan bir tanrı adı ya da sıfatıdır. Burada adı geçen Aleksandros’un ise Lukianos’un (MS ca. 120-190) Sahte Peygamber Aleksandros eserinde hikayesini anlattığı, Antoninus Pius döneminde Yılan Tanrısı Glykon’u, “Yeni Asklepios” sıfatıyla kullanarak Paphlagonia’daki Abonuteikhos (Kastamonu-İnebolu) kentinde bir kehanet ve tapınım merkezi kuran Aleksandros olduğunu düşünüyoruz. Bu makalede yazıtın içeriği, Hosios Dikaios Aleksandros ve Meter Theon kültlerinin Tios/Tieion antik kentindeki varlığı ile tartışılmaktadır.

Abstract: During the epigraphic studies in the Karadeniz Ereğli Museum, we worked on a altar that was brought to the museum from Asartepe of Gökçebey District in Zonguldak. From the inscription, it was understood that the altar was dedicated to Hosios Dikaios Aleksandros, at the place of/by the side of Meter Theon Lykochorites. Due to the wear on the surface of the stone, some lines of the inscription are partially illegible. Hosios Dikaios (Saint and Righteous) is a god or epitheton of a deity, which is widely documented in Anatolia, and his identity is still debated. It made us think that Alexandros, who is mentioned here, might be the Alexandros, whose noteworthy story was narrated in the work of the writer Lucianus (ca. 120-190 AD) in his work “The False Prophet Alexander”. According to this story, he established a prophecy, and worshipping center in the period of Antoninus Pius (138-161 AD) in Paphlagonian Abonouteichus presenting his snake God Glycon as “New Asclepius”. In this article, the content of the inscription is discussed together with the presence of the cults of Hosios Dikaios Alexandros and Meter Theon in the ancient city of Tios/Tieion.

The catalogue documents а collaborative  Ukrainian museum exhibition project that took place in the Khanenko Museum (Kyiv) in November 2017 – February 2018. Participating collections: The Bohdan and Varvara Khanenko National Museum of Arts, Odessa Museum of Western and Eastern Art, National Museum of the History of Ukraine, National Kyiv-Pechersk Historical and Cultural Preserve.

The focal point of the project was the concept of king's charisma in the art of medieval and early modern Iran. Being fundamental to the ancient Iranian culture, the idea of charisma as a gift of the highest mystical power and happy destiny of a ruler has retained its significance in the Muslim era of Iranian history.
About 70 selected works by the medieval and early-modern Iranian artist and artisans invite to feel the vibrant energy of the Iranian idea of charisma through the truly infinite richness of its semantic and visual appeals. Exhibition curator and editor of the catalogue:  Hanna Rudyk,
PhD, Curator of Islamic collection, Deputy Director General, The Bohdan and Varvara Khanenko National Museum of Arts

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This paper examines representations of the city of Halikarnassos that are built upon linguistic and/or etymological puns, attested from Hellenistic literature and epigraphy through Byzantine lexicographers. The paper discusses three case-studies: (1) the etymologies of the city’s name attested in Stephanus of Byzantium and their relation to other pieces of erudite literature; (2) the celebration of Halikarnassos’s rocky soil in the Salmakis inscription through the figure of the mythical Athenian king Kranaos; (3) literary devices based on the contrast between the morphology and the grammatical gender of the city’s name which feature in the Salmakis inscription.

During the Roman period Cratea-Flaviopolis, today's Gerede in the Turkish province of Bolu was an important knot of the crossroads leading to an access to the Black Sea area from Bithynia and Galatia through Paphlagonia. In this paper ancient written sources on Cratea-Flaviopolis, its localization, ancient roads and routes around it, its history during the classical antiquity as well as Byzantine period, its epigraphy and coinage as well as its peripherial countryside with main archaeological finds are presented. The most important epigraphic evidence from this Roman city is an honorary inscription for Caracalla from A.D. 210/211 which is fixed in the courtyard of the so-called Yeni Camii of Gerede. This is a large hexagonal white limestone statue base with round and flat top. Some scholars are willing to relate this inscription to Marcus Domitius Valerianus, the consul suffectus in A.D. 238/239, from Prusias on the Hypios who may well have originated in the area of Gerede. The dedication to Caracalla was completed thanks to a dedication to Septimius Severus which was previously known. Finally some further epigraphic evidences from and around Cratea-Flavopolis from former publications as are presented and evaluated in detail.

