Date:
Graeco-Roman Period, Ptolemaic Period, 14 February 95 BCE
Provenance:
Upper Egypt, Fayoum
Material(s):
Rock, limestone
Length:
53 cm;
Width:
37 cm
Description
Stela with an arched top decorated with a winged sun disk flanked by two cobras. On both sides of the main scene are two papyrus-shaped columns. King Ptolemy X is depicted making offerings to Sobek, the crocodile god who is, here, surmounting a naos. The king, depicted in the ancient Egyptian form, is raising his right hand in a worshipping position, while holding a vessel in the left. In the middle, is an offering table, under which are depicted two amphorae. The lower part of the stela bears a twelve-line inscription in ancient Greek.
The information given here is subject to modification/update as a result of ongoing research.
References
- Wilhelm Dittenberger, ed., Orientis graeci inscriptiones selectee: Supplementum Sylloges inscriptionum graecarum, vol. 1 (Leipzig: S. Hirzel, 1903): 259, no. 178.
- Bernand Étienne, Recueil des inscriptions grecques du Fayoum, vol. 3, la "Méris" de Polémôn, Bibliothèque d'étude 80 (Cairo: Institut Français d'Archéologie Oriental, 1981): 201.
- John Pentland Mahaffy, “Documents Egyptiens”, Bulletin de correspondance hellénique 18 (1894): 148, no. 2.
- Joseph Grafton Milne, Greek Inscriptions, Catalogue général des antiquités égyptiennes du Musée du Caire, nos. 9201-9400, 26001-26123, 33001-33037 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1905): 24, no. 9201.
- Max Lebrecht Strack, Die Dynastie der Ptolemäer (Berlin: Verlag von Wilheim Hertz 1897): 265, no. 142.
- Max Lebrecht Strack, “Inschriften aus der Zeit der Ptolemäer”, Mitteilungen des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts, Athenische Abteilung 19 (1894): 212-219, no. 1.