GREEK INSCRIPTIONS. 475 



. XOMENIXIN EniAEI KEKOMI2TH ETBIl 



A02 nAP TAS nOAIOS TO AANEION ARAN 

 KAT TATi OMOAOFIAS TA5 TE0EI2A2 ©T 

 NAPXii APXONTOS MEIN02 ©EIATGIil 

 KH OTT 0<1>EIAETH ATTT ETI OY0EN nA PTAN 

 nOAIN AAA AOEXI nANTA nEPI OANTOS 

 KH AnOAEAOANQI TH nOAl TT EXONTE2 

 TA:£ OMOAOriAIi EIMEN nOTI AEAOME 

 NON XPONON ETBilAT EDINOMIAS FETIA 

 nETTAPA BOTESSI 20TN inDTS AIAKA 

 TIH2 FIKATI nPOBATTS SOTNHrYS XEl 

 AIH2 Al'XI Til XPONii O ENIATT02 O META 

 0YNAPXON APXONTA EPXOMENIT2 AnO 

 rPAcI>E2©H AE ETBi2A0N KATENIATTON 

 EKA2T0N OAPTON TAMIAX KH TON NOM. 

 NANTA TEKATMATA T12N HPOBATilX KH 

 TAXHrON KH TAN B0Ti2N KH TAN IHniiN K. 

 KATINA ASAMAinX 0IKHTX2X nAEI©0:i MEI. 

 AnOrPA*Ei0il AE HAEIOXA TX2N TEPPAM 

 MENilN EN TH liOTrXOPEirSI H AEKATI2. 



There are on the stone a few more lines, in which many of the 

 letters are erased. 



REMARKS. ' 



The digamma occurs in the Orchomenian inscriptions : and as the 

 Boeotians appear to have used it to a late period on marbles, their 

 copies of Pindar probably continued to have this character inserted in 

 those parts, where the poet's verse required it ; as Pyth. iv. 40, £-/ 

 Tai ; 65, Xe>pi ¥oi ; 159, eTrixXra. VuiaP. As the sound of the digamma 

 could not have been the same in every district or colony of Greece, 

 it is impossible * to say in what manner it was pronounced. Some- 

 times it appears as Y (in the coins of Velia f ) ; sometimes as B 

 (among the Lacedaemonians); sometimes we see it expressing the 

 power of S, as in s, Ff whence comes the Latin se. 



* The difficulty of arriving at any certainty on this subject is stated by Heyne: — " In 

 linguis quae usu populorum frequentari desierunt, de pronunciatione aliquid tuto statui ac 

 decerni posse, nondum mihi persuadere potui." — Excurs. ii. ad lib. xix. 



f In Lucania, the colonists of which, being Phoceans from Ionia, used the form familiar 

 to their countrymen. 



3 p 2 



