Greco-Roman Art

Work notes on Etruscan Devotional Plates III

by Mel Copeland

This is a PDF file of our website, 'Translation of Etruscan Devotional Plates III," with images compiled from the Etruscan Phrases website (http://www.maravot.com/Translation_ShortScripts_e.html)

In contrast to offerings from the British Museum and University of Bologna, where their analyses, following Pallottino, are generally speculation based on guesswork relating to short funerary inscriptions, the Etruscan Phrases work is supported by a strong grammar and vocabulary based on all texts, small and large. Thus, to clear the mystery of the Etruscan language alleged by such esteemed institutions, it is imperative that the Etruscan Phrases GlossaryA.xls be audited. We mention this since the only prospect of clearing up the Etruscan Mystery is through a verifiable audit of the Etruscan Grammar recorded in Etruscan Phrases. The British Museum, University of Bologna and other "Pallottino School" works have not produced a vocabulary or grammar that can be audited, since their theory is that the Etruscan language is unlike any other known to man, not Indo-European. Etruscan Phrases claims that the Etruscan Language is similar to Latin, French, Italian and Romanian, an Indo-European language. It offers a grammar, declension patterns and regular, measurable shifts between Etruscan and these languages; ergo the work can be easily audited.

We should hope, therefore, that there will be many linguists / scholars who will jump at the chance to clear up the Etruscan Mystery and rewrite the histories so clearly overshadowed by the Pallottino School theories, to help even the museums containing Etruscan artifacts explain a bit more about the items in their displays.

Etruscan GlossaryA.xls an index to about 2,500 Etruscan words that are similar to Latin, French, Italian and Romanian. Declension patterns follow those in Latin. The 2,500 words equal the repeated words in 6,000 words of the major extant texts. The texts have been frozen in time, covering ~700-400 B.C., representing a lens to understanding the early formation of Indo-European languages, particularly the early Italic-Latin-Celtic languages, such as Italian, French & Romanian / Dacian. (By 45 BC. the language was a dead language - no one understood or could write Etruscan)

This GlossaryA works together with Indo-European Table 1 which refutes theories by the Pallottino school of thought that the Etruscan language is not Indo-European and an isolate, unlike any other language. It is very close to Latin and, curiously, Romanian, Italian and French. The Latin suffix, "us" shifts to "o" as in Italian (Titus vs Tito); first person conjugation patterns are similar to French and Romanian. This GlossaryA provides a quick look at the grammatical structure of the Etruscan language, how closely it coincides with Latin. A more detailed Declension Table can be seen on the Etruscan Phrases website. These PDF documents facilitate independent confirmation of the words in GlossaryA.xls , the Grammar and Declension Table. All words can be examined from actual images of texts on the Etruscan Phrases website. Over 150 texts, with about 6,000 words can be examined at Etruscan Phrases.

The Etruscans surfaced in Italy about 1,000 B.C., reputed to have arrived from Lydia / Phrygia. The Phrygians originated near Macedonia in Thrace, according to Herodotus. One may therefore inquire whether the ancient Thracians (Dacians, Gettae, modern Romanians), spoke a language common to the Phrygians, at the time of the Trojan War and after (~1180 B.C.). The Thracians, Phrygians and Lydians (also dead languages) were allies of the Trojans, according to the Iliad. Etruscan Phrases finds a common vocabulary among Latin, Italian, French, Romanian, Etruscan and Phrygian. While French, Spanish, Italian and Romanian are considered Romance languages, showing a similar Latin heritage, Etruscan is not, of course, a Romance language, as it preceded Latin, at least in the written form (giving Rome its alphabet).

Resolution of the Etruscan Mystery may be likened to Michael Ventris' decipherment of Linear B and Jean-François Champollion's decipherment of Egyptian hieroglyphics using the Rosetta Stone - written in Egyptian hieroglypics, Demotic and Greek. The decipherment of Etruscan is a bit more challenging, since we have no multilingual Rosetta Stone, but we do have enough vocabulary and grammar to establish that Etruscan is similar to Latin, French, Italian and Romanian. (Certainly far more vocabulary and a more extensive grammar is provided in Etruscan Phrases than that used by Ventris to claim translation of Linear B as an old form of Greek)

The Devotional Plates may be an easy entry into an audit, for those who are hesitant to examine the larger texts, such as the Zagreb Mummy (Script Z).

