Iliad

Work notes on the Lemnos Stele

by Mel Copeland

The Lemnos Stele was found on the island of Lemnos, containing a writing style that is similar to the Etruscan texts found in Italy. It differs somewhat in the use of the punctuation marks. Etruscan texts tend to separate words and phrases using a dot or a colon. This text, like Phrygian texts on the mainland adjacent to Lemnos, uses two-dot and three-dot colons. Also, like the Phrygian texts (See our Phrygian.html) it uses the omega “o”  rather than the “V” = “O.”
Lemnos is an island in the northern Aegean Sea. When Hephaestus was thrown out of heaven, he fell on Lemnos, where the Sintians (an ancient people of whom nothing else is known) cared for him. One version of the story says his mother Hera was disgusted at him, because he was lame, and threw him out of heaven, where he landed in the sea and was saved by Thetis. Another story says Zeus threw him out of heaven, to land on Lemnos, because he had come to the rescue of Hera who at the time was being punished by Zeus.  He was later reinstated on Mount Olympus, but never forgot Lemnos, which became his chief cult center. Hephaestus was a blacksmith and became the master artisan of the gods. Among his chief works were the armor of Achilles (son of Thetis) and the creation of Pandora. In the Iliad Hephaestus was pitted against the river god Scamander, which he temporarily dried up in order to save Achilles from drowning. 

The Lemnians also claimed close connections with Dionysus, saying that he brought Ariadne there after their marriage. One of the four sons that she bore him was Thoas, who became king of the island. During his reign a series of events initiated by Aphrodite led the Lemnian women to kill all the males on the island. (Aphrodite was married to Hephaistus.) Only Thoas escaped, thanks to his daughter’s loyalty. Realizing that a life without men did not promise well for the island’s future, the women welcomed Jason and the Argonauts when they stopped at Lemnos on their outward voyage. Among the new generation that resulted from this timely visit was Euneüs, who was king at the time of the Trojan War.

During much of that war Philoctetes remained stranded alone in a cave on Lemnos, but the assumption in this myth that the island was unpeopled at the time is not supported by the other myths. Lemnos, together with several other islands of the northern Aegean, was a center of the obscure but important cult of the Cabeiri. The Cabeiri are believed to have originated on the mainland in Phrygia and were prominently worshiped on Samothrace, Lemnos and Imbros — and also had a cult in Thebes.  They were honored in the Samothracian mysteries, which were second in importance only to the Eleusinian mysteries. It is generally believed that the Cabeiri were originally fertility-spirits who had a reputation for bringing safety and good fortune, as well as good crops. They were attendants of the “Great Gods” variously believed to be Demeter or Rhea, Hermes and other Olympian divinities.
This translation, “Work Notes on the Lemnos Stele,” follows other “Etruscan Phrases” Work Notes posted in Academia.edu and linked on http://www.maravot.com/Etruscan_Phrases_a.html.

All of the Work notes are based on Etruscan GlossaryA.xls/pdf and our Indo-European Table.    Etruscan GlossaryA.xls/pdf. is 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 = 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 hieroglyphics, 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 are provided in Etruscan Phrases than that used by Ventris to claim translation of Linear B as an old form of Greek.)

We look forward to the time when a peer review of these Work Notes will warrant corrections to the prevailing record, showing that the Etruscan language was similar to Latin and decry the theory that the "Etruscan language is unlike any other and not an Indo-European language." The theory of a non-Indo-European Etruscan language is absolutely false.

Ilíada I, 148 - 187.

by Alba Sánchez Varela

Traducción y comentario morfosintáctico y literario de los versos 148 - 187 del libro I de la Ilíada. Traducción y comentario morfosintáctico y literario de los versos 148 - 187 del libro I de la Ilíada.

Algunas reflexiones en torno a los estudios que tratan el tema de la muerte en la literatura griega arcaica

by Guillermo González Campos

Este artículo presenta un recorrido por los diversos estudios que abordan el tema de la muerte en la literatura griega... more Este artículo presenta un recorrido por los diversos estudios que abordan el tema de la muerte en la literatura griega arcaica. El objetivo es develar cuáles son los principios fundamentales a partir de los cuáles se ha llevado a cabo el abordaje de la muerte en este periodo. Se concluye que la mayoría de los estudios se han centrado en aspectos culturales y formales. Es necesario, por lo tanto, realizar un acercamiento crítico que explique cómo se constituyó y fijó el sentido de la muerte en la Grecia arcaica.

Some reflections on studies about the theme of death in Greek literature

This article provides an overview of the various studies that deal with the topic of the death in ancient Greek literature. The aim is to show the fundamental principles that are used to tackling the death topic in this period. The paper concludes that most studies have focused on cultural and formal aspects; nevertheless, it is necessary a critical approach to explain how the sense of death in ancient Greece was formed and established.

Achilleus hajnala. Fényszimbolika az Iliasban és Statius Achilleisében

by Dániel Kozák

published in: Antik Tanulmányok 52 (2008) 197-214.

