AIUK46 no. 43 Grave stele of Agathemeris and Sempronius Niketes

Grave stele of Agathemeris and Sempronius Niketes

AIUK 4.6 (BM, Funerary Monuments) no. 43 Date: ca. AD 150-200

Agathemeris SE (i.e. is living?) Sempronius (daughter) of Aphrodeisios of Kollytos. Niketes of Kollytos. (relief)^[1]

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Greek text

References:

AIUK 4.6 (BM, Funerary Monuments) no. 43 (Translated text) (AIUK) (AIO)

IG II² 6498 (PHI)

Conze IV no. 1963

GIBM IV 944

von Moock no. 446

Translation by: Robert Pitt

AIO Images: 1 2

Monument type: Stele

Inscription type: Funerary

Findspot: Athens, near the Ilissos along the road to Piraeus (BM 1878,0725.1)

Transliterations on Places on

[1] This large naiskos stele was donated to the British Museum by Sir T. J. Malcolm in 1878. The stone had been excavated in Athens in 1818 by the British consul Logothetis just before the War of Independence on a road to Piraeus. A deeply carved relief dating to the Antonine period depicts Agathemeris and perhaps her husband, Sempronius Niketes, a Roman citizen. She is dressed as a follower of the goddess Isis with a fringed himation tied with a knot at the chest, worn over a sleeved gown (chiton), and carries paraphernalia of the cult. The sistrum in her right hand is an Egyptian musical rattle made of disks loosely strung along prongs within a loop; the situla in her left hand is a type of suspended pail (cf. AIUK 8, no. 4). What precisely this style of dress signified about the deceased is debated: it might indicate that she had been an Isis-worshipper in real life, or the dress might have been a more general indicator of "oriental" cultural identity, derived from Western Roman iconography.

The letters sigma eta after Agathemeris are difficult to explain, but if the sigma is an alternative for zeta (which is attested, albeit rarely, at this period) this would yield the two-letter word zeta eta (ζῃ, “she lives”), meaning that Agathemeris set up the monument to Sempronius while she still lived. Later, her father's demotic was added to the inscription, asserting her own status as an Athenian citizen, thus emphasising the function of funerary monuments in guaranteeing status in relation to inheritance and citizenship. For more detailed discussion of the inscription see AIUK 4.6 (BM, Funerary Monuments), no. 43.

Added: 6 Apr 2022
Updated: 6 Apr 2022
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ID: AIO_2211