Duenos inscription: Difference between revisions

The '''Duenos inscription''' is one of the earliest known [[Old Latin]] texts, variously dated from the 7th to the 5th century BC.<ref>Osvaldo Sacchi, "Il trivaso del Quirinale", in ''Revue Interantionale de Droit de l'Antiquité'', 2001, p. 277; citing: Attilio Degrassi, ''[[Inscriptiones Latinae Liberae Rei Publicae]]'', 1, 1957; Arthur Gordon, "Notes on the Duenos-Vase Inscription in Berlin", ''California Studies in Classical Antiquity'', Vol. 8, 1975, pp.&nbsp;53–72; Giovanni Colonna, "Duenos", in ''Studi Etruschi'', '''47''', 1979, pp. 163–172; Brent Vine, [http://www.pies.ucla.edu/IESV/1/BV_Duenos.pdf "A Note on the Duenos Inscription"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304102829/http://www.pies.ucla.edu/IESV/1/BV_Duenos.pdf |date=2016-03-04 }}, [[University of California at Los Angeles]].</ref> It is inscribed on the sides of a ''[[kernos]]'', in this case a trio of small globular vases adjoined by three clay struts. It was found by [[Heinrich Dressel]] in 1880 in the valley between Quirinale and Viminale (today [[Via Nazionale (Rome)|Via Nazionale]])

The inscription is written [[Right-to-left script|right to left]] in three units, without spaces to separate words. It is difficult to translate, as some letters are hard to distinguish, particularly since they cannot always be deduced by context. The absence of spaces causes additional difficulty in assigning the letters to the respective words.

There have been many proposed translations advanced by scholars since the discovery of the ''kernos''; by 1983, more than fifty50 different explanations of the meaning had been put forward.<ref>Arthur E. Gordon, ''Illustrated Introduction to Latin Epigraphy'', 1983, p. 77.</ref> Due to the lack of a large body of archaic Latin, and the method by which [[Ancient Rome|Romans]] abbreviated their inscriptions, scholars have not been able to produce a single translation that has been accepted by historians as accurate.

The inscription (CIL I 2nd 2, 4) is scratched along the side of the body of three vases made of dark brown ''[[bucchero]]'', connected with each other by short cylindric arms. It is written from right to left spiralling downwards about {{frac|1|1|2}} times. The letters are written upside-down for a reader who looks at the inscription from a level position; this has been explained by Aldo Luigi Prosdocimi<ref>{{cite journal |first=Aldo Luigi |last=Prosdocimi, "|title=Studi sul latino arcaico", in|language=it ''|journal=Studi Etruschi'', '''|volume=47''', |date=1979, pp. |pages=173–221.}}</ref> as due to the fact that the inscription was meant to be read from above, not from a sideways position. Some letters are written in an archaic fashion that appears influenced by the [[Greek alphabet]].<ref>J. E. Sandys, S. G. Campbell, ''Latin Epigraphy: an Introduction to the study of Latin Inscriptions'' 1974, p. 40–41.</ref> There are signs of corrections in the two {{sc2|C}} or {{sc2|K}} of {{sc2|PAKARI}} and {{sc2|FECED}} and in the {{sc2|L}} of {{sc2|MALOS}}. Three distinct sections are individuated by spaces after {{sc2|SIED}} and {{sc2|VOIS}}. There are neither spaces delimiting words nor signs of interpunction. The earliest interpunction to appear was syllabic. As it appeared only in the 7th century BC, the inscription should be more ancient.<ref>Giuliano and Larissa Bonfante ''Lingua e cultura degli Etruschi'' Torino, 1985, p. 63.</ref>

The inscription is made up by two distinct parts or sections, the second one beginning with the word {{sc2|DUENOSDVENOS}}.<ref>E.{{cite journal |first=Enrico [Heinrich] |last=Dressel |author-link=Heinrich Dressel "|title=Di una antichissima iscrizione latina graffita sopra un vaso votivo rinvenuta a Roma" in|language=it ''|journal=Annali dell' Istituto di Corrispondenza Archeologica'' '''|volume=52''', |date=1880, p. |page=180.}}</ref> It was found in a votive deposit (''[[favissa]]'' (votive deposit). It belongs to the kind known as "speaking inscriptions", widely in use in the [[Classical antiquity#Archaic period .28c.8th to c.6th centuries BC.29|Archaic period]]. Some scholars consider the object to be of good quality and reflecting the high social status of the owner. Others consider it common.