Work Notes on the Magliano Disk

by Mel Copeland

The Magliano Disk is perhaps the oldest Etruscan text.and many of the words contained in this disk are replicated in other texts, shown in Etruscan Phrases GlossaryA.xls.

The British Museum, University of Bologna and other "Pallottino School" documents on Etruscan texts have not produced a vocabulary or grammar that can be audited, since their theory is that the Etruscan language is unlike any other known to man, not Indo-European. (One cannot audit guesswork.) Etruscan Phrases claims that the Etruscan Language is similar to Latin, French, Italian and Romanian, an Indo-European language. It offers a grammar, declension patterns and regular, measurable shifts between Etruscan and these languages; ergo the work can be easily audited.

We should hope, therefore, that there will be many linguists / scholars who will jump at the chance to clear up the Etruscan Mystery and rewrite the histories so clearly overshadowed by the Pallottino School theories, to help even the museums containing Etruscan artifacts explain a bit more about the items in their displays,  such as the mysterious Magliano lead disk.

Etruscan GlossaryA.xls an index to about 2,300 Etruscan words that are similar to Latin, French, Italian and Romanian. Declension patterns follow those in Latin. The 2,300 words = the repeated words in 6,000 words of the major extant texts. The texts have been frozen in time, covering ~700-400 B.C., representing a lens to understanding the early formation of Indo-European languages, particularly the early Italic-Latin-Celtic languages, such as Italian, French & Romanian / Dacian. (By 45 BC. the language was a dead language - no one understood or could write Etruscan)

This GlossaryA works together with Indo-European Table 1 which refutes theories by the Pallottino school of thought that the Etruscan language is not Indo-European and an isolate, unlike any other language. It is very close to Latin and, curiously, Romanian, Italian and French. The Latin suffix, "us" shifts to "o" as in Italian (Titus vs Tito); first person conjugation patterns are similar to French and Romanian. This GlossaryA provides a quick look at the grammatical structure of the Etruscan language, how closely it coincides with Latin. A more detailed Declension Table can be seen on the Etruscan Phrases website. These PDF documents facilitate independent confirmation of the words in GlossaryA.xls , the Grammar and Declension Table. All words can be examined from actual images of texts on the Etruscan Phrases website. Over 150 texts, with about 6,000 words can be examined at Etruscan Phrases.

The Etruscans surfaced in Italy about 1,000 B.C., reputed to have arrived from Lydia / Phrygia. The Phrygians originated near Macedonia in Thrace, according to Herodotus. One may therefore inquire whether the ancient Thracians (Dacians, Gettae, modern Romanians), spoke a language common to the Phrygians, at the time of the Trojan War and after (~1180 B.C.). The Thracians, Phrygians and Lydians (also dead languages) were allies of the Trojans, according to the Iliad. Etruscan Phrases finds a common vocabulary among Latin, Italian, French, Romanian, Etruscan and Phrygian. While French, Spanish, Italian and Romanian are considered Romance languages, showing a similar Latin heritage, Etruscan is not, of course, a Romance language, as it preceded Latin, at least in the written form (giving Rome its alphabet).

Resolution of the Etruscan Mystery may be likened to Michael Ventris' decipherment of Linear B and Jean-François Champollion's decipherment of Egyptian hieroglyphics using the Rosetta Stone - written in Egyptian hieroglypics, Demotic and Greek. The decipherment of Etruscan is a bit more challenging, since we have no multilingual Rosetta Stone, but we do have enough vocabulary and grammar to establish that Etruscan is similar to Latin, French, Italian and Romanian. (Certainly far more vocabulary and a more extensive grammar is provided in Etruscan Phrases than that used by Ventris to claim translation of Linear B as an old form of Greek.)

