A Funerary Epigram for Diokles the Rhodian Dramatist

This funerary verse inscription, found in 1976, is for the previously unknown dramatist Diokles of Rhodes. This entry re-examines the text based on visual autopsy, proposes a new supplement on the last line, and sets the poem within the literary and inscribed epitaphic traditions for deceased poets (tragedians in particular). It also considers what this poem tells us about Rhodian dramatic competitions in the Hellenistic period. It looks at the interplay between inscribed and literary epigrams, what this epigram tells us about poetry of the south-east Aegean, and the reception of literary funerary epigrams of Classical authors in the Hellenistic era.


Figures
: Dreliossi-Heraklidou (2014, fig. 5). https://mizar.unive.it/axon/pub- Diokles the Rhodian, a previously unknown dramatist, is commemorated in this funerary epigram from the first half of 2nd century BC . It was discovered on 8th June 1976 during building works in the city of Rhodos. In particular it was found in the Giakra-Hatzimiachali plot of the Agios Ioannis/Ai Yanni ravine along the course of the southern Hellenistic walls of Rhodos and the western part of the Hellenistic urban necropoleis (Marky Steno/Makris Simone). 1 The site was immediately excavated and investigated by the Dodecanese Archaeological Service which gave permission to C.A. Trypanis to publish the inscription, who was just finishing his stint as the Minister of Culture. This inscription is currently on display in the Epigraphy Room of the Archaeological Museum in Rhodes (No. 565). It recently made its way into SEG LXIV in 2018 via Dreliossi-Herak-I thank Silvia Barbantani, James Morton, Enrico Emanuele Prodi, and the audiences at Ca' Foscari and Cattolica Milan for their comments on this inscription. I thank Reviewer One for their helpful comments and good manners; on the latter, the same cannot be said of Reviewer Two. I thank the staff at the Ephorate of the Dodecanese for their hospitality and their permission to inspect and photograph the inscription. This publication is derived from my project ILLR -Intellectual Life and Learning on Rhodes (168BC-AD44), which has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement no. 79257.
leidou (2014). While Trypanis' reconstruction of the text was mostly correct (though see commentary on l. 8 below), the literary study of the work was limited to Classical and some Hellenistic authors, rather than including the literary and inscribed epigrammatic traditions. The epigram is carved upon a piece of mottled grey Lartian stone and is of the rectangular altar type of Rhodian funerary monument with upper and lower profiles and pedimental sides, but no decorative elements. 2 Based on the letter forms, the epigram dates from the first half of 2nd century BC, likely the early 2nd century BC. 3 The dialect of the inscription is a mix of Doric and Attic, e.g. γενέταν (6) and Λάθας (7), and there are several poetic phrases, e.g. ληναϊκῶν ἁψάμενος χαρίτων (4) and ἐν θυμέλαισιν…Βάκχου (5). The epigram consists of four elegiac couplets and is laid out on the stone according to the colometry. The pentameters are not indented but aligned with the left margin. 4 Lines 1-6 concern the activities of Diokles, his victories, and his reputation. No details are given about his family or background. Funerary inscriptions mark the sum of a human life by mentioning an essential quality or accomplishment, as it is here, or by acknowledging the family's grief for their loss. Lines 7-8 note his death and that he was beloved by his friends (who may have set up this stele?) and that he carried out a righteous life. All the lines are metrically excellent with each line fully realised, though the last line, which is damaged, may not have been (see below on l. 8). The literary register of this epigram is learned and indicates the poet's awareness of the literary epigrammatic tradition for epitaphs composed for canonical tragedians.
An expected epitaph for a tragedian would be something like the one for Euandrides from Miletus (middle of the second century BC).
Steinepigramme 01/20/25 = Peek, GVI 2018 The funerary stone conceals Euandrides, son of Hestiaios, the writer of tragedy, who lived in the city piously in every way, for the full count of eighty years.