ArcheologistArchaeologist [[Filippo Coarelli]] has advanced the hypothesis that the object might have been placed in the votive deposit of one of the temples of goddess [[Fortuna]] dedicated by king [[Servius Tullius]], perhaps the one known as ''Fortuna Publica'' or '' Citerior'', i.e. located on the side of the Quirinal near to Rome. Her festival recurred on the ''nonae'' of April (April 5).<ref>Filippo Coarelli ''Il Foro Boario'' p. 289 ff.; Plutarch ''Quaest. Romanae'' 74 and ''De Fortuna Romana'' 10</ref> However, June 11, the festival day of the [[Matralia]], which was originally devoted to ''Mater Matuta'', was also the day of the ''Fortuna Virgo'', ritually associated with the passage of girls from adolescence into adulthood and married life.<ref>Arnobius ''Adversus Nationes'' II 67; Aurelius Augustinus ''De Civitate Dei'' IV 11; Ovid ''Fasti'' VI 221; [[Mario Torelli]] ''Lavinio e Roma. Riti iniziatici tra archeologia e storia'' 1984, p. 53 ff. and 117 ff.; [[Giovanni Colonna (archaeologist)|Giovanni Colonna]] "Duenos" in ''Studi Etruschi'' '''47''' (1979) p. 168; [[Robert E. A. Palmer]] "Roman shrines of female chastity from the struggle of chastity to the papacy of Innocent I" in ''Rivista Storica dell'Antichità'' '''4''' (1974) p. 129 ff. (also available as a monograph from the publisher Pàtron) who thinks the sanctuary of the votive deposit should be that of a Fortuna [[Bona Dea]] much more ancient than the Εύελπις and of purely Roman tradition. [[Kurt Latte]] ''Römische Religionsgeschichte'' Munich, 1960, p. 228 ff. excludes the name of Bona Dea as a translation of a Greek theonym.</ref>

In the 1950s the inscription had been interpreted mainly on the basis of (and in relation to) the supposed function of the vases, considered either as containers for a love philter or of beauty products: the text would then mockingly threaten the owner about his behaviour towards the vase itself or try to attract a potential buyer.<ref>Emilio Peruzzi "L'iscrizione di Duenos " in ''La Parola del Passato'' '''13''' (1958) p. 328 ff.: the author supposes the object is a love toy and the inscription would be a playful warning to the owner not turn down the object itself, i.e. "he who turns me upside down (''mitat'') prays the gods that the girl should not give you her favours lest you want to be satisfied through the workings of ''Tuteria''": Tuteria would then be a proper name and the object the work of an enchantress that exercised her magic art to get the lost lover back for a female customer of hers; E. Gjerstad "The Duenos vase" in ''Kung. Vitt. och Antikvitets Akademiens Handlingen'' (1959) pp. 133–143 supposed the object were a container for beauty products and interpreted the text as: "''Iurat deos qui me mittit: 'Ne in te comis virgo sit asted, nisi ope utens ei pacari vis'. Bonus me fecit in bonum atque bono, ne me malus dato!''" , i.e. " 'Thy girl shall not be amiable to thee, unless thou befriend her by using (my) assistance' Good man has made me for a good purpose and for the benefit of a good man; may not a bad man present me!"</ref> This is the so-called erotic line of interpretation which found supporters until the eighties1980s.<ref>Filippo Coarelli, ''Il Foro Boario'', 1988, p. 289 ff. Tuteria = Tutela would be a theonym, i.e. one of the many personifications of Fortuna, perhaps the Τύχη Εύελπις of the ''vicus Longus'': the meaning of the text would be that of a girl forced to be complacent for the effect of the moderating intervention of a deity in whose sanctuary the vase was dedicated. T. Bolelli. "De antiquissima inscriptione quae Dueni nuncupatur annotationes", in Cipriano, Di Giovine, and Mancini (eds.) ''Miscellanea di studi linguistici in onore di W. Belardi''. '''1''' (1984) pp. 207–214: "Swears for the gods he who sells me that, if the girl is not nice towards you, at least she shall remain with you (i.e. you shall not lose her) lest you want make peace (with her) through the workings of Tuteria (an enchantress)."</ref>

