GRAGG. — THE GREEK EPIGRAM BEFORE. 300 B.C. 43 



P)i;hagorae philosophi uomeu in poesi dactylica et philosophorum et 

 poetarum saepissime laudabatur." His first suggested explanation 

 cannot be correct if we have been right in concluding that epic forms 

 were borrowed or transferred, not imitated ; but his second suggestion 

 may be the answer to the question. The genitive Tivdayopov may be 

 due to the fact that it was not in the original copy given to the stone- 

 cuttei', who supplied it in his native Attic. 



Editors have wished to change KvScowijra? (123) to KvdcovirjrTjs or Kvdco- 

 vidras. V. Mess kecps the form as inscribed on the stone and calls it 

 Dorico-epic.'^^ I cannot think that the stonecutter purposely "epi- 

 cized " his own name, especially as he kept the ending -ras. It is more 

 probable that >? is a mistake for a. 



In the fifth century, too, we find Doric forms. 'EWavoou (75) is not 

 preserved on the stone, but appears in the MS., which has, however, 

 the incorrect form linroavinji. On fiapvdixepoi see v. Mess,^^^ who cites 

 two early inscriptions, i®® 



Fourth Century. 

 yaia (218, 220 b, 234, 245) dperSs (242) 



ia>v (229) 'Adavai (246) 



'AxiXXiJos (245) (cf. 'A]driv ... V. 1.) 



HvXafxevfos (245) 



It is noticeable how very few non- Attic forms appear. In this cen- 

 tury Attic forms were not only crowding out epic and Doric-lyric forms 

 in Attica itself, but they were displacing the epichoric forms in other 

 regions. In 218, an epitaph of Corcyreans, and 225, the epitaph of a 

 Cytherean woman, the Attic dialect may indeed be explained by the 

 fact that the former was inscribed by the Athenian state and the latter 

 by the master of the dead woman, himself probably an Athenian ; her 

 name, however, which appears eo'tra metrum, retains the Doric form, 

 Ma\ixa. The monument of a Corinthian woman for which 231 was 

 written may likewise have been set up by Athenians, but the wide- 

 spread use of the Attic dialect at this period makes it impossible to 

 speak with certainty. 



In regard to the dialect of epigrams of the sixth and fifth centuries 

 from other regions than Attica we have very little information. Not 

 many inscriptions come from any one place, and in the case of numer- 

 ous dedications found at Olympia and Delphi we have no means of 

 determining the nationality of the authors or dedicators. So far as 

 we can tell, epigrams seem to be in the epichoric dialect ; cf. forms 



"8 p. 15. 159 p. 20. "0 Hoffinaun, 47, 51. 



