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...Τίμος Αβδαλώνυμου [Σίδ]ωνος βασιλέως : a bilingual graeco-phoenician inscription from Kos

• Καντζιά, Χάρις

The bilingual inscription presented here — of which only the Greek text has been studied by the author, while the Phoenician text has been published by Professor Maurice Sznycer — was discovered accidentally in 1982, in the town of Kos, most probably during the demolition of an old house dating from the time of the Turkish occupation of the island.The inscription is dedicatory, a votive offering to Aphrodite, the Phoenician Astarte, by the son of the last king of Sidon, Abdalonymus. It is of particular significance, because it provides the first epigraphical evidence of Abdalonymus, hitherto known from literary sources only, and also because it reveals that Abdalonymus had a son.Very little is known about Abdalonymus, the poor gardener whom Alexander the Great made king of Sidon, after he took the city in 333 B.C. The extraordinary event of Abdalonymus’s accession to the throne of Sidon is related by Diodorus (XVII 46, 6), Curtius (IV, 1, 15) and Justinus (XI 10, 8), with minor variations in the king’s name and the location of his kingdom.Studniczka was the first to ascribe to Abdalonymus the famous relief sarcophagus No. 68 of the Museum of Constantinople, the so-called sarcophagus of Alexander, discovered in 1887 in the largest and latest of the seven chamber-tombs of the royal necropolis of Sidon. Studniczka interpreted the reliefs historically in relation with events from the life of Abdalonymus.The remaining three sarcophagi found in the same chamber-tomb —- Nos. 72, 73, 74 of the Museum of Constantinople — were attributed by Studniczka to members of the king’s family. More specifically, on the evidence of skeletal remains, Studniczka ascribed sarcophagus No. 74 to a son whom he recognized among the figures depicted on the king’s sarcophagus.The inscription from Kos, dated to the last quarter of the 4th century B.C., is the first direct and tangible evidence on Abdalonymus and his son and, in fact, justifies Studniczka who studied the subject with admirable perspicacity.The study, which is a small tribute to the memory of Studniczka, examines the possible reasons for the visit of Abdalonymus’s son to Kos, in the years following Alexander’s death — the critical years marked by the disputes of the Diadochi. It also examines the type of his offering to Aphrodite and infers that the inscription had been incorporated in a structure which was the actual votive offering to the goddess.

• History and Archaeology

• Επιγραφές
• Αρχαιολογία
• Decorative arts

Περιέχει συντομογραφίες. Πίνακας 1, βλέπε τέλος τεύχους, Το άρθρο περιέχεται στο τεύχος: Μέρος Α'-Μελέτες