Inscriptions offer us incredible insight into the ancient world. In this podcast series, we will read some Greek poetic inscriptions in translation that were made to commemorate the deceased, which represent at the same time a window into ancient Greek society and a testimony of pain and humanity.

The text from this episode is an inscription of the Imperial era from Notion (Western Anatolia), which tells the story of a three-year-old child who fell in a well.

Details of the inscriptions: GVI 1159 = SGO 03/05/04. The English translation is from R. Hunter, ‘Death of a child. Grief beyond the Literary?’, in M. Kanellou et al. (eds.) “Greek Epigram from the Hellenistic to the Early Byzantine Era”, Oxford 2019, pp. 137-153. The translation of the Posidippus poem (n.*133) is by Austin/Bastianini (2002).

This episode was written by Davide Massimo in collaboration with James Hua; reading by James Hua; soundtrack by Gilberto Bartoloni.

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