[B-Greek] Abraham's Epitaph
Carl Conrad
cwconrad2 at mac.com
Sun Nov 8 18:19:44 EST 2009
Some more speculation, after reading Mark Lightman's efforts.
On Nov 6, 2009, at 12:14 AM, Donald COBB wrote:
> The text raises a lot of questions. "Non standard" it appears to be,
> indeed. I would venture a slightly different division, taking into
> account itacisms, etc.:
>
> Ἄγιε Ἀβρααμ, βοηθει τὸν δοῦλόν
> σου Νιλον τὸν Δμαρμαρην,
> καὶ ἀγαθημερον
> καὶ ὑγιείαν καὶ ὁμαδὶς καὶ
> θωμασίαν καὶ ἀβλαβείαν καὶ
> ἀνάστασιν
>
> AGIE ABRAAM, BOHQEI TON DOULON
> SOU NILON TON DMARMARHN,
> KAI AGAQHMERON
> KAI hUGIEIAN KAI hOMADIS KAI
> QWMASIAN KAI ABLABEIAN KAI
> ANASTASIN
>
> Questions:
> - I'm taking the A at the end of ABRAAMA as a carryover of the
> vocative in arameen, but it's pure speculation, as I know nothing
> about the date of the inscription. It would, however, make sense of
> what comes after.
> - I'm venturing that NILON is a proper name. It would make better
> sense if it were a verb of "giving" "granting" (DIDWMI, etc.), but
> what verb?
> - I can't find anything in LS that corresponds to QWMASIAN and
> hOMADIS is only slightly satisfying.
>
> Someone else will no doubt do better, but as Bryant said, it would
> be nice to have the photo.
Pretty clearly NILON TON DMARMARHN is a personal name in apposition to
TON DOULON SOU -- I would agree with Mark that DMARMARHN is likely an
adjective indicating place of origin; Te accusative must be object of
BOHQEI, despite the fact that in standard Greek BOHQEW construes with
a dative.. I think all the other nouns that follow are blessings that
Nilos prays to Abraham to assist him to have: I'm guessing that
AGAQHMERON will mean "good fortune," hUGIEIAN, of course, is "health."
KAI hOMAIDIS links the remaining blessings with the preceding: KAI
hOMADIS = "and together with them" or "and at the same time"; QWMASIAN
must be for QAUMASIAN as Mark supposed; here it must be a feminine
abstract noun meaning something like "admiration" or "admirability";
ABLABEIA must be something like "safety" or "security from injury."
ANASTASIN would presumably be "resurrection." If this interpretation
is right -- and it is indeed guesswork, no more -- it's curious that
the blessings prayed for are, apart from "resurrection" all secular
blessings.
By all means, one would like to know more about where this was found
and the circumstances.
Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Retired)
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