In the first half of the 19th century, during archaeological excavations in the ancient Roman settlement of Potaissa in Romania, workers came across a curious artifact: a bronze statue in the style of the mythical sphinxes that once guarded the roads of the Greek island of Naxos.

However, this sphinx had traveled much farther, to the province of Dacia in present-day central Romania. Even more intriguing than its origin was the inscription engraved on its sides. Now, researchers have managed to decipher and translate the Latin text, revealing a poem that had remained lost in time for over 1,800 years.

The sphinx dates back approximately to the 2nd century A.D. and was placed there during the Roman domination of the province. Mythological sphinxes were usually depicted with a lion’s body and a human head, typically female, symbolizing wisdom and protecting important structures.

This particular statue blends Greek and Roman artistic traditions, carved in the elegant Naxian style but found so far from Greece, among the Roman columns of Potaissa. Its exposed location suggested that it might have had a similar function to its legendary counterparts, guarding an important area like a forum, temple, or administrative building.

But what truly piqued the interest of archaeologists was the inscription covering the base of the sphinx. Due to erosion and the passage of time, the letters had significantly degraded.

It turned out that the text was written with 20 Greek letters but to be read from right to left. Through a meticulous on-site examination and study in their laboratories, the research team began gradually deciphering pieces of the lost composition. They observed the style and size of the engravings of individual letters to distinguish separate words despite the missing links.

White plaster was carefully applied around some impressions to lift the faded letters from the stone surface and enhance their visibility. The uniform spacing between lines also served as a basis for segmentation once general patterns emerged.

Comparison with examples of classical dactylic hexameter helped place the stressed and unstressed syllables to deduce where word and verse divisions belonged.

It is a poem written in dactylic hexameter, a complex poetic meter originating from ancient Greek verses and later adopted by Latin literature. Dactylic hexameter uses a repeated rhythmic pattern of six metric feet per verse, with some syllables accented more than others.

Once transcribed and translated, the verse, a poem in proto-Hungarian, welcomes visitors approaching the sphinx: Íme imádd: itt híres oroszlán (“Behold, adore: here is the holy lion”).

According to researchers, the translation of the sphinx’s inscription makes sense in the context of a religious ceremony, where the spike beneath the statue’s pedestal is inserted into a raised ring in the air while the inscribed phrases are uttered. Presumably, this could be a highlight in the sphinx worship ceremony, and worshipers would react in some way to the pronunciation, such as jubilation, prayer, singing, or performing a sacrifice.

The sphinx, which was in the collection of Count Kemény, was stolen or lost in 1848 and was never recovered, so researchers had to work using detailed drawings from that time.


Sources

Revesz, P.Z.(2024), Inscription on a Naxian-style Sphinx statue from Potaissa deciphered as a poem in dactylic meter. Mediterranean Archaeology and Archaeometry, 23(3), 1–15. DOI:10.5281/zenodo.10442199


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