RIG 519, Syll (2) 592, Syll (3) 1007

For the record, my translation of Sokolowski 13, A regulation relating to the priesthood of Asklepios. Before 133 BC. Marble stele. Inschr. von Pergamon no. 251.

Errors of translation are all mine. (If anyone wants to run with it, consider this version mine under C.C. copyright, but possibly someone else somewhere has a better English version. I just don't know where to find it.)

In the prytany of Kabeiros, the twentieth day of the month of Pantheios, the boule and the demos [the council and the people - ed] formed a judgement, by the judgement of the strategoi, concerning the office of priest of Asklepios, that it is to fall in every year to the son of Asklepios [the Asklepiade, also translated physician - ed] and to the descendents of the son of Asklepios.

By Agathe Tyche, it has seemed good to the boule and the demos: that the priesthood of Asklepios and of the other gods who are set up in the Asklepieion [is to belong to] a son of Asklepios or descendents of the son of Asklepios in every year, and the one who holds the priesthood is always to wear a wreath, and to take also gifts of honour from all the victims which are sacrificed in the sanctuary, a right thigh and the hide and the other trapezómata [meal-bodies? dictionary, you have failed me!] of all those having been provided to the gods: he is to enjoy the fruits and the holy {precinct of Asklepios.........}

...to fall to [him] in every year, and the son of Asklepios is to be also exempt from public burdens, of all which the city gains possession over [my translation uncertain at this point], and in the remainder, the one who holds the wreath is always to proclaim publically, and the priest is to have the priviledge of the front seats in all the assemblies/contests: and the priest is also to charge of orderly behaviour according to what is sacred, as it seems good to him, to be lord fairly and sanctioned by divine law over the slaves of the sanctuary, so that these in every year may stand by steadfast with the son of Asklepios and the descendents of the son of Asklepios, to discharge the sacrifices on taking oath for the city in the agora in the presence of Zeus Saviour at the altar, and to swear the offices which indeed abide in those who the city has reckoned to be a son of Asklepios and the descendents of the son of Asklepios:

and the strategoi in the prytany of Kabeiros are to have charge of it, in order that the oath may be completed just as it has been written. They are to engrave and set up this decree on three stone pillars, and to set one of them in the sanctuary of Asklepios in Pergamon and another in the sanctuary of Athena in the acropolis, and the third in Mytilene in the sanctuary of Asklepios. This decree is also to be recorded in the laws of the city, and they are to make use of the same authoritative law in every year.

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42 lines of Greek translated, in a process which took four hours spread over several days. (Because I make stupid errors after an hour.)

At this rate, the other inscriptions will take me forever.

Books 2011: Here, there, everywhere

Books 2011: 76-79


76. Malinda Lo, Huntress.

I'd heard so many good things about Lo's Ash and Huntress that I walked into this book expecting it to be a tour de force. The problem with having high expectations comes when the material doesn't live up to your image of what to expect. Huntress is a good book, with some interesting characters, but it's not the Stunning Work of Fascinating Genius I'd expected.

But all in all, good book.


77. Dashiell Hammett, The Maltese Falcon.

I read this in the Everyman's Library edition, and I kept getting distracted by the texture of the pages. Everyman's Library editions are just beautifully put together books - comparatively, they feel like luxury, though I got this one in the bargain basement.

It's an interesting book. Hammett is a brutally elegant prose stylist, but I'm not sure I actually enjoyed the story.


nonfiction


78. Usama ibn Munqidh, The Book of Contemplation: Islam and the Crusades. Penguin Classics, London and New York, 2008. Translated with an introduction and notes by Paul M. Cobb.

A fascinating book by the 12th-century soldier, writer, and sometime schemer, Usama ibn Manqidh. It's a series of anecdotes, and very interesting ones they are.


79. Amin Maalouf, The Crusades Through Arab Eyes. Schocken Books, New York, 1984. Translated by Jon Rothschild.

An interesting perspective on the history of the Crusades.

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I am implausibly tired. I wonder why this is?