OF ARTS AND SCIENCES. 79 



however, would bring the date of the inscription down to the sixth 

 century ; for the epithet bkcnvoiva did not begin to be applied to the 

 Deipara long before the Justinian age. And it may be said that, as 

 Justinian was the professed exterminator of the ancient religion of 

 Greece and Rome, it would not have been safe for any one of his 

 subjects to profane the name of the god of the emperor, by putting 

 it in juxtaposition with the gods of the heathens. It must be added 

 here, that this epithet began to be given to the empress as a title about 

 the same period. But it is not easy to believe that the Lady Queen 

 of the inscription refers to the emperor's wife. She must have been 

 a goddess. 



It may be supposed also that she is the same as Isis, the great 

 goddess of Egypt. Her worship indeed was quite fashionable in 

 Greece during the Roman period, and her name appears in connec- 

 tion with Sarapis, Anubis, and Harpocrates, in several of the Delian 

 inscriptions;* but I am not aware that the Greeks ever designated 

 her by the appellation the Lady Queen. 



Pausanias informs us that the Lady (ij A.ia-iroi.va) was the daughter 

 of Poseidon and Demeter. This distinctive epithet was analogous to 

 the Maid (fj Koprj), the popular name of Persephone or Persephoneia, 

 the daughter of Zeus and Demeter. Pausanias is prevented by his 

 religious scruples from disclosing her real name to the uninitiated. 

 He only states that Aea-Troiva bears the same relation to this mystical 

 divinity, that Kopij does to Uepa-ecfiopr]. This Lady was the favorite 

 goddess of the Arcadians.f And if we assume that she is identical 

 with the Lady Queen of the inscription, it is natural to infer that her 

 worship was not confined to Arcadia. 



On the walls of the church of Saint Nicholas (6 "Ayios NtKo'Xaos), 

 near what is called, by courtesy, the Port of Volo (r6 Kaa-Tpov rov 

 BdXou), I found the following sepulchral inscriptions. The slabs had 



* Inscr. 2293. 2295. 2302. 



t Patjs. 8, 37, 9 (6) TavTrjv he jxaXicrTa 6ea>v (Tf^ovcriv ol 'ApKaBes rfjv Ae- 

 CTTToivav, dvyarepa 8e avrrju Ilocrei8a)v6s (f)aaiv eivai Koi ArjpriTpos- 'ETriKkr)(rcs 

 els Tovs TToWovs iariv amfj Ai<T7roipa, KaduTrep /cat rrjv c'k Aios Koprjv 

 inovopd^ovcriv, IBla be ecrriv ovopa Tlep(re<p6vrj, Ka6a "Op-qpos K.a\ en irporepov 

 Ildp(f>a)s enoiTjcrav- Ttjs be AeaTroLvrjs to ovopa ebeicra els tovs aTeXecTTovs 

 ypdcjieiv. For this unwillingness to reveal the true name, compare Her. 2, 170 

 Etcri be koi al Ta(f)a\ tov ovk oaiov Trotev/xai eVi toiovtco TrprjypaTi, i^ayopeveiv 

 Tovvopa ev 2ai. 



