MAMA XI 208 (Axylon)

Funerary inscription in verse for Glykera

Type of monument:: Funerary inscription in verse.
Location:: Çeşmelisebil (Axylon): in a pile of rubble to the south of the höyük.
Description:: Marble slab, broken left and below. Inscription in recessed panel; on upper moulding, left to right, swastika, chi-rho christogram, swastika, rosette. To the right of the inscription, diamond pattern.
Dimensions:: Ht. 1.15+; W. 1.34+; Th. 0.25-0.30; letters 0.020-0.040.
Record:: Squeeze; photograph (1954/45).
Publication:: None.
Date:: Fourth or fifth century AD.

[- - - -]ί̣δης̣ vvv. Γελασίου πολυήρατος ἀνὴρ̣
[- - - -]α̣ενουσι βροτοὶ πολὺ φίλτατον ΟΝ
[- - - -]ρας περικαλλὲς ἀνέ⟨σ⟩τησεν τόδε
[- - - -] τείμησ᾿ ἄλοχον {α̣} Γλυκερὴν κυδιμ-
5[ὸν - -]αν πτωχῶν θρέπτειραν ἄμ-
[ωμον (?) - -]ην τε σοφήν τ᾿ ἑῆς σο̣φίης ἐκέκασ-
[το - -] εὐσεβίῃ ἐρατεινῇ κάλλι καὶ π̣ινυτ-
[ῇ - - σ]ωφροσύνη μὲν ἐποῦσα τῇ ΓΟ
[- - - -]ρ̣ο Κόϊντος ἀνὴ[ρ] ἴδιο[ς] (?) μῆς (?) χά-
10[ριν - - -]ισατο μ̣ν̣ήμ̣η̣[ς] (?) τίτλον ἀνέσ-
[τησεν πολυ]ήρατον ἔξοχον ἔργον.

...lovely man, son of Gelasios... mortals... far the dearest... set this up, an extremely beautiful... he honoured his glorious wife Glykera... bl[ameless] nurse of the poor... wise... she was well-equipped with her wisdom... lovely piety, beauty and prudence... self-restraint lay upon her... Quintus, her husband, in mem[oriam]... he set up this lovely inscription, an excellent work.

This fragmentary verse epitaph is evidently the product of the same poet as was responsible for MAMA XI 206 (1954/42) and 207 (1954/43), and shares much of the same vocabulary and phraseology. The name Gelasios is also attested in this region at Laodikeia (MAMA I 203). For the Homeric phrase πολὺ φίλτατος (line 2: H., Il. 5.378 etc.), cf. MAMA VII 560 (Kuyulusebil); MAMA I 362 (Çeşmelisebil). For ἑῆς σο̣φίης ἐκέκασ[το] (lines 6-7), compare I.Konya 205 (Merkelbach and Stauber 2004: 14/06/24, Dağdere, near Laodikeia), σοφίης δὲ πάσης ἐκέκαστο.