The trimeters simply note his name, his patronymic, his age, the conduct of his life, and that he was a writer of tragedy. 5 Another short ep- The first couplet (= fr. 520 SH) refers to Theodectes' origin and that he was blessed by the Muses, and the second couplet states the number of his victories, though shifts to a first-person narrative. There are many epigrams and funerary epitaphs composed for dramatists, which were more elaborate than the examples above. Some were for contemporaries like Diokles and some were for canonical Athenian dramatists. Hellenistic epigrammatists knew the conventions of their inscriptional models well, and were perfectly capable of composing poems that resembled them. 7 Callimachus, Asclepiades, and Dioscorides composed epigrams about dramatic authors (whether contemporary or of generations past), as well as about theatrical activity in general, in a way that primarily stresses their self-asserting mastery. For example, Theaitetos of Halicarnassus was a contemporary of Callimachus who wrote an epigram to his memory (57 HE = Anth. Pal. 9.565), and Theaitetos' poetic skill is also mentioned in the Salmacis inscription (Steinepigramme 01/12/02.48) as one of the illustrious dramatists of the city. The composer of this epigram for Diokles made use of the tropes and imagery of epigrams for famous tragedians in order to place the deceased within the same pedigree. Most tellingly, the closest parallels to our epigram for Diokles are epigrams by the earlier Rhodian poet-scholar, Sim(m)ias (fl. 300 BC), for Sophocles (4-5 HE). 8 The first Simmian epigram remarks on Sophocles' activities and on the survival of his works.

Simmias 4 HE
You who sang in the choruses, Sophocles, son of Sophillus, Cecropian [i.e. Athenian] star of the tragic Muse, whose hair the twisting Acharnian ivy, blossom-bedecked, often crowned by the orchestra's altar and on the stage, a tomb and a little plot of earth now holds you; but the rest of time beholds you in the deathless columns of your writing.
The epigram emphasises Sophocles as a singer (4.1 HE) and a performer (4.3-4 HE), and refers to his many dramatic victories. In the closing couplet, Simmias shifts attention to Sophocles' eternal life guaranteed by the columns of writing (σελίδες) in the papyrus scrolls of his plays. It illustrates Simmias' reflection on how another author's poetry enters the domain of the book. 9 Likewise, the opening four lines of the epigram for Diokles refer to his victories and the last two to his burial and reputation. It seems that the overall structure of Simmias' epigram is being imitated, although the last two lines focus on Diokles' death and on his reputation and way of life, whereas Simmias focuses on the burial and permanence of Sophocles' plays, yet both end on the posthumous legacies of their addressees. There are points of contact between this epigram and the one for Diokles: τὸν τραγικῆς Μούσης ἀστέρα Κεκρόπιον (4.1 HE) ~ ἐυπλοκάμων… φ̣ ρ[ον]τ̣ ίσι Πιερίδων (l. 2); Ἀχαρνίτης κισσὸς ἔρεψε κόμην (4.2 HE) ~ περὶ κρατὶ καθᾶψ[α]ς κισσὸν; πολλάκις ὃν θυμέλῃσι καὶ ἐν σκηνῇσι τεθηλὼς (4.3 HE) ~ γνήσια δ᾽ ἐν θυμέλαισιν ἑλὼν ἀκροθίνια Βάκχου (l. 5); and τύμβος ἔχει καὶ γῆς ὀλίγον μέρος (4.5 HE) ~ ἔβης θαλάμους ὕπο Λάθας (l. 7).
