Epitafio de Festiva y Sodal

Epitafio de Festiva y Sodal

Reference CIL II, 5478 | Description | Lyrics | Location | Chronology | Epigraphic edition | Translation | Apparatus | Comentary | Type of verse | Text divided into verses and metric signs | Images | Bibliography | Link to DB | Author |

Epitafio de Festiva y Sodal

Description

  • Idno filename 22/01/0071
  • Type of inscription: Sepulcralis
  • Support: Placa
  • Material: Mármol      Material Description: White colour.
  • Conservation status: It is a lost inscription of which only descriptions and a photograph survive.
  • Dimensions height/width/depth (cm): 17/22/-
  • Epigraphic field:
    • Layout: the line ending of the verse part has no interpunctions (l. 9 does and is prose).     

Location

  • Place of discovery: The inscription was found on 29 April 1887, in the place called Punta de la Vaca, Cádiz, in the course of the clearing of the land alongside the site of the Exhibition RODRÍGUEZ DE BERLANGA, who notified HÜBNER. It appeared alongside other inscriptions.
  • Geolocation
    •
  • Conservation location: Assumed lost, only the photograph published in ROMERO has survived.
  • Location with Modern Nomenclature España / Cádiz / Punta de la Vaca
  • Location with Old Nomenclature Hispania / Baetica / Gaditanus / Gades

Chronology

  • Inscription's dating: Between year 70 and year 99

Type of verse

  • Type of verse: Dactílico (dístico elegíaco)
  • Verse/line correspondence: Si
  • Prose/verse distinction: Si

Epigraphic edition

Contegit ▴ hic ▴ tumulus ▴ duo ▴ pignora ▴

cára ▴ parentum

indic⁽at⁾ ▴ et▴ titulus ▴ nomi⁽ne⁾ ▴ quo ▴f⁽ue⁾r⁽int⁾

sors ▴prior ▴ in ▴ puero ▴ cecidit▴ sed ▴ fle-

5       bile ▴ fátum

Trìstior ▴ ecce ▴ dies ▴ renovat ▴mala

volnera (!) ▴ sana

et ▴ modo ▴ quae ▴ fuer⁽at⁾ ▴ fîlia ▴ nunc ▴ cinis ▴ est

Festiva ▴ an(norum) ▴ XI ▴ Sodalis ▴ annicul(us) ▴ h(ic) ▴ s(iti) ▴ s(unt) ▴

10    s(it) ▴ v(obis) ▴ t(erra) ▴ l(evis) ▴ (vac.) Rogatus ▴ dat

Text divided into verses and metric signs

Contegit hic tumulus duo pignora cara parentum.    lww|lww|lww|lww|lww|l~

Indicat et titulus nomine quo fuerint.              lww|lww|–||lww|lww|l

Sors prior in puero cecidit sed, flebile fatum,           lww|lww|lww|ll|lww|l~

tristior ecce dies renovat mala volnera sana           lww|lww|lww|lww|lww|l~

5       et modo quae fuerat filia, nunc cinis est.                    lww|lww|-||lww|lww|l

 

Translation

“This tomb contains two pledges, loved by their parents. The inscription also gives the names that they had. Fate fell first on the boy but, oh tragic destiny, an even sadder day renews badly healed wounds and she who but lately was my daughter is now ashes. Festiua, eleven years old, Sodalis, just one year old, are buried here. May the earth rest lightly on you! Rogatus makes this offering.”

Bibliography

Rodríguez de Berlanga 1888 (inde id. 1891, 291–293); Hübner, II 5478, cf. p. 1049 (inde Bücheler, CLE 1158, cuius exemplum in linguam Hispanicam vertit Fernández Martínez 1998-99; Cholodniak 1904, 310; Vives, ILER 5806); Romero de Torres 1934, 161–162, cum im. phot.; González Fernández, IRCa 322; Gómez Pallarès – del Hoyo – Martín Camacho 2005, CA 1; Gómez Pallarès in Fernández Martínez, CLEB, CA1, cum im. phot, qui in linguam Hispanicam vertit. – Cf. acta diurna La Palma de Cádiz, n. 27501, Kalendis Maiis a. 1887; E. Hübner 1887; Fita 1888, 354–355; Mariner IHV, 94, 99; Batlle 1963, 112; Gil 1976, 556; Vázquez Hoys 1981, 43–44; id. 1983, 139; Mangas 1994, 368–370; Thigpen 1995, 10, quae in linguam Anglicam vertit.

Apparatus

6 male correxit HÜBNER distinguens post sana, quod BÜCHELER copulandum cum SEQUENTIBUS uidetur.

Comentary

Elegiac distichs with an “extra” hexameter (l. 3) with no errors or problems. The poem recreates the topos of mors immatura: cf. Hernández Pérez 2001a, 8-16 and Fernández Martínez 2003. There is only one isolated hexameter dedicated to the boy. The poet and dedicant want the reader to be aware from the outset of the difference between the two. It is also interesting to see how the poet talks first of the death of the first dead child and then of that of the second. Even the choice of words emphasises the chain of sorrow: prior talking of the first death, that of the boy Sodalis, one year old; tristior, a comparative of intensity, along with renovat and volnera mala (the adjective understood adverbially: Bassols 1976, 174-176) sana, to talk about the second and more recent death and to reinforce the idea of the “salt” which has fallen on a still-open wound.

As regards the cognomina, for Festiva (also Faestiva / Festia), cf. Abascal 1994b, 362, with a varied geographical distribution; for her brother Sodalis, Abascal 1994b, 514, found exclusively in Baetica; finally, for the probable father of both children, Rogatus, also known, Abascal 1994b,484, attested in Barcino, in Tarraco and in the area of Cádiz.

Images

Photo author: E. Romero de Torres

Link to DB

Author

  • Author:J. Gómez Pallarès
  • Last Update2023-11-20 17:24:52

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