Hi everyone, Sorry to bother you all. I was hoping if someone here can please help me translate the Greek script on what appears to be a small (1+ inch) copper alloy plaquette(?) I don't have the item in hand as of yet, so this is the best image I have so far. The object is mounted within a wooden panel along with four other pieces as seen just below. Thank you all so much for your time!
The transliteration of the letters is Moschion, who was a minor Athenian dramatist of the Third century BC. I assume the other people are also philosophers or dramatists but I can not see writing on the other figures large enough to read. Can you enlarge the others?
Thank you so much for your help and provided information, most appreciated! Yes, I have enlarged the images of the others, but I'm not sure if they'll help? Once I have the item in hand, I can snap close-ups of these inscriptions.
Posted below are close-up images of the inscriptions on the other four pieces, can you all please help?
Looking closely at the third from the bottom is making me think there is something odd about the writing. if I am reading the letters correctly it is rendered as SLAEUROS, except that the letter R is not a Greek letter. Our letter P is the Greek letter (pi) for R (rho). Perhaps the creator of these images just picked up some Greek letters (not really knowing Greek very well) and slipped up on the letter R which, if Greek would have been rendered as P. In other words the inscriptions may be just fantasy writing by someone who knew a bit of Greek. However, it is within the realm of possibility that the inscriptions are written in a local dialect, maybe some form of later Byzantine Greek. What is the provenance of these plaques?
There's no real history that I know of other than I purchased them from a vendor who they themselves knew next to nothing about them. I find it interesting that the first piece ID'ed is inscribed correctly, but the others aren't? I also find it interesting that there appears to be not much out there (that I can find any way) on Moschion, let alone plaques such as the ones posted.
There is a mixture of Greek and Latin letters, some legends do not make sense at all : XIΛƧ IIV for example. These are perhaps imitations of Greek legends by some late 19th or early 20th c. craftsman who could not read Greek.
