The Corpus of Ptolemaic Inscriptions

The chapter discusses the content and significance of approximately fifty inscribed metrical texts, most of them funerary epigrams, which come from dispersed sites in the Delta and the Nile Valley. Most are in elegiac couplets or other mixtures of hexameters and pentameters; two are in iambics. They are a mix of dedications and epitaphs; epitaphs preponderate. There are also four long hymns to Isis from the Fayum. The Paneion or sanctuary to Pan in the Thebaid (modern Resedieh) provides some dedicatory thank-offerings, mostly short, but one long and elaborate. Of the thirty-six epitaphs, a depressing total of five are for young women who died in childbirth, a common theme in epitaphs and a common event in life. The second half of the chapter consists of a discussion of three of the longer poems, comprising four epigrams, chosen for their historical and/or literary interest.