By closely imitating this epigram, Diokles is being equated with Sophocles, and so being placed in situ with a successful and canonical tragedian of the past, and so the attributes of the great Sophocles are being placed onto Diokles and Diokles' own successes are further enhanced by the Sophoclean association. The poet of the epigram may have had access to editions of tragedians, which contained biographies and epigrams commemorating those authors, or a compilation of epigrams and biographies. For example, the poet may have had something like fr. 985 SSH, a papyrus anthology (3rd century BC), which contains a set of epigrams on early Athenian dramatic poets, preserving at least nine tetrastichs composed on individual dramatists or individual tragedies and comedies (the names Aristarchus, Astydamas, and Cratinus are clearly legible). See Maltomini (2001) on this anthology. It is possible that the anthology represents a collection of epigrams which prefaced texts of single dramatic works and was edited by a philologist or librarian for practical reasons. 10 The second epigram by Simmias focuses on the tomb of Sophocles: Ἠρέμ' ὑπὲρ τύμβοιο Σοφοκλέος, ἠρέμα, κισσέ, ἑρπύζοις χλοεροὺς ἐκπροχέων πλοκάμους, καὶ πέταλον πάντῃ θάλλοι ῾ρόδου ἥ τε φιλορρὼξ ἄμπελος ὑγρὰ πέριξ κλήματα χευαμένη, εἵνεκεν εὐμαθίης πινυτόφρονος, ἣν ὁ μελιχρὸς 5 ἤσκησεν Μουσῶν ἄμμιγα καὶ Χαρίτων. 10 Cf. also P.Meyer 27 (2nd-3rd century AD) which may be a copy of several funerary inscriptions.

Simmias 5 HE
Gently over the tomb of Sophocles, gently creep, o ivy, flinging forth your green curls, and all about let the petals of the rose bloom, and the vine that loves her fruit shed her pliant tendrils around, for the sake of that wise-hearted learnedness that the Muses and Graces in common bestowed on the sweet singer.
The Dionysiac foliage abundantly and densely creeping on the tomb corresponds with the tragedian's εὐμαθίη. Simmias singles out Sophocles' εὐμαθίη πινυτόφρονος, some sort of learnedness which one would more readily associate with philological activity than with tragic poetry (5.5 HE). 11 The addressee of the epigram is the ivy (κισσέ) growing around the tomb (along with roses and vines), which evokes the ivy crown of victory in dramatic competitions: thus, Sophocles remains crowned as the tragic victor. There is a point of contact: εἵνεκεν εὐμαθίης πινυτόφρονος, ἣν ὁ μελιχρὸς | ἤσκησεν Μουσῶν ἄμμιγα καὶ Χαρίτων (5.5-6 HE) ~ ἐυπλοκάμων…φ̣ ρ[ον]τ̣ ίσι Πιερίδων (l. 2), but the patronage of deities of inspiration and creativity is a common topos. Diokles' skill is not the focus of his epitaph, rather his victories; although it is implied that through these victories he had skill, there is no extant reference is given to his εὐμαθίη or σοφία. This, nevertheless, highlights a difference between Simmias' epigrams for Sophocles and the one for Diokles. Simmias was a poet-scholar with a range of poetic outputs (lyric, hymnic, epigrams, technopaignia) and prose works, while the poet of the epigram for Diokles focuses on Diokles' victories in line with the conventions of both real and literary imitations of tombs. Nevertheless, the closeness between these two epigrams is also a previously unnoted example of the reception of Simmias' poetry on Rhodes itself and a clear example of the interplay between literary and inscribed epigrams.
Epigrams for post-classical dramatists likewise make a connection between the dramatist who is commemorated and a canonical predecessor or the classical tradition. An anonymous funerary epigram for Philicus of Corcyra, one of the tragic Pleiad (T7 Kotlińska-Toma = fr. 980 SH = Anon. 148 FGE) is preserved on papyrus. In this demonstrative, not inscriptional, epigram, the opening four lines present Philicus both as a poet and priest of Dionysus in a Dionysiac kōmos (cf. 104 T4 TrGF I = Callix. Rhod. BNJ 627 fr. 2), perhaps also indicating he was in charge of a guild of Dionysian technitai. Lines 5-8 focus on his Corcyrean background and origin with Odyssean references to Phaeacia, Alcinous and Demodocus, probably to stress the themes of hospitality and the old age of Alcinous and the poetic talent of Demodocus in order to make comparative associations with Philicus. The date of the pa- 11 Fantuzzi 2006, 76-7 and, 481-2.

