Epitaph for Deinias

Abstract

The funerary epigram, engraved on a base of white limestone that was found by E. Kirsten in Palairos in 1939, is the oldest from Hellenistic Akarnania. The text, composed of two elegiac couplets, commemorates the warrior Deinias, son of Learchos, who died young fighting against the Aetolians. The palaeographic characteristics of the letters of the inscription allow us to place it at the end of the 4th century BC: this dating seems to be confirmed by elements inside the text and by some historical sources (in particular Diodorus Siculus). The epitaph is an important testimony to local epigrammatic poetry: in fact, although it was made by an anonymous versifier, it appears remarkable both from a poetic (given the presence of formulas and topoi well attested in literature, such as the mourning for the immature mors of the warrior) as well as a linguistic point of view (in fact, forms taken from the Ionic dialect and from the epic can be found).