kusedus pusedus

This inscription is found on a piece of lead dated paleographically to the archaic period by Adiego 1997a, possibly early 6^th century BCE (Weiss 2006a:282).

[D.S.]

indecl. (?)

kusedus // puseduṣ?

LW/N 113.1-2 (Miletus)

Whereas Adiego 1997a was trying to separate the words into ]kus edus[ and ]pus edu[, assuming that the beginning and the ends of the two lines were broken off, Weiss 2006a:282f. points out that the object was no bigger than it is today and that the two words are complete as is, i.e. kusedus // pusedu. ­– The restoration of the last letter of the second line, i.e. ṣ^?, is done in analogy to the word of the first line; cf. Weiss 2006a ibid. ­– Weiss 2006a tries to see a personal name with a patronymicon, although there is no patronymic suffix attached to the second word. Furthermore, from a morphological perspective, the two words do not have any proper Lydian suffixes that would make them either nominal or verbal. Besides, the identical shape of the two words except for their first letters renders it suspicious that they are names in the first place.

Since it is written on a small piece of lead of the kind often used for curses, it is tempting to take kusedus pusedus as a curse or magical formula comparable to English “hocus pocus”. Pending further evidence, this hypothesis is retained here with a question mark.

[D.S.]