AIUK46 no. 11 Bilingual grave stele of Artemidoros of Sidon

Bilingual grave stele of Artemidoros of Sidon

AIUK 4.6 (BM, Funerary Monuments) no. 11 Date: ca. 340 BC

Ἀρτεμίδωρος Ἡλιοδώρου Σιδώνιος. (rosette) (rosette)

MṢBT SKR BḤYM L‘BDTNT BN ‘BDŠMŠ HṢDNY

Translated text

References:

AIUK 4.6 (BM, Funerary Monuments) no. 11 (Translated text) (AIUK) (AIO)

IG II² 10270 (PHI)

GIBM I 109

Conze III no. 1575

KAI no. 53

Ginestí Rosell no. 484

Translation by: Robert Pitt

AIO Images: 1 2

Monument type: Stele

Inscription type: Funerary

BM Egypt cat. - Findspot: Athens, Sepolia (BM 1861,0726.1)
BM Greece & Rome cat. - Findspot: Athens, Sepolia (BM 1937,1211.1)

Transliterations on Places on

[1] This impressive bilingual (Greek and Phoenician) stele was excavated before 1797 between the ancient city walls and the Academy. It was purchased by Choiseul-Gouffier, French ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, but the ship on which it was being transported was intercepted in 1803 off Sicilian Messina by a British frigate and the cargo was eventually sold in London. The stele was donated to the British Museum in 1861 by the Royal United Services Institute.

The inscription is one of a number of bilingual funerary monuments for members of Athens' large resident Phoenician community. They were often traders and so congregated around the port of Piraeus. Sidon (in modern Lebanon) and Athens developed close ties, particularly under the reign of King Straton, who is honoured ca. 394-386 BC in an Athenian decree that granted Sidonians staying in Athens for trade purposes exemption from the metic and property taxes (AIUK 11, no. 1). Several such Sidonian traders are also honoured by the Athenians, such as Apollonides son of Demetrios, who had been praised by the merchants and shippers and was awarded proxenia in 323/2 BC (IG II³ 1, 379).

Both father and son have names adapted into Greek using the same criteria: the Phoenician ‘bd (servant) + the name of a divinity, that in Greek becomes a divine name + δωρος (gift). So the Phoenician goddess Tanit is equated with Artemis, while Shamash (the sun god) becomes Helios.

For more detailed discussion of the inscription see AIUK 4.6 (BM, Funerary Monuments), no. 11.

Added: 6 Apr 2022
Updated: 6 Apr 2022
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