Archaic and Classical inscribed epigrams from Sicily: Language and archaeological context

Ancient Sicily, a Greek land rich in cul- tural and literary manifestations, has yielded a small number of inscribed epigrams. The aim of this paper is to present an overview of the eight epigrams surely produced in the Archaic and Classical periods and to pinpoint their linguistic choices. Since dedicatory epi- grams are mostly formulaic, and two of the funerary epigrams are fragmentary, a study of their dialectal choices vis-à-vis the tradi- tional literary language of the epigrammatic genre yields limited results. To overcome these interpretative problems, this paper con- siders the archaeological context of the four funerary epigrams as a fundamental key for understanding how they integrate into the epigraphic habits of Archaic and Classical Sicily.