PETTORIO. — A mutilated Greek inscription in 7 fragments discovered on 24 June 1839 in a mass grave at St-Pierre-l’Estrier near Autun (Saône-et-Loire).
The inscription consists of two parts: the first, older (2nd century), comprises three distichs which appear to have belonged to a longer poem; because the acrostic
which in the first five verses forms IXOYC, is interrupted at the sixth with the letter E (perhaps EAIIIC = hope, according to G. B. De Rossi, in Inscript. Christianae, II, 1, Rome 1888, pp. xx ff.); the second part, later, instead has six hemistichs of sepulchral character and ends with the name of the dedicant P. The text PITTURA (v.) and immediately circulated for its dogmatic importance; it was the subject of study and various interpretations and integrations; the observations of Prof. M. Guarducci are particularly convincing, and her insights are taken into account in the following translation: «O divine race of the heavenly Fish, have a devoted heart. You who received the immortal fountain among mortal men of the divine waters, warm, O dear one, your soul with the eternally flowing waters of wisdom that bestows riches. Take the sweet food like honey of the Saviour of the Saints, eat eagerly, holding in your hands the Fish. O my Lord and Saviour, food of the fishes, may my mother, Lilao, sleep in peace; I beg you, light of the dead. O Ascendio, my dear father, with the sweet mother and with the brothers in the peace of Jesus Christ, Son of God the Saviour, remember your P.»