Enquiry regarding migration to Kroton Elena Martín González Stavroula Konstantopoulou “Dodona Travels to Ithaca. Artificial Intelligence Applied to the Edition of Greek Inscriptions”. Grant CNS2023-144714, funded by MICIU/AEI (10.13039/501100011033) and by the European Union NextGenerationEU/PRTR I.Dodone Online 24A+25A+26B

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Lead tablet, with three folds.

1.8 14 0.21

The tablet is inscribed on both sides. The surface of face A shows extensive traces of erasure. The tablet bears an inscription on each side by the same hand: a question on face A ( 24A+25A ) and a summary of the same question on face B. The last three lines of the inscription on face A were written in smaller letters and positioned towards the right edge of the tablet to fit the available space. They are separated from the preceding text by a finely incised line. Ιnterpunct occurs once, in line 5.

Doric

Achaian

end of the 5th century BC

Dodona Dodona, Evangelidis’ excavation 1935. Archaeological Museum of Ioannina inv. M47; AMI 11507

Encoded according to the EpiDoc Guidelines, version 9.

 English Ancient Greek Latin French German Modern Greek Spanish Question Summary Migration Facsimile and photograph Initial encoding by Stavroula Konstantopoulou.

, 81 no 8, fig. 3b ( 43.325; 114; , 74, 76 no 5, 107; , 512-513); 24A+25A+26B ( 24-25 [last consulted 15/07/2026]); , 307 no 73 (G. Giannakis, E.K. Skalisti); , 114; , 124; , 110, 129.

Cf. , 59 (on οἴκησις), 64 (on elision of final nu); , 124 (English translation); , §201 (classifying inscription on face B as an answer); , 88-89 n. 84; , 58; , 730 (on consulations from Magna Graecia); , 110 (Italian translation); , 50 (on dialectal mixture); , 160 n. 28; , 94 (on παμπασία); , 18 n. 34.

θεός⸱ τύχα ἀγαθά⸱ περὶ πανπασίας καὶ περὶ Ϝοικσιος ἰς Κρότνα  βέλτιων καὶ ἄμεινον αὐτι καὶ γενε ᾶι : καὶ γυναι κί;
ἐν Κρότνι
εἰς ἰς and the subsequent editors. ΚΡΤΟΝΑ tablet, correcting the previously engraved ΚΤΤΟΝΑ, according to the editors of . βέλτιον ΑΜΕΙΝΟ tablet ἄμεινον

God. Good Fortune. About property and migration to Kroton, is it better and more advantageous for him, for his descendance and for his wife?

In Kroton.

Dios. Buena Fortuna. Sobre el conjunto de las propiedades y la migración a Crotón, ¿es mejor y más ventajoso para él, para su descendencia y para su mujer?

En Crotón.

The origin of the consultant remains uncertain. notes that the alphabet could belong to Magna Graecia, but it is not exclusive to that region. (and ) considers the consultant an Epirote intending to settle in Kroton, interpreting the archaic gamma and digamma as survivals of the local alphabet of Dodona. By contrast, regards the angled lunate gamma as evidence of Achaian, probably colonial Achaian, lettering. On the dialect of Achaia and its colonies in Magna Graecia, see .

The name of Kroton is reconstructed on the fragmentary tablet 319 (Κρότονι), which Lhôte () attributes to the same hand and interprets as an earlier version of the present enquiry, although this connection remains conjectural.

The text on face B has been interpreted either as a summary of the question on face A or as an oracular response. On the controversial issue of the presence of answers on the Dodona tablets, see .

On the ubiquitous term παμπασία in the oracular tablets, see , 92-99. For misspellings in the oracular lamellae, see , 267-272. For the use of punctuation marks in the Dodona oracular tablets, see .

Ithaca attributes the inscription to Epirus with a high probability (92.78%). Chronologically, the distribution peaks at 400-390 BC (ca. 69%), with a mean date of 391 BC, broadly consistent with the dating proposed by the editors of I.Dodone DVC (end of the 5th century BC). See the Ithaca results and associated files.

 Photograph of side A of the lead tablet, from the Hellenic Ministry of Culture, National Archive of Monuments (Ephorate of Antiquities of Ioannina). Copyright: Hellenic Ministry of Culture (CC BY-NC 4.0).