Dacian Naxian Sphinx translated

Naxian sphinxes depict a winged lion with a female face. One example from the third century AD was uncovered in the Roman provincial town of Potaissa in ancient Dacia, located in present-day Romania. The bronze sphinx was stolen in the nineteenth century and never has been recovered. Based on a surviving drawing, however, the sphinx inscription has finally been translated. 

Note that the poem needs to be read right to left. A "dactyl" in poetry is a poetic foot (rhythmic unit) consisting of a stressed syllable followed by two unstressed syllables, but in this inscription which is read right to left, the patten is the opposite.

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An examination of sketches depicting the sphinx revealed that the inscription constitutes a metric poem composed in dactylic hexameter. This intricate poetic meter originated from ancient Greek verses and was subsequently embraced by Latin literature. Dactylic hexameter employs a recurring rhythmic structure of six metric feet per line, accentuating certain syllables over others.

According to the study, the poem is written in a proto-Hungarian language and welcomes visitors approaching the sphinx: Íme imádd: itt híres oroszlán (“Lo, behold, worship: here is the holy lion”).

 

https://arkeonews.net/mysterious-inscription-on-ancient-dacia-sphinx-is-deciphered/

https://www.heritagedaily.com/2024/01/inscription-on-naxian-style-sphinx-deciphered/150132

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This paper gives a translation of an inscription around the base of a bronze sphinx statue from the 3^rd century Roman Province of Dacia. The bronze sphinx statue has several striking parallels with the famous Sphinx of the Naxians from 560 BCE, which is now located in the Archaeological Museum of Delphi. Presumably, the sphinx cult also spread to Dacia from Naxos. The inscription is identified as having been written using an archaic Greek alphabet. However, the Greek alphabet phonetic values render a text that is non-sensical in the Greek language. Therefore, the meaning of the inscription has puzzled scholars since the artifact’s discovery in the early 19^th century. The scribe probably intended to express something in a language other than Greek using an archaic Greek alphabet. The archaic Greek alphabet phonetic values record a short rhythmic poem in the Proto-Hungarian language. The inscription is unusual in that it contains some archaic letters that are mirrored and need to be read from right to left.

Inscription on a Naxian-Style Sphinx Statue From Potaissa Deciphered as a Poem in Dactylic Meter | Mediterranean Archaeology and Archaeometry (maajournal.com)