Monday, April 18, 2011

The Marathon Stone

Diana Gilliland Wright provides updated information and links on "The Marathon Stone,"
an amazing stone that appears to be the casualty list from the battle of Marathon. The inscription is written in boustrephon and diagonally (see comments for update), and was acquired by Herodes Atticus when he honored his home town of Marathon by constructing a great tumulus over the burial site of the Athenian dead.

This is to make a point. Herodes Atticus, who had more money than God, did a great deal of building across Greece which allowed him innumerable sources of art for the swollen collections at his various villas, including those at Marathon and Kefissia.

She brings this up because of recent publication data which includes updated translations. Follow her links for some interesting reading, including more history on the stone and alternative translations.

Thanks to David at rogueclassicism for linking this and providing additional links with more information.

2 comments:

Nauplion said...

Thank you for linking to my blog. Originally, I wrote that it was inscribed in boustrephon and diagonally because that is what I was told by a member of the archaeological staff that is maintaining the concealment of the stone. That was wrong & the archaological staff should have known better as they had had the stone for at least 8 years & I had less than a minute to see it. It is easy to see in the pictures that it is written from left to write, conventionally, though some of the alphabet signs are less conventional & the spelling is often not what you would expect.

Dwight said...

My pleasure. Thanks for the update...I'll change the post to reflect that.