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Laudatory Epithets in Greek Epitaphs

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 October 2013

Marcus N. Tod
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Extract

Alan Wace and I spent three memorable years together, wellnigh half a century ago, in the British School at Athens, of which he was later to be for nine years the Director. The first book which either of us published was the Catalogue of the Sparta Museum, in the writing of which we collaborated, and I have followed with keen interest his subsequent career as scholar, administrator and teacher. I therefore regard it as a privilege to make a contribution however slight to the volume of the British School Annual which will serve as a tangible expression of his friends' admiration of his past achievements and their heartfelt wishes for his future happiness.

Type
Research Article
Information
Annual of the British School at Athens , Volume 46 , November 1951 , pp. 182 - 190
Copyright
Copyright © The Council, British School at Athens 1951

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References

1 Friedländer, P. and Hoffleit, H. B., Epigrammata: Greek Inscriptions in Verse, I. From the Beginnings to the Persian Wars, Berkeley, 1948.Google Scholar

2 Epigrammata Graeca ex lapidibus conlecta, Berlin, 1878.

3 Themes in Greek and Latin Epitaphs, Urbana (Illinois), 1942. Unfortunately the work has no index and no table of inscriptions quoted.

4 Useful bibliographies of books and articles dealing with Greek epitaphs are found in J. J. E. Hondius, Saxa loquuntur, 127 f., and Lattimore, R., op. cit. 13, 343 ff.Google Scholar

5 See, e.g., Richardson, B. E., Old Age among the Ancient Greeks (Baltimore, 1933), 231 ff.Google Scholar, 277 ff., Hombert, M. and Préaux, C., Chronique d'Égypte, XX 139 ff.Google Scholar

6 It must be borne in mind that the references given in the present article are, save where the context indicates otherwise, only illustrative and make no pretension to completeness.

7 E.g. IG IV2 83–4, 86, V (2) 517, XII (7) 33, 53–4, 239–40, 393–7, 399–401, 405, 408–10 XIV 758, Robert, L., Hellenka, III 10 ff.Google Scholar; cf. Buresch, K., RhMus XLIX 424 ff.Google Scholar

8 In passing I note the epithets χρηστός, φιλόξενος, and γαῦρος (here unquestionably laudatory), added to the names of certain ephebi at Eretria and Tanagra (Robert, L., Hellenka, I 127 ff., II 139 ff.)Google Scholar, and the word ἀγαθός occasionally attached to the names of Spartan officials (Woodward, A. M., BSA XLIII 225).Google Scholar

9 Plutarch, Solon, 21 ἐπαινεῑται δὲ τοῦ Σόλωος καὶ ὁ κωλύων νόμος τὸν τεθνηκότα κακῶς ἀγορεύειν.

10 The Thasian epitaphs are collected in IG XII (8) 395–630, XH Suppl. 452–513. An epitaph of Aezani (SEG VI 134) contains the phrase ὑῷ προσφιλεστάτῳ. For the meaning of the word see below.

11 In JHS LXVII III I restore Λουκί[ῳ ἀ]συνκρίτῳ for Λουκί[α] Συνκρίτῳ in an epitaph of Thessalonica.

12 E.g. IG II2 12034 χρηστὸς καὶ δίκαιος, 12749 χρηστὴ δικαία, V (2) 492 φιλανδροτάτη καὶ σεμνοτάτη, VII 3050 καλὲ χρηστέ, IX (2) 849 ἥρως χρηστὲ καὶ [κα]λὴ ψυχή. Far more rarely we find three epithets, as in Maiuri, Nuova Silloge 600, SEG VI 565 (Pisidia).

13 Except in the case of γλυκύς which is almost invariably found in the superlative; ἄριστος is occasionally used, and we have also σεμνοτἀτη either alone (IG V (2) 218, Demitsas, Μακεδονία, 744) or accompanied by another superlative (see note 12), [προσφι]λεστάτν (IG XII (8) 603), etc.

14 E.g. ἀσύγκριτος, ἀμ(ε)ίμητος, ἀναμάρτητος, τὴν μόνην σώφρονα καὶ φίλανδρον (references in IG XIV, p. 767). Πανάρετος (IG V (i) 1490, XIV 2098, Sammelbuch, 330–1) contrasts with the more modest ἐνάρετος of IG VII 2671. I quote here the unique opening of an epitaph o Patara (TAM II 443) ᾿Αρεσκούσης ψυχἠ ἀθἁνατος φιλανδρία ἀσύνκριτος φιλοτεκνία ἀνυπἑβλητος, κἁλλος ἀμεί-μητον, σωφροσύνη ἀδιἡγητος φιλάδελφε, φιλότε[κ]νε, φιλόφιλε, ἄλυπε, χρηστὲ χαῖρε

15 See Lattimore, op. cit. 290 ff. Examples are Dain, Inscriptions grecques du Musée du Louvre: les textes inédits, 174 χρηστἠ ἀγαθή κυκλίστρια SEG IV 133, VI 565, Sammelbuch, 330 f., 343, 1990.

16 IG II2 12583 ἀγαθἡ But I have little doubt that here ἀγαθὁς indicates professional rather than moral excellence, as we might say ‘He is a bad man but a good carpenter’. The distinction between these two senses of ἀγαθῶι, τὸ ἤθος καὶ τὴν τἑχνην appears in IG XIV 1319 χρηοτός In IG II2 9121, the epitaph of a Cypriote buried at Athens, we have a thrice-repeated χρηστὁτητα δὲ ἐπιστήμην

17 Cf. Stobaeus, Eel. II 108 εὐποιητικἡν [χρ]ηστὀς [τοῖς δ]εσπόταις The aspect of serviceableness would be prominent in the case of slaves or freedmen (IG II2 11515, IX (2) 855, 859, 861), as in the epitaph of a Thasian shepherd χρηστός χρήσιμος discussed by Robert, L., Hellenica, VII 152 ff.Google Scholar; see Robert's remarks in Études anatoliennes, 369 f. Hesychius has the entries χρηστῶν χρησὶμων and χρἡσιμος but only once, so far as I know, is ψυχή used in an epitaph (Paton-Hicks, Cos, 272).

