§ i  Verse inscription discovered in Halicarnassus (Bodrum) Turkey in 1995, built into a wall associated with the famous Salmakis Fountain. Published as “The Pride of Halikarnassos” in ZPE 1998 by Professor Signe Isager, the poem alludes to the mythical origins of the city, Zeus and the Curetes, and the legend of the nymph Salmacis and Hermaphroditus, and then lists important writers born there.

§ 1  Tell me, Schoinítis, you [provider of] cherished balm,
Kypris, who brings near the myrrh-breathing [- - - - -]
What is so honourable about Halikarnassos? I for my part
never heard of it. What is she proudly boasting of?

§ 5  She brought forth a grand crop of Earth-born men,
assistants of mighty Zeus of the Height [Akraios].
It was they who first under a hollowed crest placed Zeus, newborn,
the son of Rhea, so that he was hidden, and who fostered him
in the innermost recesses of Earth, when Kronos crooked of counsel,

§ 10  was too late to place him far down in his throat.
Father Zeus made the sons of Earth famous ritual attendants [orgeiones]
who guard the secret dwelling
Nor was the reward they got in return for their toil one of ingratitude:
They received good things for their good deeds:

§ 15  Having settled the lovely promontory sung of as dear to the immortals
by the sweet stream of Salmakis, she (Halikarnassos) controls
the beautiful dwelling of the nymph who once received
our boy, Hermaphroditos, in her kindly arms
and bred him to become an extraordinary man, who invented matrimony

§ 20  for mankind and was the first to fasten the matrimonial bed by law.
She in her turn under the sacred streams dripping in
the cave tempers the savage minds of men.
And Pallas brought hither riding through the air the tamer
of the winged Pegasos, a good colonizer,

§ 25  where she, treading the footsteps of Bellerophontes,
places the boundaries of the land of Pedasa.
Indeed the mighty force of Kranaos also installed the best among the
Kekropidai, in the ground of holy Salmakis.
The valiant hero, Endymion with his regal spear

§ 30  led chosen men from Apis’ land
column II
Posid]on’s son [Anthes],
the Antheadai
equipped like [Rhadamanthys]
put
35 son of Phoibos
foundation
led Ariadne from the land of . . .
left a child
away from home

§ 40  - - - - -
- with the hand - - Doric -
- - on Phoibos’ command
she sowed Herodotos, the Homer of history in prose,
reared the famous art of Andron,

§ 45  made Panyassis shoot forth to command the epic so outstandingly
and gave birth to Kyprias who composed the Iliaka.
She also brought forth Menestheus loved by the Muses
and delivered the divine inspiration of Theaitetos.
The writer of comedy Dionysios she bears as her son

§ 50  and she produced Zenodotos, the expert writer of tragedies.
She had the singer Phanostratos, the servant of Dionysos,
gleaming in the sacred crowns of the Kekropidai.
And she produced Nossos a leading chronologist in history
She made Timokrates a wise poet

§ 55  and bore other good men to succeed the good; the unending future
will never finish enumerating all the proofs of her fame:
Many glorious things she achieved on land
and she carries off many good things at sea with the leaders of the Hellenes.
Halikarnassos has had an all-honourable gift in reward for her pious acts, and
60 when it comes to goodly deeds she lays claim to the most honoured crowns.