Phiale of Megara

The Phiale of Megara is an ancient Greek silver phiale, a libation vessel, found in a tomb in Elimiotis, in Upper Macedonia near present-day Kozani.It is described in Supplementum Epigraphicum Graecum (SEG) vol. 13, no. 306; in N. G. Hammond and G. T. Griffith, A history of Macedonia, Oxford: Clarendon 1979, Vol.2, p.96; in T. Rizakis and G. Touratsoglou, Epigraphes Ano Makedonia, Athens 1986, #2; and in L. H. Jefferey, The local scripts of archaic Greece, Oxford 1961, #173.2. See also Poinikastas database of Greek inscriptions, Megara #332 Dated from BC, it bears a one-line inscription in Doric Greek, which reads "sacred to the Athena of Megara" (, ).Poinikastas, database of Greek inscriptions Today it is kept in the Archaeological Museum of Kozani, in northwestern Greece.

Description

On the basis of the reference to Megara and its well-known sanctuary of Athena, its provenance is usually assumed to be of that city, situated in southern Greece,Poinikastas data base, citing Jeffery, The local scripts of archaic Greece.Gill, David, "Plate, precious (Greek and Roman)", in: Oxford Classical Dictionary, edited by Simon Hornblower and Antony Spawforth, 3rd ed, Oxford 1996. and it is dated to the early part of the fifth century. Among the characteristics of its writing system is an archaic, B-like glyph shape for the letter E (epsilon), a feature found regularly in early inscriptions from Megara and nearby Corinth.Jefferey, The local scripts of archaic Greece, p. 132f.Poinikastas, database of Greek inscriptions

However, James L. O'Neil, following Hammond and Griffith,N. G. Hammond and G. T. Griffith, A history of Macedonia, Oxford: Clarendon 1979, Vol.2, p.96 conjectures that the inscription could also have been written locally in Macedonia. In this case, it would constitute the earliest known example of a local Greek dialect written in Macedonia, and would confirm the hypothesis―derived from another archaeological find, the Pella curse tablet―that ancient Macedonian Greek was of Doric Greek nature. O'Neil argues that there is evidence that a place in Macedonia was also called Megara, something that is also supported by Plutarch's records,Plutarch Pyrros 2,2 and that the inscription fails to display the specifically Megarian archaic shape of Epsilon. However, the notes by L. H. Jefferey for LSAG do show just this archaic Megarian form.

Of the linguistic forms in the inscription, the word ἰαρά ('sacred') can be identified unambiguously as Doric. The archaic form of the name of the Goddess Athena, Ἀθαναία(ς), is less distinctive and could occur in any dialect except Ionic, while the genitive article form τᾶς points to any dialect except Ionic and Attic. The form of the name Megara, with initial mh-, reflects its etymological origin *sm- and is found frequently in inscriptions from Megara but also elsewhere.

Phiale of Megara

Bron en licentie