Description: Lead tablet. W: 3.1 cm × H: 1.6 cm × D: 0.7 cm.
Layout description: The tablet is inscribed on both sides. The same side also preserves another, older inscription (39A), on top of which the present text is inscribed. One further inscription (40B) is preserved on the opposite side.
Dialect: Thessalian or Boiotian
Alphabet: Classical

Date: 4th century BC

Findspot: Dodona, Evangelidis’ excavation 1929-1935.
Original location: Dodona
Last recorded location: Archaeological Museum of Ioannina inv. Μ69

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

Bibliography: I.Dodone DVC 38A (Laes 2020, 188 n. 334; CIOD 40B+38A [last consulted 20/10/2026]).
Cf. Chaniotis 2017a, 55 (on cleromancy, with English translation); Helly 2018, 365 (on γίνυμαι for γίγνομαι); Méndez Dosuna 2018b, 284 (on γίνυμαι for γίγνομαι).

Apparatus

l. 3: ΓΙΝΥΤΑ tablet; γίνυτα<ι> CIOD, based on the reading TINVTA in the facsimile.

English Translation

Whether I am not going to have a daughter.

Spanish Translation

Si no voy a tener ninguna hija.

Commentary

According to Lhôte (CIOD), I.Dodone DVC 40B and 38A were inscribed by the same hand and proposes reading them as a single opisthographic consultation. However, in the absence of autopsy or available photographs, this interpretation remains hypothetical.

For enquiries concerning offspring on the Dodona tablets, and especially male offspring, see Piccinini 2015, 147 and Laes 2020, 184-189, although for this specific case Laes suggests that the consultation concerns the search for a wife rather than the desire to have a daughter.

Ithaca Results: Ithaca attributes the inscription to Egypt and Nubia with a probability of approximately 74.8%, followed by Italy, including Magna Graecia. Epirus does not appear among the ten most probable regions, while Thessaly receives a probability of less than 1%. The chronological prediction peaks at 120-110 BCE, with a mean date of 109 BCE. See the Ithaca results and associated files.

Themes / Keywords: Offspring

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 2026-06-05 by Stavroula Konstantopoulou.

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