Just as a non-existent type of artificial intelligence can be imagined in today's science fiction novels or movies, some scholars believe that intelligent machines, and accordingly, weaker or stronger types of artificial intelligence that are technologically impossible to exist are also imagined in the Homeric poems. In this study, not all of the passages associated with artificial intelligence, but only Hephaestus’ self-moving tripods (automatoi tripodes) described in the 18th book of the Iliad have been re-evaluated and analyzed as a metaphor for the first time. As the result of this analysis, a new suggestion is made that Hephaestus’ tripods (the three-legged cauldrons) symbolize Achilles’ incomplete journey, and the passage depicting the tripods is the closure of the first half of the epic, which narrates the Achilles’ anger against Agamemnon, and the depiction of the shield of Achilles is the opening of the second half, narrating the hero’s anger against Hector. The fact that the closure and the opening take place just in the middle (26th day) of the main story lasting 51 days (25 + 1 + 25), and the mirror image of two different types of anger directed first against Agamemnon and then against Hector strengthens the ring-composition of the epic.

Keywords: Homer, Hephaestus, Tripods, Bellows, Artificial Intelligence, Metaphor

Los problemas cutáneos provocados por factores internos o externos al cuerpo humano han sido motivo de estudio desde la Antigüedad. En el siglo II Galeno de Pérgamo redactó el De simplicium medicamentorum facultatibus, una obra sobre remedios simples entre los cuales encontramos tratamientos utilizados todavía hoy en día para curar erupciones, eccemas, abscesos, etc. Este tratado fue traducido al siríaco, árabe y latín, y es esta última, la versión latina realizada desde el árabe por Gerardo de Cremona en el siglo XII, la que despierta mayor interés, ya que recoge las recetas descritas por Galeno, pero con las aportaciones de los griegos, sirios y árabes, no solo en su contenido, sino en el léxico técnico empleado. El objetivo de este trabajo es presentar, a través del De simplicibus medicinis de Gerardo, la traducción latina del tratado de Galeno, la visión que la Baja Edad Media occidental tenía de la medicina natural de Galeno para curar afecciones de la piel, y el vocabulario médico, fuertemente arabizado, utilizado en dicha traducción.

Oι έννοιες του χρόνου και του χώρου έχουν απασχολήσει τις θετικές επιστήμες των μαθηματικών και της φυσικής, τις ανθρωποκεντρικές, την φιλοσοφία, την αρχιτεκτονική και λοιπές τέχνες. Από που κατάγεται ο χρόνος και πως σχετίζεται με την αλήθεια; Υπάρχει κάτι που ο χρόνος δεν μπορεί να αγγίξει; Από τον Νευτώνειο απόλυτο και ανεξάρτητο χαρακτήρα του χρόνου, την Αριστοτελική εξάρτηση του χρόνου από την κίνηση, την σχετικότητα του χρόνου σύμφωνα με τον Αϊνστάιν, μέχρι την μουσική ως τέχνη του χρόνου και την αρχιτεκτονική ως τέχνη του χώρου, ο χώρος και ο χρόνος αποτελούν θεμελιώδεις διαστάσεις της ανθρώπινης εμπειρίας.

Fortification and Qanat structures in the area of Acropolis of Thessaloniki

In 2009-2012, under the supervision of the 9th Ephorate of Byzantine Antiquities, archaeologists excavated a plot in close proximity to the western walls of the Acropolis. The earliest phase represented by the few building remains dates back to the Roman imperial times. In the northwestern part of the plot there was revealed part of water concentration system consisting of three wells carved into the local stone. The wells were linked together by a duct (qanat). A road section coated with schist dates back to 4th-6th century A. D. The road is later abandoned and the area was used as a graveyard for the Christians of Thessaloniki, as shown by the eleven Christian graves that were opened in the former roadway. In the same chronological period fall three built water pipes discovered during the excavation. At the eastern boundary of the plot there was revealed part of the smaller external wall which went along with the main walls of the Acropolis. The discovery of the external wall certifies its existence in front of the main wall, in this certain area of the city. The important findings show the daily struggle of the people in order to survive and create in safety and their position in the social stratification, represented by the simplicity of their burial structures.

