Chapter Residual or Functional? A Taxonomy of the Uses of paragraphoi in Greek Epigraphical Texts

Abstract

The chapter surveys the occurrences of the lectional sign known as the paragraphos and how it is employed in the Greek epigraphic record, in an attempt to counter the idea that it is irrelevant to inscriptional evidence. By drawing on a corpus of around a hundred instances, it is possible to outline at least three ways or contexts in which this sign is used, namely: (1) to highlight the entries in lists, accounts, or catalogues; (2) to mark the sections of texts consisting of clauses (such as religious regulations, diagrammata, and the like); (3) to divide documents from each other in epigraphic dossiers. Moreover, this large-scale analysis of paragraphoi in inscriptions on stone, lead, and bronze from across the entire Greek world permits the conclusion that the paragraphos may sometimes occur in the form of a horizontal dash at mid-height within the line. In addition to showing that the mark is often all but a residual or desultory element accidentally preserved in the transition from draft copies on soft materials to publication on non-perishable media, this collection of examples clearly shows that the paragraphos had already begun to be employed in texts written on durable materials in the late Archaic period and that therefore its use cannot be considered peculiar to papyrological evidence, as is often stated.