History and Classical tradition studies

Work Notes on Etruscan Mirrors & Murals II

by Mel Copeland

This is a PDF file from our website covering Etruscan Mirrors and Murals, with images compiled from the Etruscan Phrases website http://www.maravot.com/Etruscan_Phrases_a.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.

Most important to the work are the Etruscan mirrors and murals that contain known Classical stories and the names of the principle characters in the stories. The star of the mirrors is Helen of Troy who was the young daughter of King Tyndareüs of Sparta and abducted by the equally beautiful son of King Priam of Troy, thereby causing the Trojan War. While the entire story has captured the hearts and imaginations of generations since that event (Troy was destroyed ~1180 B.C.) we can presume through Etruscan mirrors that the event was part of their history – and they had a somewhat different recollection of it than the Greek version passed down to us.

Because the story is familiar and linking the genesis of Greek heroes and gods, containing their names and actions, we have comparative texts to use in analyzing the Etruscan language, its shifts from Greek and Latin to Etruscan. For instance the heroes of the story follow a regular shift, of dropping vowels and final consonants, etc. Heracles (L. Hercules) is Hercle (almost like the French, Hercule). Helen’s name declines: Helenai and Helenei, leading us to the declension of other nouns. Her father was Zeus who transformed into a swan and raped the goddess Nemesis THALNA (retribution) who had transformed into a goose. She laid an egg or two eggs, one of which was Helen which was found by shepherds near Sparta and taken to Tyndareüs and Leda to bring up. From the egg came Helen, the most beautiful woman in the world.

The most beautiful man at the time was Alexander, spelled ELCHSENTRE and he abducted Helen from her husband Menelaus, MENLE, the brother of King Agamemnon: ACHMEMNVN. His wife Clytemnestra is CLVTHVMVSTHA who murdered her husband in the bath upon returning from the Trojan War, and their son, Orestes (VRSTE) killed her and her lover in revenge. Athena (L. Minerva) is MENRFA; Hera (L. Juno) is VNI, her consort is Zeus (L. Jupiter) Etr. TINIA. Thetis is THETIS and THETHIS, she was a dangerous shape-changer and compelled by the gods to wed her husband Peleus, PELE; they produced the Greek hero of the Trojan War, Achilles who the Etruscans call ACHLE. The mother of Helen, Leda, is LATFA and her brothers, Castor and Polydeukes (Pollux) are CASTVR and PVLTVCEI. Their father Tyndareüs is TVNTLE. Aphrodite (Etr. TVRAN) was a cause of the Trojan War when she was judged by Alexander as “The Fairest” as written on an apple thrown into the wedding of Thetis and Peleus by Eris (Etr. ERIS). Aphrodite’s son was Eros (Etr. ERVS) – appearing in many texts. Another popular figure in Etruscan mirrors is Hermes (L. Mercury) TVRMS.

Apollo (APLV) and Artemis are represented frequently in the texts. Ajax Telemonos EIFAS TELMVNVS committed suicide after Achilles was killed, because he did not deserve Achilles’ armor. Apollo (APLV) and his sister the virgin huntress Artemis (ARTVMES) were highly active in the Trojan War. The Etruscans introduce a new character like Artemis called MEAN who crowns Alexander, awarding him the hand of Helen, though we understand from the Greek version that it was Aphrodite (Etr. TVRAN) that awarded Alexander the hand of Helen in the Judgment of Paris. MEAN appears to be a goddess of the hunt like Artemis from Lydia, recalling the old name of Lydia, Maionia (Μαιονία). This is just a tease, for the mirrors and murals carry amazing details never before known to modern man. The images, names and texts associated with the mirrors and murals set the baseline for understanding Etruscan Grammar and the words recorded in Etruscan Phrases GlossaryA.pdf. (The most current version available at http://www.maravot.com/Etruscan_Phrases_a.html.

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.pdf 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 mirrors with 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).