Thomas Coward
A Funerary Epigram for Diokles the Rhodian Dramatist 101 pyrus (3rd century BC) is soon after the presumed death of Philicus. 12 Dioscorides composed a series of epigrams for dramatists (20)(21)(22)(23)(24). His dates are uncertain, but he was in any case active in the second half of the third century BC after the death of the comic poet Machon who he commemorates (24 HE). In an epigram for the tomb of Sophocles (22 HE), he uniquely attributes the development of satyric drama to Sophocles, and, like Aristotle (Poet. 1449a.20), thinks that tragedy developed from satyric drama. Dioscorides (23 HE = Anth. Pal. 7.707 = 99 T2 TrGF I/Kotlińska-Toma), in a fictitious funerary epigram for Sositheus (ca. 315-260 BC), another member of the Tragic Pleiad, has a satyr statue recount the poet's contributions to drama. 13 The statue is the speaking voice and it remarks that he is fulfilling the same duty as the satyr that guards the tomb of Sophocles in Athens, who is the speaking voice of Dioscorid. 22 HE for the tomb of Sophocles. Sositheus is commended for reverting to an earlier form of drama (both tragedy and satyr play) and is by implication and association presented as a new Sophocles. Dioscorides' epitaph for Machon the comedian (24 HE) remarks how he continues the traditions of Attic tragedy in Alexandria. Likewise, the second epigram by Simmias (5 HE) above focuses on Sophocles' poetic skill.
The key difference here is that there is no explicitly named comparison between Diokles and Sophocles, rather there are intertexts or echoes that would cue these connections for some readers of the epitaph and for those readers who do not make such connections Diokles is presented in a stylised manner that enhances his achievements.
Along with the epigram, there may have been a catalogue of Diokles' victories that the epigram refers to, e.g. ἀλλὰ καὶ ἐν νίκαις σατύρων…ληναϊκῶν ἁψάμενος χαρίτων (3-4), which is a poetic way of stating that Diokles had won at the dramatic festivals. A parallel is a later agonistic inscription (dated shortly after AD 161) from Chios containing an epigram for M. Aurelius Heras and the catalogue of his victories. 14 The closing couplet of the funerary epigram for Theodectes of Phalesis quoted above notes his victories in eight out of  1932, nos. 21, 24, 33 (pp. 193, 196, 201); Rodi e Cos nos. 18-19; Tit. Camirenses 209, no. 63b; I.Lindos II no. 696; I.Rhodes Kontorini no. 73. Diodorus Siculus mentions a theatre in the city of Rhodos in connection with the 'tsunami' of 316 BC (19.45.5) which he later mentions again in connection with the siege of 305 BC (20.84.3,20.93.1,20.98.7). Although the theatre is attested in literary sources, it has not been found yet in Rhodos. By the 380s, Rhodes, following the Athenian model, had a Dionysia festival of its own, see Tit. Cam. no. 106 = SEG XIX, 317; IG XII.1 6; IGUR I nos. 215-34 = Did. A5 TrGF I = Dxi Csapo-Wilson. Drama was also performed in the second century BC at the Alexandreia (Pugliese Carratelli 1939Carratelli -1940 15 For a more detailed 'epigram', see Antigenes 1 FGE = Anth. Pal. 13.28, which commemorates a victory in the dithyrambic competition in Athens with mention of the poet, the aulete, and the chorus leader. Contrast Callimachus' epigrams (57-9 HE = Anth. Pal. 9.565-6, 11.362) where defeat in dramatic competition or fear thereof is the main or implicit theme of the poem.

