O archer, you son of clear-voiced Kypris,
who dwell in Helikonian Thespiai,
beside the blooming garden of Narkissos,
be gracious; accept what is given you,
the best part of this bear, from Hadrian,
which he just killed from horseback.
And in exchange for this, you, being prudent,
breathe grace on him from Ouranian Aphrodite. (tr. Lynn Kozak)
Euphanes, a boy of Epidauros. Suffering from stone, he slept (in the abaton). It seemed to him the god came to him and said, “What will you give me if I should make you well?” The boy replied, “Ten knucklebones.” The god laughed and said that he would make it stop. When day came, he left well. (tr. Lynn R. LiDonnici, modified by Paraskevi Martzavou)
When P. Aelius Antiochus was priest, I, Marcus Iulius Apellas, from Idrias (a suburb of Mylasa), was summoned by the god, for I was often falling into illnesses and suffering from indigestion. During my journey by boat he told me, in Aegina, not to be so irritable all the time. When I entered the sanctuary, he told me to keep my head covered for two days (it was raining during this time), to eat bread and cheese and celery with lettuce, to bathe without any assistance, to run for exercise, to take lemon rind and soak it in water, to rub myself against the wall in the bath near the “Ears” [i.e., a place where “voices” were heard?], to go for a walk on the “Upper Portico,” to swing on a swing [or: to engage in passive exercise?], to smear myself with mud, to walk barefoot, to pour wine all over myself before climbing into the hot pool in the bathing establishment, to bathe all alone, to give an Attic drachma to the attendant, to offer a joint sacrifice to Asclepius, Epione, and the goddesses of Eleusis, and to drink milk with honey. One day when I drank only milk, the god said: “Put honey in your milk, so it can strike through [or: have the right effect, i.e., act as a laxative].” When I urged the god to heal me more quickly, I had a vision: I was walking out of the sanctuary toward the “Ears,” rubbed with salt and mustard all over, and a little boy holding a smoking censer was leading me, and the priest said to me: “You are cured; now pay the fee.” I did what I had seen [i.e., acted out my vision]. When they rubbed me with salt and liquid mustard, it hurt, but after I had taken a bath, it hurt no longer. All this happened within nine days after my arrival. The god touched my left hand and my breast. On the following day, as I was offering a sacrifice, the flame leapt up and burned my hand so that blisters appeared. Soon afterward my hand healed. I stayed on, and the god told me to use anise with olive oil for my headache. Actually, I had no headache. But after I had done some studying it happened that I suffered from congestion of the brain. Taking olive oil, I got rid of my headache. [I was also told] to gargle with cold water for my swollen uvula—for I had asked the god for help with this problem, too— and the same treatment for the tonsils. The god also told me to write all this down. I left, feeling grateful and restored to health. (tr. Georg Luck)
[Kings] of Sparta were [my] fathers and brothers.
Having been victorious with a c[hariot of swift-footed horses,] I,
Cynisca, set up this statue. I declare that alone amongst the women
of all Greece, I took this crown.
Apelles the son of Callicles made this. (tr. Sarah Brown Ferrario)
Archidamus left sons when he died, of whom Agis was the elder and inherited the throne instead of Agesilaus. Archidamus had also a daughter, whose name was Cynisca; she was exceedingly ambitious to succeed at the Olympic games, and was the first woman to breed horses and the first to win an Olympic victory. After Cynisca other women, especially women of Lacedaemon, have won Olympic victories, but none of them was more distinguished for their victories than she. The Spartans seem to me to be of all men the least moved by poetry and the praise of poets. For with the exception of the epigram upon Cynisca, of uncertain authorship, and the still earlier one upon Pausanias that Simonides wrote on the tripod dedicated at Delphi, there is no poetic composition to commemorate the doings of the royal houses of the Lacedaemonians. (tr. Henry Arderne Ormerod)
Demetrios son of Artemidoros, also called Thraseas, from Magnesia on the Maeander, fulfilled his vow to Isis. The following text was copied from the inscription in Memphis which is positioned in front of the temple of Hephaistos:
I am Isis the tyrant of the whole land.
I was educated by Hermes and
with the help of Hermes devised both sacred and secular scripts, so that everything should not be written in the same script.
I established laws for humans, and created legislation which no one has the power to change.
I am the eldest daughter of Kronos.
I am the wife and sister of King Osiris.
I am she who invented crops for humans.
I am the mother of King Horus.
I am she who rises in the Dog Star.
I am she who is called God by women.
By me was the city of Boubastos built.
I divided earth from heaven.
I appointed the paths of the stars.
I regulated the passage of sun and moon.
I invented fishing and seafaring.
I made justice strong.
I coupled woman and man.
I arranged that women should bring babies to the light after nine months.
I legislated that parents be loved by their child.
I inflicted punishment on those who are not affectionately disposed towards their parents.
I , with my brother Osiris, ended cannibalism.
I showed initiations to humans.
I taught them to honour images of the gods.
I founded sanctuaries of the gods.
I ended the rule of tyrants.
I ended murders.
I forced women to be loved by men.
I made justice stronger than gold and silver.
I legislated that truth be considered a fine thing.
I invented marriage contracts.
I assigned languages for Greeks and barbarians.
I made good and evil be distinguished by nature.
I made nothing more respected than the oath.
I delivered the person plotting unjustly against another into the hands of the person plotted against.
I inflict punishment on chose acting unjustly.
I legislated mercy for the suppliant.
I honour those who avenge themselves with justice.
By me justice is mighty.
I am mistress of rivers, winds and sea.
No one is held in honour without my assent.
I am mistress of war.
I am mistress of the thunderbolt.
I calm and agitate the sea.
I am in the rays of the sun.
I accompany the passage of the sun.
Whatever I decide is actually accomplished.
To me everything yields.
I free those in chains.
I am mistress of seamanship.
I make the navigable unnavigable whenever I decide.
I built the walls of cities.
I am she who is called Thesmophoros*.
I raised islands from the deep to the light.
I am mistress of rainstorms.
I conquered fate.
To me fate listens.
Hail Egypt who nourished me.
* ‘Lawgiver’, an epithet normally applied to the Greek goddess Demeter.
(tr. Mary Beard, John North & Simon Price, with their note)
Crambe Repetita 