Dear Mark,
Thanks for the marvelous answer, which elicited a number of lyrical and refreshing responses on the forum. "Hero-on" makes sense as the suffix "-on" is used on all sorts of 'places' such as bakeries (artopeion), butchers (Kreion) etc. I'm sorry my transcription might not be perfect as the Greek letters I had to use on the PC were modern, and the letters I saw were ancient. I wasn't too sure about the 4th letter in the first word, but the prefix "phile-" is clearly to do with love or adoration of something or someone. This case is from the classical city of Aptera in Crete, but there are shrines dedicated to semi-mythical figures on Roman sites in Britain, and the term "heroon" might well be useful in the monument thesaurus.
Cheers,
Neil
>>> [log in to unmask] 21/11/2001 09:03:54 >>>
Neil
Various colleagues have checked a variety of reference books to come up with half an answer.
A Heroon or Heroum is a small sanctuary or chapel dedicated to a mortal or a semi-divine person (such as a hero). We cannot help much with the Greek inscription except to note that the last word does appear to derive from the Greek word for hero. The first word seems to equate with the modern Greek word for a deal or a transaction, so possibly the inscription is some kind of dedicatory text.
I hope this helps
Mark Bennet
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