Epitaph of the girl Melitine

Type of verse

• Type of verse: Dactílico (hexámetro)
• Verse/line correspondence: No
• Prose/verse distinction: Si

Epigraphic edition

Text divided into verses and metric signs

Hic sita est infans patri per saecula flenda,         lkkH|l/l|l/l|l/l|lww|l~

quam raptam adsiduae mater maerore requirit.  ll|lww|l/l|l/l|lww|l~

grata blanditi[is – – -],                                  lw|lww|[l/n|ln|ln|l~]

quales quisque sibi cupiat producere natos.        ll|lww|l/ww|l/l|lww|l~ 

5       hanc annus decimus privavit munere lucis.                   ll|l/ww|l/l|ll|lww|l~

casum quisque legat fato maledicat iniquo.        ll|lww|l/l|l/ww|lww|l~

Translation

“Dedicated to the Manes. Melitine, of nine years, six months and… days. Here lies a girl for whom her father will always have to weep; whom her mother, deprived of her, laments filled with sadness. Charming for her tenderness …, all would wish to beget children like her. Her tenth year deprived her of the gift of life. Whoever reads what has befallen her, curse her unjust fate. May the earth rest lightly on you. Carpophorus, her father, and Felicula, her mother, to their beloved daughter...”

Bibliography

Hübner, II 2295 (inde Bücheler, CLE 445, cuius exemplum in linguam Hispanicam vertit Fernández Martínez 1998-99; Rodríguez de Berlanga 1903, 65–66 n. 1, XXIX et 88 n. 4; Cholodniak 1904, 306; Vives, ILER 5786) et id., cf. EE VIII p. 395; ILMM 35; Vázquez Hoys 1982–83, 139–140; Stylow, II2/7, 497, cum bibliographia ampliore; Thigpen 1995, 332, quae in linguam Anglicam vertit; Fernández Martínez – Carande, CLEB, CO5, cum im. phot, quae in linguam Hispanicam verterunt.

Apparatus

1 D M S Stylow. – 5 adsidue Cholodniak. – 6 blandit[-5-]unaque quales Hübner, blandit[iis utrique erat] unaque (talis) Cholodniak, blandi[-5/6-] quales Stylow, blandit[iis…] unaque Thigpen. – 8 producere natos hanc an- Stylow. –11 titilicuta · mater · filiae · pientissimae Hübner, Cholodniak, et · Felicula · mater · filiae · pientissimae Stylow, Titilicuta mater filiae pientissimae Thigpen.

Comentary

Epigraph dedicated to the girl Melitine, in dactylic hexameters with irregular prosody. The
hexameter is truncus after grata blanditiis (l. 6); in l. 8, the metre is complete if we assume annus decimus. The adverbial form adsiduae in l. 5 was corrected by Haupt to adsiduo, agreeing with maerore; it seems preferable to assume hypercorrection of the dipthong ae, documented early in the epigraphy of Baetica. In l. 6, according to Mariner, IHV, 83-84, there is confusion of quisque and quisquam, cf. CLE 723,1; in l. 7, producere means “procreate”, cf. Plaut., Rud. 1173. Ll. 3-5 contain the topos of mors immatura (cf. Del Barrio 1992, 29-30), with the usual terms raptus (cf. CLE 1620,3), flenda and adsidue (cf. CLE 1411,8; 1055,8). For this meaning of requirit, cf. CLE 598,3 and 369,2.
The elogium of the dead girl (ll. 6-7) is similar to that of the girl Magnilla (CLE 1165,8), from the Trajan era. L. 8 refers to the age at which the girl died, in her tenth year: cf. Armini 1916, 67. On the light of life and darkness of death (l. 8) as epigraphic topoi, cf. Sanders 1960. In l. 9 destiny (fato iniquo) is blamed for this mors immatura, with many epigraphical parallels: CLE 1011,1; 1213,1, etc.
The cognomen Melitine is documented in Tarragona (Vives, ILER n1 4919); Felic(u)lus and Felic(u)la are frequent names, cf. Kajanto 1982, 26 and 124-126, 273. Carpophorus is also known, cf. Pape – Benseler 1959, 628 s.u.

Images

Photo author: J. F. Rodríguez Neila

Link to DB

Author

• Author:R. Carande Herrero, C. Fernández Martínez
• Last Update2024-01-31 16:46:33
• Autopsy date:2001