Duenos Inscription
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The Duenos Inscription is one of the earliest known Old Latin texts, dating from circa the 6th century BC. It is inscribed on the sides of a kernos, or set of vases joined together with clay, found by Heinrich Dressel in 1880 on the Quirinal Hill in Rome. The kernos was in the Staatliche Museen in Berlin (inventory no. 30894,3), prior to the reunification of Germany and the reorganization of the national museums in that city.
The inscription is difficult to translate, as some letters are hard to distinguish, particularly since they are in Old Latin. To further complicate the matter, there are no spaces between the letters, so even deciphering which letters belong to which words is a difficult task.
[edit] Translations
There have been many proposed translations advanced by scholars since the discovery of the kernos; Arthur E. Gordon in 1983 estimated their number as "over fifty, no two in full agreement". Due to the lack of a large body of Latin literature, and the method by which Romans abbreviated their inscriptions, scholars have not been able to produce a singular translation that has been accepted by historians as accurate.
Below is the transcription and one of many possible interpretations:
- a. the direct transcription
- b. direct transcription with possible macrons and word breaks
- c. a speculative interpretation and translation into Classical Latin
- d. an English translation of that transcription, interpretation and translation.
Line 1:
- a. IOVESATDEIVOSQOIMEDMITATNEITEDENDOCOSMISVIRCOSIED
- b. iouesāt deivos qoi mēd mitāt, nei tēd endō cosmis vircō siēd
- c. Iurat deos qui me mittit, ni in te (=erga te) comis virgo sit
- d. The person who sends you to me prays to the gods, if the girl is not kind towards you
Line 2:
- a. ASTEDNOISIOPETOITESIAIPACARIVOIS
- b. as(t) tēd noisi o(p)petoit esiāi pācā riuois
- c. at te (...) paca rivis
- d. without you (...) calm with [these] rivers
Line 3:
- a. DVENOSMEDFECEDEN MANOMEINOMDVENOINEMEDMALOSTATOD
- b. duenos mēd fēced en mānōm einom duenōi nē mēd malo(s) statōd
- c. Bonus me fecit inmanom einom bono, ne me malus (tollito, clepito)
- d. A good man made me ?? for the purpose of good, evil shall not take me.
[edit] Notes
"Duenos" is an older form of Latin translating to bonus, "good", just as bellum (war) is from Old Latin, duellum. Some scholars posit Duenos as a proper name, instead of merely an adjective.
The Praenestine fibula was once thought to be the earliest surviving evidence of Latin and to date to the 7th century BC, but is now believed by most scholars to have been a well-informed hoax.
[edit] References
- (German) "Die DUENOS-Inschrift": transcription and interpretation of the Duenos inscription
- Larissa Bonfante, "Etruscan Life and Afterlife: A Handbook of Etruscan Studies", Wayne State University Press, Detroit, 1986
- Arthur E. Gordon, Illustrated Introduction to Latin Epigraphy. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1983.
- Vine, Brent. A Note on the Duenos Inscription. Retrieved on 2006-09-20.