18 Other epithets applied to ψυχή in prose epitaphs are ἄκακος (IG XIV 2077), ἀείμνηστος (ib. 1364), ἀσύνκριτος (ib. 2024), σεμνὴ καὶ ἀσύνκριτος καὶ ἀείμνηστος (ib. 1700), ἁγνὴ καὶ δίκαιος καὶ εὐσεβεστάτη (SEG IV 133).

19 The feminine ἀλύπη is rare (IG V (1) 809, SEG VII 274); sometimes the word is misspelt ἄλοιπος (SEG VII 903, Sammelbuch, 6172, Le Bas-Wadd. 1853, 1870). In Trendall's, A. D.Handbook to the Nicholson Museum2 (Sydney, 1948), 451Google Scholar, two Greek inscriptions brought from Antioch by Prof. S. Angus are thus entered: ‘70. εὐψυχιαβιφθαλυπε[?]; 71. [?]λιπε χαῑ|ρε’. In no. 70 εὐψύχι (common in epitaphs, e.g. SEG VII 66, 802) and ἄλυπε are certain; the intervening name eludes me, nor does the list of names in H. Wuthnow, Die semitischen Menschennamen in griechischen Inschriften, 8 f., provide a convincing solution, though Αβιβε or Αβιβαθ is possible. In no. 71 the name is lost, but ἄ]λ‹υ›πε χαῑ|ρε may be confidently restored.

20 For examples, all except one drawn from literature, see LS9s.v. The word does not occur in Homer, Aeschylus or Herodotus, but is common in Sophocles and later writers.

21 GI 2 10510.

22 I omit IG XIV 1588 καλῶς πράξας, μηδένα λυπήσας, μηδενὶ προσκρούσας because of the editor's comment ‘videtur Christiana’, though I am not convinced of its truth. Another relevant text comes from near Amasia in Pontus (Studia Pontica, III 241) ἐν μηδενὶ λυπήσασα τὸν πάτρωνά μου Κύρικον, ἐν φθιμένοις ἄλυπος ὑπάρχω, a curious blend of prose and verse.

23 Ἄλυπος (IG II2 9683, SEG III 421, 25, VI 146), Ἀλυπη (Demitsas, Μακεδονία, 432), Ἀλυπιανός (CIG 1546), Ἀλύπιος (SEG VIII 230, Sammelbuch, 4722, 3), Ἀλύπις (SEG IV 654, 6), Ἀλυπώ (Ugolini, Albania Antica, III 121). On the other hand, Ἀλύπητος (Hesperia X 16 f.), Ἀλύπηθος (SEG VIII 760) and Ἀλύπατος (SEG IX 654) must be interpreted as passives.

24 It is questionable whether we should write πασίφιλος (with LS9) or πᾶσι φίλος. The forms πασίφιλος, -ε, applied to women (Sammelbuch, 6164, 6168, 6651) favour the former alternative, but πᾶσι γεγῶτα φίλον (SEG VIII 497), πᾶσιν φίλος (IG II2 13098), ἄ[π]ασι φίλος (Kalinka, Antike Denkmäler in Bulgarien, 336), φίλη πᾶσι (SEG VIII 569), and the feminine in -η (Sammelbuch, 6192, 7254 = SEG VIII 494) support the latter, thouh not decisively. Perhaps both are admissible, but in any case the meaning of the word is more important than its form.

25 Unless the curious phrase ἤν χρηστὸζ καὶ χρηστῶ[νἐξεγ]έν[ετο - (IG II2 10904; cf. Robert, L., Hellenica, VII 152Google Scholar) refers to ‘good’ birth; I doubt the restoration and suggest as possible χρηστῶ[ς ἔʒησ]εν or ἐβίωσ]εν.

26 The moral interpretation is involved in the frequent phrases like καλῶς βιώσας or καλῶς ʒήσασς, as also, I think, in the common καλὴ ψυχή (IG V (1) 1487, IX (2) 849, SEG IX 882, A. Maiuri, Nuova silloge, 597). In IG V (1) 789 [ψυχὴ] καλή should perhaps be restored in place of - - καλή.

27 Εὐσεβὴς καὶ ἀγαθή (IG XIV 45) χρηστὴ καὶ εὐσεβής (ib. 332), εὐσεβὴς περὶ θεοὺς καὶ ἀνθρώπους (ib. 1664). Numerous examples are collected by Robert, L., who shows (Helltnica, II 81 f.Google Scholar) that in IG XII (2) 368 εὐσεβεῦ is not an irregular vocative of εὐσεβής but the ethnic of Εὐσέβεια.

28 Out of seventy-three epithets found in the obituary notices in the ‘Times’ during one week in july, 1950, seventy-one were of this type (beloved, dearly loved, dear, deeply mourned, and the like), and only two (devoted) recorded directly a virtue examplified by the deceased.

29 Robert, L. rightly claims (Hellenica, IV 130Google Scholar) that this adjective, which in a Cyzicene epitaph (JHS XXII 203) is coupled with ἀείμνηστος must mean ‘unforgettable’ and not, as translated in LS9, ‘free from lethargy, energitic’.