DELPHIC MAXIM INSCRIPTION OF AFGHANISTAN

 THE DELPHIC MAXIM INSCRIPTION OF AFGHANISTAN

Ai-Khanoum (lit. "Lady Moon" in Uzbek) is located in Kunduz Province of Afghanistan. 

The city was founded by Alexander the Great around 328 BCE. Ai- Khanoum is possibly 

Alexandria on the Oxus, or later named Eucratidia. 

The site was excavated through archaeological searches by a French DAFA 

mission under Paul Bernard between 1964 and 1978.

In Ai-Khanoum, various inscriptions in the Classical Greek language have been found. 

On a Herõon (funerary monument) identified in Greek as the tomb of Kineas 

(also described as the oikistes (founder) of the Greek settlement) 

and dated to 300-250 BCE, an inscription has been found, which includes 

part of the Delphic Maxims :

παῖς ὢν κόσμιος γίνου,

ἡβῶν ἐγκρατής,

μέσος δίκαιος,

πρεσβύτης εὔβουλος,

τελευτῶν ἄλυπος.

English translation:

" As a child, be well- behaved

as a youth, be self- disciplined

(as of middle age, be just

in old age, be sensible

upon reaching death, be without sorrow."

This stone block with the inscription, possibly served as a base for a rather unusual 

statue of the God Hermes . Hermes is depicted as a mature man, wearing typical 

Greek clothing.