Re: Words from a curse tablet

From: Carl W. Conrad (cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu)
Date: Tue Jun 29 1999 - 19:44:24 EDT


At 1:39 PM -0700 6/29/99, Hultberg, Alan wrote:
>Carl,
>
>I don't know whether this question qualifies for the list, so I'm sending it
>to you first for review (please forgive me if this is improper protocol). If
>it does qualify, please forward it to the list.
>
>In some curse tablets from Cyprus the epithets(?) hO SOTHRIANOS hO KE LIMBAROS
>occur frequently in phrases such as the following:
>
>PARALABETE TON ANTIDIKON EMOU TOU SOTERIANOU TOU KE LIMBAROU TON ARISTWNAN
>etc. [names of gods and daemons].
>
>PARALBETE TOU ARISTWNOS TON QUMON KE THN ORGHN THN EIS EME ECI TON SOTRIANON
>TON KE LIMBARON.
>
>Any help in translating/understanding these epithets? SOTHRIANOS seems to be
>a latinized version of SWTHR(?). LIMBAROS, a combination of LIMOS and BAROS?
>Being burdened by hunger!!!!?????

This is nothing more than a guess: (a) KE looks like a representation of
Latin -QUE, which is identical in meaning (and is also the older Greek
form--in Linear B) to Greek -TE; (b) whether or not you have identified the
elements in LIMBAROS (I can't find it in lexica that I have available to
me), my guess is that it must have a sense that is the reverse of
SOTHRIANOS/SOTRIANOS or whatever; i.e., hO SOTHRIANOS hO KE LIMBAROS
probably means "preserver and destroyer."

Although this doesn't properly belong to B-Greek (in that it's not related
to Biblical or related Greek texts), somebody out there on the list may
know something helpful about your question. If I knew where my old
colleague Zola Packman is right now, I'd put the question to her, as she
dealt with many a magical papyrus in our Washington U. collection many
moons ago.

Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University
Summer: 1647 Grindstaff Road/Burnsville, NC 28714/(828) 675-4243
cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu
WWW: http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~cwconrad/

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