Description: Lead tablet with a longitudinal fold, according to the editors. W: 1.8 cm × H: 6.7 cm × D: 0.15 cm.
Layout description: The tablet is inscribed on both sides. It preserves one inscription that begins on side B and continues onto side A, where it coexists with two other inscriptions (188A and 189A).
Dialect: Boiotian (?)
Alphabet: Archaic, red (Ψ for Χ)

Date: 5th century BC

Findspot: Dodona, Evangelidis’ excavation 1930.
Original location: Dodona
Last recorded location: Archaeological Museum of Ioannina inv. M185

Editor(s): Elena Martín González; Stavroula Konstantopoulou
Edition based on: Facsimile.

Bibliography: I.Dodone DVC 186A+187A+190B (Méndez Dosuna 2016, 120-121 [SEG 66.461]; Méndez Dosuna 2018b, 290; CIOD 190B+186A+187A [last consulted 25/06/2026]).
Cf. Alonso Déniz 2022, 444 n. 17 (on the alphabet); Anagnostopoulou – Galani – Menti 2022, 243 n. 16 and 245 n. 24 (on oracular questions about professional activity).

Apparatus

l. 4: <ἱ>κανο͂ς φέρει I.Dodone DVC; κα νο͂ς φέρι Méndez Dosuna 2018b, CIOD

English Translation

Whether he/she shall settle in Opous, or in Orchomenos, or wherever his/her mind leads him/her.

Spanish Translation

¿Debe residir en Opunte, o en Orcómeno o donde su mente lo/la lleve?

Commentary

The three inscriptions, edited separately by I.Dodone DVC, are written in the same hand and belong to the same enquiry. Méndez Dosuna 2016 proposed joining the two inscriptions on side A (186A and 187A), following Tsantsanoglou’s suggestion in the editio princeps. In 2022, Lhôte and Carbon (apud CIOD) added inscription 190B, incised on the other side, which thus constitutes the beginning of the anonymous oracular enquiry.

According to these scholars, the inscription is written in a Northwestern Doric dialect using the local alphabet of Dodona, whereas the first editors identified it with Boeotian or Thessalian alphabet. However, the shape of the digamma is indicative of a non-Dodonaean origin (see Alonso Déniz 2022), and the adverb hόπαι appears to point towards Boeotian (see Méndez Dosuna 2018b).

Ithaca Results: Two tests were performed, differing in the reading adopted for l. 4: the first follows the reading of the editors of I.Dodone DVC, while the second adopts Méndez Dosuna’s correction. In both tests, Ithaca attributes the inscription to Epirus with a high degree of confidence (88.41% and 87.77%, respectively). Chronologically, both tests point to the 5th century BC, with the highest probability assigned to the 480-470 BC interval, followed closely by other intervals within the same century. See the Ithaca results and associated files.

Themes / Keywords: Travel/Moving

Project: “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.

Copyright: Except where otherwise indicated, the original editorial content of this lemma is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Third-party material incorporated into or linked from this lemma is not covered by this license and remains subject to applicable copyright and to any terms of use specified by the respective rights holders or sources. When citing this lemma, please include its identifier, URL, and date of consultation.

File history: Created on 2026-06-26 by Stavroula Konstantopoulou.

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