2007 senesinde Karadeniz Ereğli Müzesindeki çalışmalarımız esnasında tespit ettiğimiz ve Zonguldak-Gökçebey'den yani Tios'un güney sınırlarından getirilmiş bir sunağın üzerindeki adak yazıtı, Aleksandros'un kurduğu bu tarikatla ilgili bilgilerimize yeni bir boyut kazandırdı.
Zira üzerindeki yazıt, adağın Tanrıça Meter Theon (Tanrıların Anası-Ana Tanrıça) huzurunda (olasılıkla tapınağında) Hosios Dikaios yani "Aziz ve Adil (Tanrı) Aleksandros"a sunulduğunu söylemekteydi. Yazıtın devam kısmı tahrip olduğu için kim tarafından ne sebeple adandığı belirlenememiş olsa da Aleksandros'un varlığını ortaya koyan ilk epigrafik belgedir. Gökçebey'de Filyos Çayı'nın kıyısında günümüze bazı kalıntıları ulaşmış olan ve Tios kentinin idari yönetimindeki bir alanda Meter Theon Tapınağı olduğu ve adayan kişinin Aleksandros'a adağını burada sunduğunu düşünmemize vesile olmuştu. Ancak 2018 Temmuz ayında Karadeniz Ereğli Müzesi adına Doç. Dr. Şahin Yıldırım (Bartın Üniversitesi) tarafından Tios kenti akropolis kazılarında ortaya çıkarılan yeni bir sunak, Aleksandros'un kent merkezinde tapınım gördüğünü kesin olarak ispatlamıştır; zira üzerinde tam olarak korunagelen yazıtı, bir kadının "bomos"u yani sunağı çocukları için Theos Epekoos'a yani "Her şeyi Duyan Tanrı Aleksandros"a adadığını söylemektedir.

Buradan, Abonoteikhos'ta Aleksandros'un temellerini attığı Glykon inanışının ve tarikatının Tios ve çevresinde kendisine yayılma zemini bulduğu, bünyesine kattığı müritlerle merkeze bağlı bir şube olarak hizmet vermeye başladığı sonucu çıkarılabilir.

La epigrafía revela  que  el culto dionisíaco está atestiguado sin interrupción en Tracia desde el siglo IV a.C. hasta principios del siglo IV d.C., en un to-tal de  aproximadamente 150 inscripciones. Entre ellas  hay  20 decretos conmemorativos, públicos y privados, que  ofrecen información sobre las celebraciones dionisíacas y su calendario cultual. Los epígrafes se fechan  entre el siglo IV a.C. y el siglo I d.C. y abarcan un amplio espectro geográfico dentro de las fronteras del mundo tracio. El análisis  de estos documentos es funda- mental para determinar si el culto de Dioniso en estas ciudades es de tipo cívico, es decir,  reglado y controlado por la ciudad, o mistérico.

Nurses and pedagogues are present in ancient Greek upbringing and education. These nameless slaves cared for and accompanied their masters from infancy to adulthood, intervening in their moral formation thanks to their share of popular tradition. The knowledge they possessed, its transmission at home, and the evolution of their roles during Greek antiquity are the subject of this study, for which we will use classical tragedy and Platonic writings on the new education as our main sources.

“Zorkis’s Anguish”: A New Oracular Tablet from Dodona
ElEni Κ. SkaliSti

There are about 1,406 oracular tablets coming from the sanctuary of Zeus and Diona in Dodona, which introduce about 4,383 epigraphical texts. These inscriptions highlight various issues of people addressing the gods in order to overcome some personal difficulty. The issues that concern the pilgrims who arrive at the sanctuary are of a wide range. One important category of these texts concerns health related inquiries, requesting
consultation either on the health of the pilgrims themselves or of their relatives. There are about 183 texts coming from Dodona which address health or medical treatment issues. Thirty of them are related to ocular disorders.
This paper focuses on a new oracular tablet, which was found in 2015 at the propylon of Hiera Oikia. It was discovered inside the propylon in the internal corner of the prostasis, and therefore, can be linked to the construction of the second precinct wall, during the 4th century BC.
According to the text, Zorkis is seeking advice from Zeus and Diona regarding her grandchild’s ocular impairment.

This December, Soeterbeeck will be host to experts on papyri, mediaeval manuscripts, ostraca, inscribed objects from the Far East, and Ancient Egyptian inscriptions, all researchers who pay particular attention to the interplay between form and content, between object and text.

В статье публикуется остракон с двустрочным граффито, найденный при раскопках городища Мирмекий, датирующийся в пределах II-I вв. до н.э. Надпись на черепке Φ̣ιλίσκος ὁ μάχι|μος, представляющая собой скорее всего надпись частного характера (маркировочную?), может быть интерпретировано двумя способами. В первом случае ὁ μάχιμος трактуется в широком значении ʽвоин, боецʼ, представляя собой шутливое прозвище Филиска, во втором – в узкоспециальном, использовавшимся в качестве обозначения иностранных наемников в египетской армии эпохи Птолемеев. Привлечение документов, фиксирующих присутствие выходцев с Боспора в птолемеевской армии, позволяют рассматривать второй вариант чтения как вполне возможный.
Рассматриваемое граффито дает повод еще раз обратиться к предложенной автором интерпретации стк. 1-2 КБН 450 как Δολης ὁ [[Ἡ]]γοῦμεν|ος, подвергшейся серьезной критике со стороны В.П. Яйленко. Разбор аргументации оппонента выявляет ее несостоятельность и позволяет провести интересную параллель между Δολης ὁ [[Ἡ]]γοῦμενος и  Φ̣ιλίσκος ὁ μάχιμος в первом варианте понимания граффито.

