12.801. Funerary inscription for Aba

Description:
White marble block (W. 0.41 x H. 0.37 x depth not measurable). The upper left corner and all edges are chipped, and there is a crack across the lower right corner.
Text:
Inscribed on the face, within a partly smoothed area
Letters:
0.02-0.03; theta and omicron smaller than the rest
Date:
First century B.C. to first century A.D.(lettering)
Findspot:
Walls, South-west: just east of 12.706 (=MAMA 468).
Original Location:
Unknown
Last recorded location:
Findspot
History of discovery:
Copied by Radet; by Reichel (R.I.36a); recorded by the MAMA expedition; by the NYU expedition.
Bibliography:
Published by Radet, BCH 14, 1890, 237, no. 12; published by Cormack from the MAMA records, MAMA 8, no. 532, whence McCabe PHI Aphrodisias 402 , Robert, BCH 107 (1983), 505.
Text constituted from:
Reichel squeeze and notebook; transcription (Reynolds); publications. This edition Reynolds (2007).
1 Ἄβα Ἀτραπάτου
2 γυνὴ δὲ Ἀθηνα-
3γόρου τοῦ Μηνο-
4δότου Κασταίου
5 vac. χαῖρε vac.
6 vac.
1ΑΒΑΑΤΡΑΠΑΤΟΥ
2ΓΥΝΗΔΕΑΘΗΝΑ
3ΓΟΡΟΥΤΟΥΜΗΝΟ
4ΔΟΤΟΥΚΑΣΤΑΙΟΥ
5   ΧΑΙΡΕ   
6   
<ab>
<lb n="1" />
Ἄβα
Ἀτραπάτου
<lb n="2" />
γυνὴ
δὲ
Ἀθηνα
<lb n="3" type="worddiv" />
γόρου
τοῦ
Μηνο
<lb n="4" type="worddiv" />
δότου
Κασταίου
<lb n="5" />
<space extent="3" unit="character" dim="horizontal" />
χαῖρε
<space extent="3" unit="character" dim="horizontal" />
<lb n="6" />
<space extent="3" unit="character" dim="horizontal" />
</ab>

Apparatus

It is not clear to which of the two masculine names Kastaios was attached, but there is some indication in Aphrodisian practice that it would probably be Athenagoras.

Translation:

Aba, (daughter of) Atrapatos, and wife of Athenagoras, son of Menodotos, also called Kastaios. Farewell.

Commentary:

The funerary formula accords with a comparatively early date (cf also Robert, loc. cit.); the names show interestingly various but non-Roman features.

Aba seems to be an indigenous name attested both elsewhere in Caria and also in Cilicia and Phrygia (see Zgusta, Kleinasiatischen Personennamen (Prague, 1984), especially section 1, Blümel, Die Inschriften der rhodischen Peraia (Bonn, 1991). Atrapates is Iranian. Athenagoras and Menodotos are Greek, and in fairly common use at Aphrodisias, (see name index), notably in a prominent family of the first and second centuries A.D. which inluded a Mithridates son of Athenagoras (see 12.410). Mithridates, like Atrapates, is Itranian, and both are clearly survivals from the Persian occupation of Asia Minor.

Kastaios is probably an indigenous personal name (so Buckler, Appendix V to Sardis 6.2), but has been seen by some as a demotic (Brandenstein in RE 6, s.v. Karische Sprache, 140f, 141); there is however no clear evidence for the use of demotics at Aphrodisias.

Photographs:

Face (1973)
 Face (1973)

Representations:

Reichel notebook, I, 36
 Reichel notebook, I, 36

(cc) You may download this inscription in EpiDoc XML. (You may need the EpiDoc DTD v. 5 to validate this file.)