From: WA2KBZ@aol.com
Date: Fri Oct 23 1998 - 01:43:12 EDT
Can Carl or others please confirm my hasty translation and interpretation of
the implications of an inscription in an ancient Byzantine church?
Thanks,
Karl Schulte
(normally silent list reader)
From: WA2KBZ@aol.com
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To: BYZANS-L@lists.missouri.edu
Subject: Re: Byzantine fountain
Date: Fri, 23 Oct 1998 00:58:30 EDT
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For John Goodman and others who may be interested;
The fountain inscription you (John) sent me was just what my intuition said it
would be:
NIPSON ANOMIMATA MI MONAN OPSIN (PS = PSI, I IN THIS CASE = H, ETA IN A
COUPLE OF PLACES). This means "Wash sins not only (the) face."
The second part is a fairly standard memorial. EIS AIWNIAN MNHMHN PROSPHILON
MOI NEKRWN . S. SARANTIDHS
A rough translation without having my lexikon handy is " Think on/remember me
kindly through the ages in my tomb." or "Think of me through the ages in my
friendly/welcome tomb." The former is the more likely. The inscription's
signature is odd; the Greek is old "Atticized" or at least "high class "
Byzantine, yet the name style is more modern. It should be Sokraths of
somewhere, not a first initial and a patronymic. The altar or dedication
stone at least, could therefore be from, say, a couple of hundred years ago,
but imitating or copying an older style. This palindrome, as I have said, is
from St. Sophia. A possible explanation is a rennovation or modern
(relatively) addition to the shrine, by a sculptor of the apparn't sarcophagos
or under -floor burial memorial stone with an educationin classical Byzantine
tradition.
Glad you are back safe from Turkey, John. As you don't have a PC, I'll give
you one (an older one but ok for email). Call me - you had my number on ur
ltr).
73 OM BCNU
Karl
WA2KBZ
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