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 :
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.
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."
