AIUK46 no. 75 Funerary monument

Funerary monument

AIUK 4.6 (BM, Funerary Monuments) no. 75 Date: ii-iii AD

. . . was my father. Do not weep for the dead . . . having looked upon. At eighty-two years . . . of the sons of Kekrops and the sacred Council of elders (?) . . . obtained freedom. Sixty years (5) . . . from whom I had legitimate children and not bastards. . . . impressed the form, for all to see me(?) . . . But if you wish to charm the soul (psuchēn) . . . having induced however many things as for mortals(?) . . . ^[1]

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Greek text

References:

AIUK 4.6 (BM, Funerary Monuments) no. 75 (Translated text) (AIUK) (AIO)

IG II² 13150 (PHI)

GIBM I 131

Translation by: Robert Pitt

AIO Images: 1

Monument type: Fragment

Inscription type: Funerary

Findspot: Athens (BM 1816,0610.369)

Transliterations on Places on

[1] This inscription in the British Museum is part of the Elgin collection (cf. AIUK 4.1, no. 2). Although very fragmentary, the inscribed face of this monument is convex, and cuts through earlier decorative(?) elements, indicating reuse; it may have been a kioniskos (cf. no. 57). The letter forms suggest a date in the late second or third century AD. The general sense of the epigram is a first-person narration from the dead about his life to the passer-by at his tomb, a common funerary motif from the earliest examples onwards. He died at the age of 82, a long life indeed by ancient standards, and was likely married for 60 years to a wife who bore him children. There is a distinct interest in projecting status in this inscription, as with so many funerary texts advertising the family to the wider world at the road-side cemetery: the reference to freedom may imply that this man was a freedman. Furthermore, he emphasises not once but twice that his children are legitimate and born in wedlock. It may be relevant here that while freedmen could marry legally, slaves could not. For the rather epic description of the Athenians as the sons of Kekrops, cf. AIUK 4.6, no. 73; I Eleusis 515, l. 6. The "sacred Council" is perhaps a reference to the Areopagos, who may have honoured the man with citizenship. For more detailed discussion of the inscription see AIUK 4.6 (BM, Funerary Monuments), no. 75.

Added: 6 Apr 2022
Updated: 6 Apr 2022
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