During the 1960s [[Georges Dumézil]] proposed a new line of thought in the interpreting of the text. He remarked the inconsistency of the previous interpretations both with the solemnity of the opening formula ("''Iovesat deivos qoi med mitat''": 'He swears for the gods who sends /delivers me') and with the site of the find. Dumézil's interpretation was: "If it happens that the girl is not nice to you/ has no easy relationship with you ("''nei ted endo cosmis virco sied''" = "''ne in te (=erga te) cosmiscomis virgo sit''"), we shall have the obligation of bringing her and you into good harmony, accord, agreement ("''asted noisi ... pakari vois''"="''at sit nobis ... pacari vobis''"). The transmission of the object would be expressed by the words ''qoi med mitat''. The story mirrored in the text would thus depict a custom deeply rooted in Roman society that is described by [[Plautus]] in the scene of the [[Menaechmi]] in which the ''tutor'' of the ''virgo'' or his representatives formally give a suretyship about her attitude towards a man.<ref>[[Georges Dumézil]], "La deuxième ligne de l' "inscription de Duenos" in ''Latomus'' '''102''' 1969, pp. 244-255; id. ''Idées romaines'', Paris, 1969, pp. 12–28; It. tr. p. 25.</ref><ref>In fact this line of interpretation, based on the reading of ''toiteisai'' as related to ''tutela'' (ward, guardianship) either as a noun (''ope tutelae'') or an adjective ''tuteria'' (''ope tuteria = ope tutoria''), had already been proposed in 1934 by philologist and literary critic Antonino Pagliaro, who interpreted the segment {{sc2|ASTEDNOISI...PAKARIVOIS}} as meaning: 'unless [''noisi'' = ''nisi''] you will [''vois'' from ''volo'' 'I want'] consider yourself satisfied by the exercise of the marital ''potestas''<nowiki />'. He understood ''ope tuteria'' as referring to the ''potestas'' exercised by the husband through the ''manus maritalis'', which would be equated to a sort of ward, ''tutela''. Cf. "La cosiddetta iscrizione di Dueno" in ''Atene e Roma'' '''3''':2, 1934, pp. 162–175.</ref>

Sacchi, following Palmer and Colonna,<ref>R. E. A. Palmer above; G. Colonna above.</ref> proposes to interpret the couple as conveying a specifically technical religious and legal meaning as is testified in ancient sources. ''Duenos'' has given classic Latin ''bonus'', 'good',<ref>Paulus ex Festo s. v. Matrem Matutam, p. 109 L; Varro, LL VI 4; Varro, VII 26 "''Ian cusianes duonus ceruses duonus Ianusve''": Macrobius, ''Saturnalia'' I 3, 13.</ref> but originally the adjective had certainly religious and sacral implications: in the oldest sacral formulae it had a more technical acception and the repetition had other implications than just [[eurythmy]]. Colonna refers to the formula ''optumus duonorum'' of the mid republic which was a qualificative formula with sacral implication reserved to the upper classes. Correspondences are the opposition of the epithets ''Optimus'' and ''Maximus'' of Capitoline Jupiter, the early Faliscan ''Titia'' inscription "''Eco quton euotenosio titias duenom duenas. Salu[...]voltene''"<ref>To be read as: "''Eco quto*e votenosio titias duenom duenas salve[...]d voltene''" according to Bakkum, ''The Latin Dialect of the Ager Faliscus: 150 Years of Scholarsahip'', Amsterdam, 2009, p. 409.</ref> interpreted as 'good among the good', the epitaph of [[Lucius Cornelius Scipio (consul 259 BC)|Lucius Cornelius Scipio]], the consul of 259 BC, ''duonoro[m] optumo[m]... viro[m]'' in which clearly the adjective ''duonus'' is not the synonym of ''optumus'', that as derived from ''ops'', plenty, has different semantic connotations. Colonna also reminds that "in the [[carmenCarmen Saliare]] (similarly to the Duenos vase) ''bonus'' (''duonus'') and ''manus'' occur together, both referred to the same character, the god ''Cerus'', fact that makes their synonymity implausible".<ref>Cf. Festus s.v. ''Matrem Matutam'': "''... et in carmine Saliari Cerus manus intelligitur creator bonus''" p. 109 L; also s. v. mane p. 112 L; Varro ''Lingua Latina'' VII 26: "''ian cusianes duonus ceruses du(o)nus ianusve''"; Colonna, above, p. 168.</ref> In order to further clarify the use of the adjective in the text, Sacchi makes reference also to a well-known passage of Cicero's ''De Legibus'' II 9, 22: ''Deorum Manium iura sancta sunto. (B)onos leto datos divos habento ...''. Here too as in the above two instances "one can remark the opposition between ''Manium'', that, as shown in Paulus exc. Festi, originally meant 'the good ones' and the qualificative (B)onos = Duenos as referred to the deified dead (= ''divos''). Cicero here relates a pontifical prescription of high antiquity consciously preserving the original wise of expression and lexic".<ref>Cicero ''De Legibus'' II 7, 18.</ref> In other words, one could argue that it is not meant that the ''dii [[Manes]]'' become 'good' in the ethic sense, but rather that the dead consecrated to death according to the pontifical prescriptions (''leto datos'') do become gods (= ''divos'').<ref>O. Sacchi, above, p. 333; also citing Georges Dumézil, ''Idées romaines'', pp. 24-25: ''dueno-'' from ''dúvas'' 'cult, offering to a god', "later ''bonus'' used alone shall take up all other values"; A. Ernout and A. Meillet, ''Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue latine'', Paris, 1967, p. 73: "''*dwenos'' from root ''*du-'', technical religious term, Sanskrit ''dúvah'' = 'hommage' ... in Latin religious language ''di boni''"</ref> The epithet ''duenos'' would then design that which has been given in homage, consecrated correctly according to the pontifical ritual.