Thomas Coward
A Funerary Epigram for Diokles the Rhodian Dramatist the earlier separate festivals at some time between 156 and 129 BC. 16 An interesting find from the Hellenistic gymnasion on the acropolis of Rhodos is a cylindrical base (1st century BC) for a lost statuette, which contains an inscription with a quotation of several verses of Aristophanes. 17 The quotation served a religious and literary purpose, as well as being an interesting testimonium on the ancient transmission of Aristophanes. The statue base is now on display in the Archaeological Museum. A commemorative statue of Menander was also found on Rhodes (1st century AD). 18 A similar copy is also found in the Archaeological Museum in Venice, and comic masks, often linked by a garland, appear on mosaics. 19 This statue base for Aristophanes and other evidence above testifies not only to the rich literary culture of Hellenistic Rhodes, on which see Coward (forthcoming), but further evidence of a classicising Greek culture attested in both literary and visual sources.
Διοκλῆ Diokles (LGPN I no. 86) is named here for the first time; he is named again at l. 6. Funerary inscriptions usually identified the dead person on whose tomb they stood; the identification normally included certain details, established by social conventions which sometimes varied from one region to another, or depended on the sex and the age of the deceased (Fantuzzi, Hunter 2004, 291). There is no patronymic preserved here, though this likely would have been placed elsewhere on the stele, cf. e.g. IG XII.1 144 = Peek, GVI 904 and Peek, GVI 1397a. It was common practice to place the name of the dead, usually together with patronymic and nationality, on the tomb but not in the metrical epigram as it reduced problems of making the names fit the metre, see e.g. 615 SH, 278, and Peek, GVI 1326. The name is attested on Rhodes for the time period, see LGPN I nos. 84,88,[89][90]93,110. There is a contemporary Diokles who was a representative of the Rhodians before the Romans to negotiate peace in 169-168 BC (Polyb. 29.10.4), but little else is known of this Diokles and no connexion can be made between Diokles the ambassador and Diokles the dramatist other than that they may have been contemporaries.
4. κισσόν The ivy crown of Dionysus was a symbol of victory and was a frequent topos in many epigrams of the early and mid-3rd century about earlier dramatists, e.g. Simmias 4.3-4, 5.1-2 HE, Phalaecus 3.1-4 HE, Nossis 10.3-4 HE, Nicaenetus 5.5-6 HE, and fr. 980.3 SH, which the poet of our epigram drew upon. Cf. also Dioscorid. 23-4 HE; Call. 57.1 HE; Euphorion fr. 1.4 Lightfoot/HE for a crown of victory. The ivy wreath is also the plant from which sympotic wreaths were formed, see Philip 58.4 GP, Nicaenetus 5.5 HE = Anth. Pal. 11.33.4, 13.29.5 with Blech (1982), 63-74. Here Diokles' crown of ivy refers to victories in the dramatic competitions, cf. Theocr. 19.4 HE = Anth. Pal. 9.338.4 above for Priapus, and SEG XLVII, 893.3-4 (Ἱπποκλέους δὲ ἀρετά με τεθαλότα καὶ νέον ὧδε | θῆκέ γέ τε ἐκ προγόνων κισσὸν ἀναψάμενος·) for similar periphrases. Diokles is a κισσοφόρος having won at dramatic competitions. Other variants of this title are ἐκ κισσηρεφέος κεφαλῆς (fr. 980.3 SH) for Philicus, and ἐκισσοφόρησε γὰρ ὡνὴρ (Dioscorides 23.3 HE) for Sophocles. The epitaph for Philicus of Corcyra (fr. 980 SH) celebrates his piety as an initiate to the mysteries of Dionysus and their uninterrupted dancing with him crowned by the ivy seems to replace the absent mention of his glory as a tragic poet by possibly implying that the latter was a natural outcome of the imitation, see . Dionysus himself also is κισσοφόρος (Pind. Ol. 2.31; Ar. Thesm. 988) and a dithyrambic chorus is also one (Antigen. 1.2 FGE).
6. πατρ[ίδα] καὶ γενέταν ἠγλάϊσας Diokles' victories have brought fame and standing to his family and to Rhodes, a common trope of victory, see Svenbro 1988;Barbantani 2018, 2020 where victory in the competition for comedies at the Athenian Dionysia brings glory on the deme as a whole.