Since the first edition of E.R. von Stern ("Отчет о раскопках на о. Березани летом 1909 г.", ЗООИД 28, 1910, p. 88; ОАК за 1910 г., p. 108; "Graffiti", Philologus 72, 1913, p. 547), several scholars have taken ΩΣ as the start of the text: ὡς in the sense of "since, as". Yaylenko, V.P. (“Несколько ольвийских и березанских граффити,” КСИА 159 (1979):57-58, no. 11, fig. 2) and L. Dubois, IGDOlb no. 39 (Inscriptions grecques dialectales d’Olbia du Pont, Geneve 1996, pp. 80-81) translate the text as "Since I am a lamp, so I shine for gods and humans." Yuri Vinogradov (Review of M. Guarducci, L’epigrafia greca dalle origine al Tardo Impero. Roma, 1987// VDI 1991/2, 232) was the first to argue that :λύχνον was the start. So it is taken by S.R. Tokhtasiev (“Граффити.” Борисфен-Березань. Начало античной эпохи в Северном Причерноморье. Каталог выставки. Государственный Эрмитаж, St. Petersburg, 2005, 141, no. 268, p. 141). In my view, the text started with the word λύχνον, just to the right of the spout, and as the text wrapped counter-clockwise around the side of the lamp, the last word did not quite fit and was split on the either side of the spout, ending right before λύχνον; the dipunct was then added to mark the end of the text.

Several restorations have been proposed for the end of the line. The trace that is visible after the final nu of κἀνθρώποισιν is not a letterstroke itself, but a slip of the writing implement, and as this slip runs parallel to the diagonal of the preceding nu, it seems that the letter would have had a left diagonal stroke; neither a pi (as read by Vinogradov 1991), nor an iota (as read by Tokhtasiev 2005, unless he simply meant a vertical stroke) is therefore likely. One possibility is a lambda, and we could perhaps restore λ̣[αμπρ]ῶς, but alpha and e.g. ἀ[γλαῶς] are attractive - Ι estimate a maximum of four missing letters. Envisioning a vertical stroke, Vinogradov proposed to restore π̣[ρηέ]ως(?), and Gubochkin [Προμηθέ]ως, but the latter is too long and does not make good sense.

The text has been interpreted as an attempt to construct a hexameter (Yaylenko 1979, p. 57), trochaic tetrameter (Vinogradov 1991, 232), or catalectic iambic tetrameter (Dubois, IGDOlb, p. 80). Yaylenko (1979, 16, n. 32) saw an echo of line 8 of the Homeric Hymn to Helios (ὃς φαίνει θνητοῖσι καὶ ἀθανάτοῖσι θεοῖσιν) and of Iliad 20.64. Dubois thought that the allusion to Homeric Hymn to Helios was playful, humourous, as a humble lamp was speaking of itself in a lofty manner of the mighty Sun. He also speculated that the metric form echoed the Ionian tradition of Hipponax. Indeed, Rix argued just that ("Ein Hipponax-Vers auf einer Tonlampe aus Olbia, Pontos?" Würzburger Jahrbücher für die Altertumswissenschaft 17 (1991), pp. 41-48, as referenced by Tokhtasiev 2005). Metrical features of this text have been also discussed by M. Guarducci (Epigrafia greca III. Roma 1974, p. 346); P.A. Hansen, Carmina epigraphica graeca saeculorum VIII-V a. Chr. n., Berlin-New York 1983, no. 463); P. Friedländer and H. Hoffeit (Epigrammata, Berkeley 1978, no. 177k).

Vinogradov 1991 deduced from the text that the lamp had been used in a domestic context where it would provide light for people and household cult images; Yaylenko argued for use in a cultic setting, specifically in a synnaos shrine of multiple deities, while Shtern (1910, 88) envisioned mortuary context. The findspot does not aid us in determining the functional context of the lamp.