The Magliano Disk appears to reflect  an expression of love. It occurred to me since the message is an expression of love,  the shape and context of the tablet is as a sublime valentine of sorts. 

Apollo and Marsyas on engraved gems and medals

by Hadrien Rambach

in: Jahrbuch für Numismatik und Geldgeschichte, 61 (2011), pp. 131-157

The famous "Seal of Nero, a Roman intaglio depicting Apollo, Marsyas and Olympus, was once in the collection of... more The famous "Seal of Nero, a Roman intaglio depicting Apollo, Marsyas and Olympus, was once in the collection of Lorenzo il Magnifico and is now in the National Museum of Naples. Two gems related to that "Seal of Nero" are published here for the first time: one, a severely damaged intaglio kept in the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon, is supposed to date from the third quarter of the first century BC. Another gem with a similar motif, a refined Renaissance cameo, recentlya ppeared in Oxfordshire and is now in a private collection in London. It is presumed that this perfectly preserved piece originally was in the possession of the Medici. The author considers a possible attribution of this work to the young Michelangelo Buonarroti and discusses a copy shown in a portrait painting by Botticelli now in the Städel Museum in Frankfurt on the Main. (summary by Matthias Barth)

Crossroads of Latin and Greek Christians in Norman Italy: Byzantine Italy and Reciprocal Influences between Greek and Latin Chant (11th-13th Century)

by Oliver Gerlach

Paper given at the International Musicological Conference "Crossroads: Greece as an Intercultural Pole of Musical Thought and Creativity (Thessaloniki, 2011, June 6-10): http://crossroads.mus.auth.gr/
draft only (last update, 7 March 2012)

Latin traditions in southern Italy, especially Beneventan and Norman chant traditions, followed in chant as well as in... more Latin traditions in southern Italy, especially Beneventan and Norman chant traditions, followed in chant as well as in architecture Byzantine prototypes. Although the historical imagination of the Orthodox Archdiocese Italy and Malta associates the Norman conquest of Byzantine Apulia with the expulsion of Greek traditions, Greek monastic centres were established under Norman rule and Franconorman patrons founded and supported also Greek monasteries, while the process of Latinization continued very slowly.

Though the relationship between Greek and Latin Christians was ambiguous and complex, the richness of local traditions in southern Italy is the result of a long period of exchange. In a comparative study I would like to give some examples of chant and sacral architecture, which may illustrate, how the different traditions could flourish by an exchange in craftship, in science, and in the art of chant.

The main subject of this essay is the conversion of Bari from a Greek into a Latin centre of Christianity. This town located in central Apulia, played a central role in the medieval history of southern Italy, because it was the capital of the Byzantine catepanate which ruled over the three Byzantine provinces (themata) including Calabria, Basilicata and Campania. After the Norman conquest of the catepanate Bari could still hold a key position, the reliquaries of S. Nicola were transferred from Myra in Lycia and turned the capital of Byzantine Italy into a centre of Eastern and Western pilgrimage.

Reflections on the gems depicting the contest of Athena and Poseidon

by Hadrien Rambach

in Noel Adams & Chris Entwistle, 'Gems of Heaven': Recent Research on Engraved Gemstones in Late Antiquity, AD 200-600 (British Museum Research Publication), London 2011, pp. 274-285

Greek and Roman mythology tell us how the patron deity of the newly founded city of Athens was chosen in a competition... more Greek and Roman mythology tell us how the patron deity of the newly founded city of Athens was chosen in a competition between Athena and Poseidon. The gods raced to the Acropolis, where they offered gifts to Athens . Athena caused an olive tree to spring up, whereas Poseidon struck the ground with his trident, prompting a spring of water to gush forth. Although Poseidon had reached the Acropolis first, Cecrops – the legendary king of Athens, shown in art as half-human and half-snake – favoured Athena. This displeased Poseidon, who cursed the city with a flood. Zeus intervened and allowed the Athenians to choose the goddess. This story has inspired several works of art of different periods, sizes and materials. This article examines the depiction on engraved gems – with essential detours to marble sculpture and numismatics – of the ‘dispute of Athena and Poseidon’, or rather the presentation of the gifts, with the gods facing each other.