Es wurde viel gefeiert im alten Rom. In den Köpfen moderner Betrachter dürfte das Schlagwort „römisches Fest“ ein farbenfrohes Bild von dekadenten Trinkgelagen, blutrünstigen Gladiatorenkämpfen und opulenten Triumphzügen entstehen lassen. Doch wie lassen sich römische Feste wissenschaftlich greifen, und, noch wichtiger: Welchen Erkenntnisgewinn verspricht deren Erforschung? Dieser Band verfolgt den Ansatz, das römische Festwesen im Kontext sozialer Aushandlungsprozesse zu erfassen. Eine Untersuchung der inschriftlich überlieferten Feststiftungen im Westen des Römischen Reichs ermöglicht somit nicht nur einen Überblick über die abgehaltenen Feste, sondern bietet auch tiefere Einblicke in die Mechanismen, mit denen versucht wurde, gesellschaftliche Zugehörigkeiten und Identitäten auszudrücken und Prestige einzufordern und zuzuschreiben. Eine Untersuchung des römischen Festwesens wird auf diese Weise zu einer faszinierenden Studie der römischen Gesellschaft.

This paper examines the scope of the medical researches at Knidos and also the lives, social status and medical views of Knidian physicians. Besides some assessments on the status of the god Asklepios in the
religious spectrum of Knidos are attempted in the light of epigraphical and numismatical evidence. Ancient sources that survived put forward Kos and Knidos as the prime centers of medical researches in the 5th and
the 4th centuries BC. In this period the physicians of Knidos, in a rivalry with physicians of Kos, earned great reputation and fame. At Knidos and Kos, there were Asklepiadai, the clan of physicians that claimed to be
the descendants of Asklepios over his son Podaleirios. The physicians of Knidos known through the ancient sources are Euryphon, Herodikos, Ktesias, Eudoxos, Khrysippos son of Erineos, Khrysippos son of Aristagoras and Khrysippos son of Khrysippos. Additionally the inscriptions provide information about the physicians of
Knidos who lived in the Roman Imperial Period. Despite the reputation of the physicians of Knidos and the belief that these physicians were the descendants of Asklepios, there is a lack of evidence about the religion
of Asklepios at the city. Also any definitive evidence for the existence of a temple dedicated to the god or of a priesthood in service of the god haven’t been discovered yet. Furthermore, the coins of Knidos with depictions of Asklepios are rare and the known coin types are dated to late 2nd-early 3rd century AD.

Πρόλογος-Λογοτεχνία και Κριτική Στο νυν και αεί και στους αιώνες αμήν. Αν μέναμε λίγο στο παρόν, τι θα βλέπαμε; Λίγα πράγματα, το παρόν αποτελείτε από μία στιγμή η οποία συνέχεια περνάει, και τι αφήνει πίσω της; Αφήνει λίγη σκόνη, θα λέγαμε, αν είμασταν άλλοι. Ευτυχώς είμαστε ακόμη εδώ, και τι δεν περάσαμε. Το ζήτημα του παρόν βιβλίου είναι ο χρόνος.

Les inscriptions funéraires constituent une source décisive pour étudier la place des femmes dans les mondes grec et romain. Si les Grecques et les Romaines apparaissent peu dans la documentation littéraire, elles sont bien plus représentées sur les monuments funéraires en leur honneur ou celui d’un proche. Prêtresses, actrices, artisanes et étrangères se donnent ainsi à voir et à entendre sur la pierre, permettant à l’historien.ne de mieux appréhender leur rôle dans les sociétés antiques.

The tough Spartan soldier is one of the most enduring images from antiquity. Yet Spartans too fell in battle – so how did ancient Sparta memorialise its wars and war dead? From the poet Tyrtaeus inspiring soldiers with rousing verse in the seventh century BCE to inscriptions celebrating the 300’s last stand at Thermopylae, and from Spartan imperialists posing as liberators during the Peloponnesian War to the modern reception of the Spartan as a brave warrior defending the “West”, Sparta has had an outsized role in how warfare is framed and remembered. This image has also been distorted by the Spartans themselves and their later interpreters. While debates continue to rage about the appropriateness of monuments to supposed war heroes in our civic squares, this authoritative and engaging book suggests that how the Spartans commemorated their military past, and how this shaped their military future, has perhaps never been more pertinent.