Revaluing Javanese Court Dances (Srimpi and Bedhaya) within the Current Social and Cultural Context

by Michi Tomioka

"The Work of the 2006/2007 API Fellows"  pp. 53-60.
The Nippon Foundation

Establishment of Tradition by Criticism of Tradition: the case of the Surakarta Style of Javanese Dance

by Michi Tomioka

in Japanese

Urban Research.VOl.12. pp. 50-64.
published in March 2010 by Osaka City University Urban Culture Research Center, Osaka: Japan

　Ramayana Ballet, a dance theater for tourists, was started in 1961 at Prambanan
Temple and has become an... more 　Ramayana Ballet, a dance theater for tourists, was started in 1961 at Prambanan
Temple and has become an Indonesian representative theater. It was choreographed
by R.T.Kusumokesowo, a dance master of the Surakarta Court. However his choreography
was criticized by Gendhon Humardani at the Seminar on National Dance
Theater of Ramayana 1970. It was the beginning of dance criticism in Indonesia, and
Humardani has had an important role in developing Javanese dance since then.
Humardani made severe comments on Kusumokesowo's choreography, especially on
the following 3 points: 1. dance forms representative and external; 2. pendhopo
(Javanese traditional hall) - oriented sense of space; and 3. art direction attaching too
much emphasis to the story. All of these show Humardani appreciated the Western
modern performing arts. It is true Ramayana Ballet produced a new genre named sendratari
(a dance theater) as well as many new character forms, but it still maintained a
conservative sense derived from the Javanese court dance. From the criticism of
Humardani, “the (out‒of‒date) Javanese tradition” has emerged behind “the (up-todate)
Western modernity.”
Humardani got the Western modern-oriented viewpoint from his study abroad in the
U.K and the U.S.A from 1959 to 1961. His viewpoint of the Ramayana Ballet criticism was
already obtained in 1961 when he wrote a criticism on a ballet performance in London.
　Humardani innovated dance both in the PKJT (Central Java Art Center) project and
the ASKI (Indonesian Art Academy), to realize his dance theory. Humardani played an
important role to bring a modern perspective into Javanese dance.
Keywords : tradition, Javanese dance, modern, Ramayana Ballet, Humardani

“Retna Pamudya”; Javanese Female Solo Dance in the Era of Independence

by Michi Tomioka

read a paper in Asian Theatre Working Group,　International Federation for Theatre Research (IFTR)　in 16-17 March, 2010. at Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

De-Ritualization of Javanese Court Dance through Establishment of Teaching Method

by Michi Tomioka

Read a paper in International School for Graduate School of Literature and Sciences, Osaka City University in September 2010

"Anagnórisis en la Electra de Galdós", Bulletin Hispanique 108 (2006), 459-474.

by Juan Carlos Iglesias-Zoido

Soltar las cadenas de las cosas: las tradiciones clásicas de Latinoamérica

by Andrew Laird

Publicado en: La influencia clásica en América Latina ed. Carla Bocchetti (Bogotá: Universidad Nacional de Colombia 2010), 8-23

Una vista somera sobre las herencias y varios rastros de la antigua Europa en Latinoamérica

An overview of... more Una vista somera sobre las herencias y varios rastros de la antigua Europa en Latinoamérica

An overview of ancient European legacies in Latin America

Luca Barbieri, Le “epistole delle dame di Grecia” nel Roman de Troie in prosa. La prima traduzione francese delle Eroidi di Ovidio/Luca Barbieri, ed., Les Epistres des …

by Rosa María Rodríguez Porto

Vergil and the Satanic Cogito, with critical responses from Literary Imgination

by Daniel Selden

Tebas desde la penumbra

by Yoandy Cabrera Ortega

Analysis of the premiere in Cuba of Los siete contra Tebas, a piece of Antón Arrufat that was forbidden and out of the... more Analysis of the premiere in Cuba of Los siete contra Tebas, a piece of Antón Arrufat that was forbidden and out of the cuban scene during 40 years because of the political connotations that this work had in 1968 when it received the price “José Antonio Ramos” from the UNEAC. A comparative study of the scenic procedures of the performance directed by Albarto Sarraín and the literary and dramatic porpouses of the cuban version and the 226 aeschylian original. Relationship between myth and performance; legend, greek theater and contemporary version.