Scultori, redemptores, marmorarii ed officinae nella Puteoli romana. Fonti storiche ed archeologiche per lo studio del problema.

by Filippo Demma

in Mélanges de l’Ecole française de Rome. Antiquité - MEFRA – 122.2, 2010

Die Quadratur des Sofabildes. Pompejanische Mythenbilder als Ausgangspunkt fuer eine Phaenomenologie antiker Wahrnehmung.

by Katharina Lorenz

In: NEUDECKER, R., ZANKER, P., eds. Lebenswelten: Bilder und Räume in der römischen Stadt der Kaiserzeit. Wiesbaden: Reichert (2005) pp. 205-221

Im Sog der Bilder. Bilddesign und Theaterdramaturgie im spaeten 5. Jahrhundert v.Chr.

by Katharina Lorenz

In: MERSMANN, B., SCHULZ, M., BEHRMANN, N., eds. Kulturen des Bildes. Munich: Wilhelm Fink (2006).

La fortuna dei Bronzi

by Battista Sangineto

popular article published in daily newspaper "il Quotidiano della Calabria" 26.06.2011

L'influence de l'architecture théâtrale sur le décor des fontaines monumentales

by Nicolas Lamare

dans N. Lamare, Z. Lecat, E. Rocca, M. Uberti (éd.), Le passé et son héritage : modalités et enjeux dans les sociétés du monde romain et de l’Antiquité tardive, Actes de la journée doctorale, Paris, 14 janvier 2010, Paris, UMR 8167 Orient et Méditerranée, 2011, p. 28-45.

review of • Jas Elsner, Roman Eyes. Visuality and Subjectivity in Art and Text, Princeton / Oxford: Princeton University Press 2007

by Catalin Pavel

published in Sehepunkte Rezensionsjournal für die Geschichtswissenschaften 10, Nr. 2, 15.02.2010.

keywords: Roman art keywords: Roman art

Il ritratto dello Pseudo-Seneca, Il sarcofago del Duomo, Gruppo delle Tre Grazie

by Battista Sangineto

published in M. Cristofani ( ed. ), Siena: le origini. Testimonianze e miti archeologici, Catalogo della Mostra, Siena dicembre 1979-marzo 1980, Leo S. Olschky, Firenze 1979, pp. 111-112, 113-114, 132-134, 174-177,.

The Ear of the Beholder: Spectator Figures and Narrative Structure in Pompeian Painting

by Katharina Lorenz

Art History 30.5 (2007) 665-682 - http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1467-8365.2007.00569.x/full

The debate on spectator figures in Roman painting has traditionally concentrated on their function as virtually... more The debate on spectator figures in Roman painting has traditionally concentrated on their function as virtually meaning-free space-fillers, or on their potential to make external viewers aware of the fact that they are looking at a picture. This article takes a different approach and uses the spectator figures of two frescoes from a house within the Scavo del Principe di Montenegro in Pompeii as a means of exploring the narrative strategies of Pompeian mythological painting. The satyr ear of one of the spectators, which in previous research has gone unnoticed, and the elements of gender masquerading which come with it, form the ground for reconsidering the spectators' contribution to the reception aesthetics of an image, its mythological and its emotive content. The result is a fresh assessment of Pompeian painting as a laboratory for the exploration of visual story-telling and of the shifts in the engagement of Roman audiences with mythological stories throughout the first century ce.

The anatomy of metalepsis: visuality turns around on late fifth-century pots.

by Katharina Lorenz

In: OSBORNE, R., ed. Debating the Athenian cultural revolution: Art, Literature, Philosophy, and Politics 430–380 BC. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press (2007) 116–143.

Bilderkreise. Visuelles und religiöses Wissen im Kuppelsaal von Centcelles

by Katharina Lorenz

In: FRATEANTONIO, C., KRASSER, H., eds. Religion und Bildung: Medien und Funktionen religiösen Wissens in der Kaiserzeit. Franz Steiner Verlag (2010) 197-222 _ http://www.steiner-verlag.de/titel/57830.html