GREEK INSCRIPTIONS. 



475 



XOMENIX2N EniAEI KEKOMI^TH ETBH 

 AOS nAP TA% nOAIOS TO AANEION AnAN 

 KAT TAS OMOAOriAS TA% TE0EI2A2 0T 

 NAPXX2 APXONTOS MEIN02 0EIAT0IX2 

 KH OTT 04>EIAETH ATTT ETI OT0EN ETA PTAN 

 nOAIN AAA AFTEXI IIANTA nEPI IIANT02 

 KH AI1OAEAOAN0I TH nOAI TT EXONTES 

 TA2 OMOAOriAS EIMEN nOTI AEAOME 

 NON XPONON ETBilAT EIIINOMIA2 FETIA 

 nETTAPA BOTE2SI SOTN inHTS AIAKA 

 Tint FIKATI nPOBATTS SOTNHTTS XEI 

 AIH2 APXI TI2 XPON& O ENIATTOS O META 

 0TNAPXON APXONTA EPX0MENIT2 A1TO 

 TPA*E20H AE ETBX2AON KATENIATTON 

 EKA2T0N nAP TON TAMIAN KH TON NOM. 

 NANTA TEKATMATA TX2N nPOBAT&N KH 

 TANHrilN KH TAN BOTfiN KH TAN inniiN K. 

 KATINA ASAMAIX2N OIKHTftN nAEI0OS MEI. 

 AnOrPA*ES0X2 AE nAElONA Ti2N TEITAM 

 MENfiN EN TH SOrrxm>EI2l H AEKATI^. 



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, \ttl 

 Yoi ; 65, Xe<p< Fo< ; 159, IttIuXto. YavocP. 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 T (in the coins of Velia f ) ; sometimes as B 

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

 power of S, as in e, F g whence comes the Latin se. 



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

 Unguis qua? 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 