Key words: Thebes, Arrufat, version, scene, Aeschylus, Euripides, theater, anachronism, Cuban, myth, transgression

Medea sueña a Estorino. Congreso

by Yoandy Cabrera Ortega

PIERRE VIDAL-NAQUET (1930-–2006), UN HISTORIEN ENTRE DEUX MONDES

by Marek Wecowski

Palamedes. A Journal of Ancient History, 1 (2006), p. 11-14

Un testimone della lex de imperio Vespasiani del tardo Trecento: Francesco Zabarella

by Lorenzo Calvelli

published in 'Athenaeum' 99, 2011, pp. 515-523 (ISSN 0004-6574)

William James Stillman. Images in the Archives of the Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies

by Deborah Harlan

Archaeological Reports (2009) 123-144

TRAVEL, PICTURES, AND A VICTORIAN GENTLEMAN IN GREECE

by Deborah Harlan

Hesperia 78 (2009) 421–453

The rise of mass tourism in the late 19th century coincided with advances in photographic technology that made it... more The rise of mass tourism in the late 19th century coincided with advances in photographic technology that made it easier for travelers to document their journeys. In the 1890s, the clergyman and scientist T. R. R. Stebbing made a photographic record of his travels in the eastern Mediterranean. Stebbing’s images reproduce a way of looking at antiquity prescribed by 19th-century guidebooks, thereby encoding a conventional Western view of antiquity. Incorporated into an academic network of slide collections, Stebbing’s images contributed to an authoritative scholarly construction of the classical world in Britain during the early 20th century.

Classical Rhetoric in America.

by James Farrell

"'Above all Greek, above all Roman Fame': Classical Rhetoric in America during the Colonial and Early National Periods," International Journal of the Classical Tradition 18:3 (September 2011), 415-436.

The broad and profound influence of classical rhetoric in early America can be observed in both the academic study of... more The broad and profound influence of classical rhetoric in early America can be observed in both the academic study of that ancient discipline, and in the practical approaches to persuasion adopted by orators and writers in the colonial period, and during the early republic. Classical theoretical treatises on rhetoric enjoyed wide authority both in college curricula and in popular treatments of the art. Classical orators were imitated as models of republican virtue and oratorical style. Indeed, virtually every dimension of the political life of early America bears the imprint of a classical conception of public discourse. This essay marks the various specific aspects of the reception and influence of the classical rhetorical tradition in the learning, speaking and writing of Americans in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.

Etruscan Glossary A (spreadsheet containing 2,300 Etruscan words that relate to Latin, French & Italian) Update 04.25.12

by Mel Copeland

This is a PDF file of 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 , 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 between 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).

Editorial Article: Classical Humanism Has EVERYTHING to Do With Justice

by Claude Pavur

The Athenian Harem: Orientalism and the Historiography of Athenian Women in the Nineteenth Century

by Joanna Brown

The ‘harem’ was been a powerful image in the minds of westerners for centuries, and appears as a conceptual tool in... more The ‘harem’ was been a powerful image in the minds of westerners for centuries, and appears as a conceptual tool in nineteenth-century texts discussing the social history of classical Athens. Trying to uncover the reality of Athenian women’s lives, classicists refer to the Athenian woman’s home as more or less like a harem, and more or less ‘modern’ and ‘Christian.’ In this paper, I analyse the use of harem imagery in handbooks on Greek social history written in the Victorian period, using recent feminist and postcolonial theory to investigate the texts. I argue that terms such as ‘oriental’ and the image of the oriental harem were used by classicists in two main ways: either to draw attention to the oppressiveness of Athenians who had houses akin to harems, or to describe the extremes of misogyny of which Athenians could not be accused. The authors utilise an ‘index of female oppression’ with the oriental harem standing in for the most extreme oppression, while the modern Christian woman appears as the most liberated. The Athenians are placed between these two poles on the continuum. Finally, I note that in this discourse, similarities between modern home, oriental harem and Athenian gunaikonitis are revealed implicitly, with their commonalties allowing for the comparison.

"Coriolan – Tragédie des lieux" in, Coriolan de William Shakespeare, Agnès Lafont et Frédéric Delord, ed., Montpellier: IRCL, 2007

by Nathalie Rivere de Carles