The chapter surveys the occurrences of the lectional sign known as the paragraphos and how it is employed in the Greek epigraphic record, in an attempt to counter the idea that it is irrelevant to inscriptional evidence. By drawing on a corpus of around a hundred instances, it is possible to outline at least three ways or contexts in which this sign is used, namely: (1) to highlight the entries in lists, accounts, or catalogues; (2) to mark the sections of texts consisting of clauses (such as religious regulations, diagrammata, and the like); (3) to divide documents from each other in epigraphic dossiers. Moreover, this large-scale analysis of paragraphoi in inscriptions on stone, lead, and bronze from across the entire Greek world permits the conclusion that the paragraphos may sometimes occur in the form of a horizontal dash at mid-height within the line. In addition to showing that the mark is often all but a residual or desultory element accidentally preserved in the transition from draft copies on soft materials to publication on non-perishable media, this collection of examples clearly shows that the paragraphos had already begun to be employed in texts written on durable materials in the late Archaic period and that therefore its use cannot be considered peculiar to papyrological evidence, as is often stated.
Scuola Normale of Pisa, Italy - ORCID: 0000-0003-3316-8371
Titolo del capitolo
Residual or Functional? A Taxonomy of the Uses of paragraphoi in Greek Epigraphical Texts
Autori
Davide Amendola
Lingua
English
DOI
10.36253/979-12-215-0456-9.12
Opera sottoposta a peer review
Anno di pubblicazione
2024
Copyright
© 2024 Author(s)
Licenza d'uso
Licenza dei metadati
Titolo del libro
Text, Layout, and Medium
Sottotitolo del libro
Documents from the Greco-Roman World between Epigraphy and Papyrology
Curatori
Davide Amendola, Cristina Carusi, Francesca Maltomini, Emilio Rosamilia
Opera sottoposta a peer review
Numero di pagine
426
Anno di pubblicazione
2024
Copyright
© 2024 Author(s)
Licenza d'uso
Licenza dei metadati
Editore
Firenze University Press
DOI
10.36253/979-12-215-0456-9
ISBN Print
979-12-215-0455-2
eISBN (pdf)
979-12-215-0456-9
Collana
Edizioni dell’Istituto Papirologico «G. Vitelli»
ISSN della collana
2533-2414
e-ISSN della collana
2612-7997