Religious Documents from Roman Cyprus
1946; Cambridge University Press; Volume: 66; Linguagem: Inglês
10.2307/626536
ISSN2041-4099
Autores Tópico(s)Archaeology and Historical Studies
ResumoProvenance unknown. Now in the Cyprus Museum, but with no record of acquisition. A rectangular sandstone block, both stone and inscription virtually complete. H. from 0·175 m. to 0·18 m.; w., 0·464 m.; th., 0·115 m. The surface, save for three long but shallow scratches, good. The alphabet is debased classical, notable forms being Ε and Η with the central stroke disconnected, Ρ with its top approximately rectangular. Letters, from 0·01 m. to 0·017 m. Squeeze. (Fig. 1.) From its lettering this inscription is in all probability earlier than the reign of Hadrian and should belong to the second half of the first century. Tryphon and Philon are both names common along the south coast of Cyprus; but as an indication of provenance this fact must be used with great reserve. The worship of Nemesis in Cyprus is not otherwise known to me, though Tyche with whom she is here identified occurs both at Chytri and at Paphos. An inscription tells of a dedication to the Fortune of Chytri under Philometor; another of how a certain Apollonia and her husband Patrocles were honoured, perhaps under Hadrian, as the founders of a Τυχαῖον and as the priests of the Fortune of the Metropolis Paphos. Here we do not find this limited conception of Tyche: the present inscription is an excellent and it seems an early illustration of the worship of Nemesis as a universal goddess, identified on the one hand with Justice, on the other with Fortune. In the theological and philosophic speculation of the second and third centuries these ideas are commonplaces. I am not aware that they have as yet occurred in the first.
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