The rock surface is quite large, measuring 1 meter in height and divided into two
parts by a deep vertical fracture. The right section, where the inscription is located,
is 2.85 meters long, while the left section measures 1.75 meters. In this left section,
there are numerous scattered traces of letters and marks, though they are completely
undecipherable. The right section also features several other fractures that affect
the inscription.
Layout
Execution: chiselled.
Palaeography
Letters of the archaic alphabet of Thera: Alpha (l. 2): left stroke widely spaced,
oblique bar. Beta (l. 2): open form. Epsilon: vertical stroke extending downward,
oblique bars. Aspiration: represented as a closed rectangular with orizontal crossbar.
Iota: three-bar form with rounded angles. Lambda (l. 1): sharp angle at the top. Mu:
fourth bar shorter. Ny: short and widely spaced third bar. Omicron: smaller than the
other letters. Pi: hooked-shaped. Rho: rigid bowl. San: used for a sibilant sound.
Provenance and Discovery
Place:Archaía Thíra (36.36349, 25.47804)
Date:Beginning of the 7th century BCE (a); 7th century BCE (b).
Findspot:near the Gymnasium
Coordinates:36.36171, 25.48151
Last recorded location: in situ; Last seen by A. Inglese in 2003 in situ; rubbing; due to the size of the inscription,
it was necessary to make multiple rubbings.
a line 1. Hiller, in IG XII,3,537: [Τὸν δεῖνα] ναὶ τὸν Δελπhίνιον |line 2: h[ο] Κρίμων τε[ῖ]δε ὦιπhε, παῖδα Βα- Hiller, in SGDI 4788 (Suppl.): [μὰ τὸν][- - -] καὶ τὸν Δελπhίνιον ἦ Κρίμων τε[ῖ]δε ὦιπhε line 2. Hiller's line 3, in IG XII,3,537: -θυκλέος, ἀδελπhεὸ[ν δὲ τοῦ δεῖνος] Hiller, in SGDI 4788 (Suppl.): παῖδα, βαθυκλέος ἀδελπhεόν
b Hiller, in IG XII,3,537: Δε[ι]νώ
Commentary
The communicative context would refer to the erotic sphere, given the presence of
the verb οἴφω.
This inscription, together with the other eortic graffiti, illustrates one of the
practices carried out on the periphery of the Agora
of the Gods, which characterises a society that represents itself,
its rituals, forms or rules of behaviour to which the dominant social groups conform.
However, this is not done through institutions, as in later communities where the
same paideia is already standardised.
What seems important is that such behaviours were not only self-referential, but had
to be communicated to others and
thus shared through writing.
This graffito in particular provides some important clues as to the age of the participants
in this type of erotic practice and
helps to contextualise the erotic graffiti of the Agora of the Gods within an initiatory
dimension. Evidence of this can be seen
in the use of paîs to refer to the boy with whom Krimon had sexual relations, and
in the initial formula of the inscription,
which clearly mentions Delphinios.
Moreover, the use of pais gives us an idea of the age range of the lovers: based on
information from Spartan sources,
it seems to refer to adolescents between the ages of 12 and 20. It should be noted,
however, that in this polis there are several
difficulties in defining precisely the stages of life to which the many terms found
in ancient sources refer.
Funder: CHANGES - Theme 5. Humanities and Cultural Heritage as Laboratories of Innovation
and Creativity, funded by the European Union – NextGenerationEU, Associazione Centro
di Eccellenza DTC
Alessandra Inglese: original data collection and edition
Valentina Mignosa: encoding, editing metadata and geo data, website content creation, HTML transformation,
website design and styling, interactive mapping implementation
Marika Griffo: rubbings digitisation
Simone Lucchetti: rubbings digitisation
Luigi Tessarolo: website construction, design and styling, interactive mapping implementation
Virgilio Costa: methodological and digital consultancy