A Statius Achilleisében olvasható három hajnalleírás (1.242–5; 1.819–20; 2.1–4) szorosan kapcsolódik Achilles... more A Statius Achilleisében olvasható három hajnalleírás (1.242–5; 1.819–20; 2.1–4) szorosan kapcsolódik Achilles „átváltozásaihoz” a műben. E részletek felidézik az Ilias 19. énekét nyitó hajnalt, valamint azt a homérosi metafora- és szimbólumrendszert is, mely a hős harcba való visszatérését a fény, illetve a hajnal érkezéséhez hasonlítja. Különösen összetett kapcsolat fedezhető fel Achilles hőssé való visszaváltozása és a napfelkelte között a harmadik statiusi hajnalleírásban, melyet Achilles mint epikus és mint elégikus hős jövőjének lehetséges előrejelzéseként is értelmezhetünk. Az ugyanitt említett genitor coruscae lucis Iuppiterrel, illetve Diespiterrel azonosítható; a hajnalleírás ezáltal a főisten által az Achilleisben játszott szerepet is árnyalja.

Diálogos entre vivos y muertos en los poemas homéricos

by Marco Antonio Santamaría Álvarez

Sofía Torallas-Raquel Martín (eds.), Conversaciones con la muerte. El diálogo del hombre con el Más Allá a través de... more Sofía Torallas-Raquel Martín (eds.), Conversaciones con la muerte. El diálogo del hombre con el Más Allá a través de los textos, Madrid, CSIC, 2011, 23-50.

Homeric flyting and how to read it: performance and intratext in iliad 20.83-109 and 20.178-258' Ramus (2006) 35.1, pp. 4-28. 25.

by Jon Hesk

NASCENT FEDERALISM AND POLITICAL CRISIS IN THE ILIAD

by Dustin Gish

‘From War Heroes to Sporting Heroes: a Brief Study of the Transformation of the War Hero into a Sporting Hero in Iliad 22 and 23.’

by James Stratford

Published in Bulletin of the Australian Society for Sports History, 36 (2002), 5-10 (2002).

Beyond the Call: The Representation of the Warrior Hero in the Iliad and the Seven Samurai

by James Stratford

Joachim Latacz (ed.), Homers Ilias. Gesamtkommentar. Auf der Grundlage der Ausgabe von Ameis-Hentze-Cauer (1868-1913). Band: II Zweiter Gesang (B). Faszikel 1: Text und Übersetzung; Faszikel 2: Kommentar. Munich/Leipzig: K. G. Saur, 2003. In Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2005.08.16

by J.B. Lethbridge

A Review

Imagination and Attention: Simone Weil translating the Iliad

by Maria Rybakova

Recreating the Creation: Reading between the Lines in the Proem of the 'Iliad'

by Emily Schurr

First draft publication.

An in-depth analysis of the proem of the 'Iliad', recovering a cosmic subtext hidden within the resonances of its... more An in-depth analysis of the proem of the 'Iliad', recovering a cosmic subtext hidden within the resonances of its marked vocabulary. This subtext is found to have important and far-reaching implications for the reading of the 'Iliad' itself, beyond its impact on the poem's opening.

The language of heroes: Speech and performance in the Iliad

by Richard Martin

Thanks to the Center for Hellenic Studies, its director Gregory Nagy and its Director of Publications Leonard Muellner, The Language of Heroes, long out of print, is now available in digitized form.

An attempt to read the Iliad using concepts from the ethnography of speaking. this book includes a new definition of... more An attempt to read the Iliad using concepts from the ethnography of speaking. this book includes a new definition of the Homeric formula and of key words (muthos, epos) for performance, as well as extended analyses of Homeric speeches.

The Voice of Achilles: Communication, Self and Spectacle in Homer's Iliad

by James Stratford

The Iliad is the story of Achilles’ journey through anger. Over the epic, Achilles undergoes a continual process of... more The Iliad is the story of Achilles’ journey through anger. Over the epic, Achilles undergoes a continual process of transformation, and as he does, the world changes around him. His anger unleashes the fiery beast of war and creates a spectacle of destruction. However, as Achilles awakens to the immense personal and social cost of his anger, the spectacle begins to transform. In place of rage, compassion and humanity come forth and the fires of war are replaced by the cathartic flames of the hearth and the funeral pyre. In this thesis I chart this journey by analysing Achilles’ communicative acts: his use of speech and action, across the epic. Through examining his communication and the ways in which others communicate with him, subtle but important changes are revealed. These changes in communication reflect the transformation that takes place within Achilles and are instrumental in generating change in the world around him. My interpretation of Achilles’ use of speech draws on insights from contemporary cognitive psychology, especially the work of Martin Seligman. My work on communication is also influenced by a range of contemporary strategic studies theorists who consider a wide range of non-verbal acts that have an important communicative function, including gestural and performative acts of violence. In charting Achilles’ transformation, we also gain a glimpse into the poet’s view of the elemental and personal dynamics that lie behind the creation of war and peace. Whilst a necessary part of the mortal condition, conflict, suffering and death are shown to hold within them the vital forces of change, and to reveal the nature of humanity itself.

Communication and Crisis in Iliad 1

by James Stratford

This is my latest piece and includes some work from my PhD thesis

The Right to Mourn

by Siobhan McElduff

An old draft of a paper abandoned as too problematic.

This paper examines lament in the Iliad as an agonistic genre, where women and men compete with each other for the... more This paper examines lament in the Iliad as an agonistic genre, where women and men compete with each other for the community’s pity and support, reading lament as a site not only for commemoration of the dead but also for female competition. In doing so I draw upon evidence not only from Archaic Greek lament but also from a wide variety of other cultures not often invoked in classical studies, such as Irish and Tamil society, to illustrate the social function of lament both within and outside the epic world.