Sacchi opines that in the case of the Duenos inscription the speaker is acting according to the religious legal ritual, presumably enacting a private ''consecratio'': the formula of the dedication is then a case of private ''dedicatio dis'', dedication to the gods. The epithet ''duenos'' should therefore be interpreted as used in its original technical sense. The restitution of the text should thus be: "A party acting in the way sanctioned by religious law made/consecrated me for a good end. That no harm/fraud be done to me and to one who is a party (equally) religiously sanctioned by the gods".<ref>A better rendering might be: "... that no harm/fraud be done through me to one who is a party sanctioned by the gods".</ref> The vase is a speaking token that after the celebration of the ritual consecrates the content of the action, of which it is "the form in its probatory function and the matter as a constituent element".<ref>Taking into account Brent Vine's hypothesis about the interpretation of ''[m]einom'' as ''munus'' though the rendering of the text should be somewhat altered and interpreted as: "A '{{sc2|DUENOS}}' (as above) made me as a good (legal etc.) gift/offering/token, that no evil/harm be done through me to a '{{sc2|DUENOS}}{{'"}} or "that no evil party lay me to a '{{sc2|DUENOS}}{{'"}}.</ref>

The [[Praeneste fibula|Praenestine fibula]] is generally thought to be the earliest surviving evidence of the Latin language, dating to the 7th century BC, but has been alleged by [[Margherita Guarducci]] to have been a well-informed hoax; however, the evidence is only circumstantial and there are no clear indications pointing to a forgery. Ultimately, these claims have been disproven, as a new analysis performed in 2011 declared it to be genuine "beyond any reasonable doubt".<ref name="maras">{{cite journal |first=Daniele F. |last=Maras |title=Scientists declare the Fibula Praenestina and its inscription to be genuine 'beyond any reasonable doubt' |url= http://ancientstudies.fas.nyu.edu/docs/CP/963/EtruscanNewsVol14_2012_winter.pdf |journal=Etruscan News |volume=14 |date=Winter 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20120224195235/http://ancientstudies.fas.nyu.edu/docs/CP/963/EtruscanNewsVol14_2012_winter.pdf |archive-date=24 February 2012}}</ref> The [[Lapis Niger]] inscription is another example of Old Latin dated to the period of Rome's monarchy, although scholars have had difficulty in their attempts to interpret the meaning of the texts in their surviving fragments.<ref>Johannes Stroux: ''[http://pao.chadwyck.co.uk/articles/displayItemFromId.do?QueryType=articles&ItemID=0215-1931-086-00-000016 Die Foruminschrift beim Lapis niger]'' In: Philologus Vol. 86 (1931), p. 460.{{dead link|date=February 2024}}</ref><ref>"Le ''juges auspicium'' et les incongruités du teureau attalé de Mugdala" in ''Nouvelle Clio'' '''5''' 1953 p. 249-266; "Sur l'inscription du Lapis niger" in ''Revue d'études latins'' '''36''' 1958 p. 109–111 and '''37''' 1959 p. 102.</ref>

* Arthur Gordon, "[https://web.archive.org/web/20110717205201/http://webuser.unicas.it/linguistica/lorenzetti/LM_2009/Gordon_duenos.pdf Notes on the Duenos-Vase Inscription in Berlin]", ''California Studies in Classical Antiquity'', Vol. 8, 1975, pp.&nbsp;53–72 [https://web.archive.org/web/20110717205201/http://webuser.unicas.it/linguistica/lorenzetti/LM_2009/Gordon_duenos.pdf (available online)]

* Arthur E. Gordon, ''Illustrated Introduction to Latin Epigraphy''. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1983 ([https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=lang_en&id=ywI6SDUggk4C&oiq=fndDuenos&pg=PR9&dq=Arthur+E.+Gordon,+Illustrated+Introduction+to+Latin+Epigraphy.+Duenos&ots=zEIJOi5UEz&sig=NLtTwCInmd96A1Ut36FJXm5gb2E#v=onepage&q=Duenos&f=false Google Books preview]).

* {{cite web|url=http://www.humnet.ucla.edu/pies/pdfs/IESV/1/BV_Duenos.pdf|title=A Note on the Duenos Inscription|last=Vine|first=Brent|access-date=20 September 2006 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120113182826/http://www.humnet.ucla.edu/pies/pdfs/IESV/1/BV_Duenos.pdf |archive-date= Jan 13, 2012 }}

[[Category:7th-century BC worksinscriptions]]

[[Category:6th-century BC worksinscriptions]]

[[Category:5th-century BC worksinscriptions]]