Heraklion Archaeological Museum - CollectiveAccess System : Inscriptions : Stone plaque with inscription to Great Mother (Cybele) [Ε43]

Writing in Ancient Crete ➔ Stone plaque with inscription to Great Mother (Cybele)

Ε43

Stone (Poros stone)

Intact but with extensive chipping on edges

Width: 53 cm. Height: 37.5 cm. Thickness: 15-17 cm. Height of letters: 1.5-2cm.

Phaistos

Hellenistic period:

2nd c. BC:

Gallery:

XXII

Exhibition thematic unit:

Classical - Hellenistic - Roman period (5th c. BC-4th c. AD). The Cemeteries

Inscriptions of the Classical and Roman periods

Description

Inscribed rectangular plaque framed by a cymation and band on the sides and top. On the main surface is the full text of a sacred law concerning the temple of the Great Mother at Phaistos, in 12 lines as follows: 1 θαῦμα μέγ’ ἀνθρώποις πάντων Μάτηρ προδίκνυτι· | τοῖς ὁσίοις κίνχρητι καὶ οἱ γον- εὰν ὑπέχονται· | τοῖς δὲ π- 5 αρεσβαίνονσι θιῶν γέν- ος ἀντία πράτει. vac. | πάντε- ς δ’ εὐσεβίες τε καὶ εὔγλωθ- {ι}οι πάριθ’ ἁγνοὶ vac. | ἔνθεον ἐς Μεγάλας Ματρὸς ναόν, 10 ἔνθεα δ’ ἔργα | γνωσῆθ’ ἀ- θανάτας ἄξια τῶδε ν- αῶ. | vacat Free translation: It is a great miracle that the Mother knows all concerning men in advance and foretells it to the pious, and they dedicate their descendants to her. But to those who transgress against the race of the gods she is hostile. All who are pious and good of speech, enter pure. The temple of the Great Mother is full of the divine; divine are all her immortal works you learn of, fitting and worthy of this temple. The text includes Homeric expressions and echoes the philosophical beliefs of the Orphics.

Bibliography:

Inscriptiones Creticae I, xxiii, 3. Supplementum Epigraphicum Graecum 44(1994):731 bis. Supplementum Epigraphicum Graecum 53-2(2003): 979. Μ. Bile, "Quelques épigrammes crétoises (2e s. av. - 5e s. ap. J.-C.)", in J. Dion ed., L’épigramme de l’Antiquité au XVIIe siècle ou Du ciseau à la pointe, Paris, De Boccard, 2002, 123-141. D. Comparetti, "Su alcune epigrafi metriche cretesi", Wien Stud XXIV (1902), 265-275. G. De Sanctis, "L'epigramma festio di Rea", Rivista di Filologia e di Istruzione Classica, n.s. X (1932), 222-6. A. Dietrich, Mutter Erde, Leipzig 1925, 112-5. O. Kern, "Orphiker auf Kreta", Hermes LI (1916), 554-567. Vermaseren, Corpus Cultus Cybelae Attidisque II, 211f, no. 661. G. Sfameni Gasparro, Soteriology and Mystic Aspects in the Cult of Cybele and Attis, Leiden 1985, 86. Ν. Cucuza, "Leto ed il cosiddetto tempio di Rhea di Festòs", Quaderni dell'Istituto di Archeologia della Facoltà di Lettere e Filosofia Università di Messina 8 (1993), 2I-27. S. Katsaounou, Συμπληρωματικές μορφές στους αττικούς ναΐσκους της Κυβέλης, unpublished PhD thesis, Ioannina 2012, 248-9 and 275. Kernos, 10 (1997), Epigraphic Bulletin for Greek Religion 1993/94, 47. Kernos, 13 (2000), Epigraphic Bulletin for Greek Religion 1997, 375. Kernos 16 (2003), Epigraphic Bulletin for Greek Religion 2000, 198. Kernos 20 (2007), Epigraphic Bulletin for Greek Religion 2004, 23 and 221.

Author:

K. S.

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