Dioscuri a Taranto: una nuova testimonianza epigrafica

This paper presents a new epigraphic document preserved in the Museo Archeologico Nazionale of Taranto: the base of a blackglazed stemless cup with an applied medallion depicting the Dioscuri on horseback and bearing in the exergue the inscription Σωτῆρες. Compared with an identical but incomplete specimen published by L. Viola in 1884 and now lost, this new evidence enriches the Tarentine dossier on the Διὸς κοῦροι and confirms the devotion of the local community to the sons of Zeus. The iconography of the medallion – rearing horsemen, piloi and stars – finds parallels in Tarentine as well as Brettian and Syracusan coin issues of the 3rd century BC, suggesting a dating between 275 and 200 BC. Its provenance, iconography, Greek inscription, and the numeral graffito incised before firing beneath the foot of the cup – referable to acrophonic Western Greek notational systems – support the hypothesis of a local production.