Category: Poetry
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HAIKU in Linear B: Spices from the boughs of the terebinth… for whom, I wonder?
HAIKU in Linear B: Spices from the boughs of the terebinth... Click to ENLARGE
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Photo of the Labrys or double Axe Fresco at Mycenae I took in May 2012 & description of the same by Sir Athur Evans in Scripta Minoa
Photo of the Labrys or double Axe Fresco at Mycenae I took in May 2012 & description of the same by Sir Athur Evans in Scripta Minoa: Click to ENLARGE:
The Labrys or Double Axe was common to both Mycenae and Knossos, and indeed there is a large room of the Double Axes which I saw when I was there in May 2012.
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The text of this entry in Scripta Minoa is really fascinating. This statement in particular caught my eye.
The diameter of this huge labrys (double axe) is √7 MC (1.20 m.). the √7 and especially √7-1, have been used in the geometry of many ancient monuments (see, for example, the geometry of the Parthenon and Stonehenge.)
Richard
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2 impressive photos of the entrance to the famous Treasury of Atreus at Mycenae I took in May 2012
2 impressive photos of the entrance to the famous Treasury of Atreus at Mycenae I took in May 2012: Click to ENLARGE:
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Richard
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2 photos of goddesses & pottery in the museum at Mycenae I took in May 2012
2 photos of goddesses & pottery in the museum at Mycenae I took in May 2012: Click to ENLARGE: These are of the Mycenaean Earth goddess, possibly also called Pipituna, and possibly equivalent to Erinu = Erinys mentioned in Knossos fragment KN 390J f 21, ERINU, the Avenging Deity:
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Mycenaean pottery, pitchers and bowls
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Composite of the Ancient Palace of Knossos (ca. 1450 BCE)
Composite of the Ancient Palace of Knossos (ca. 1450 BCE) Click to ENLARGE:
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Haiku, The Sea! The Sea! in Linear B, ancient Greek, English & French …which I am sure you will love
Haiku, The Sea! The Sea in Linear B, ancient Greek, English & French ...which I am sure you will love (Click to ENLARGE):
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The Ancient Minoan Culture (DNA reveals their Origin)
This article, which Rita Roberts has posted on her blog, is of CRITICAL importance in determining the background of these mysterious folk and the origins of their language and its script, Linear A.
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One Brave Soul’s Courageous Attempt to Transcribe some of the Proemium of the Iliad into Mycenaean Linear B
One Brave Soul’s Courageous Attempt to Transcribe some of the Proemium of the Iliad into Mycenaean Linear B (Click to ENLARGE):
Now I must admit that when I ran across this wonderful exercise some brave soul recently undertook to try to translate at least some of the Proemium of the first book of Homer’s Iliad into Mycenaean Linear B, I was delightfully rewarded by the person’s true grasp of the manifold difficulties (some of them well-nigh insurmountable, or so it would appear) in any such hazard-fraught attempt! But as I have so often said before on our blog, someone has got to do it first. And my congratulations to this person! I would be delighted if you would identify yourself to us all.
Eventually, we will be attempting the same zany exercise, not only with the Proemium (Introduction) to Book I of the Iliad, but for certain portions of the famous Catalogue of Ships in Book II, which will more easily lend themselves to translation from Homeric Greek to Linear B text, since the Homeric Greek in the Catalogue of Ships in Book II of the Iliad is the most archaic Greek in the entire Iliad. And the reasons why we shall insist on translating certain key passages in the Catalogue of Ships will become abundantly clear when we eventually get around to said translations. But don’t hold your breath. That will not happen until sometime in 2015, since I must first translate the entire Catalogue of Ships (viz. Lines 489-784 of Book II of the Iliad) this year, before we can even begin to think about taking that next bold step.
In the meantime, I invite you to enjoy our friend’s translation as we do.
Richard
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End of our Translation of the Introduction to Book II of the Iliad: lines 109-130
End of our Translation of the Introduction to Book II of the Iliad: lines 109-130 Click to ENLARGE:
As I promised in my last post, I would draw to a definite conclusion my translation of the Introduction to Book II of the Iliad, arbitrarily cutting the whole thing off at line 130, since after this point Agamemnon, after his usual fashion, flies off into a fit (even worse than this one!), lamenting in self-pity that Almighty Zeus would have dared pull such a stunt on him, and not allow to the Archeans to sack Troy, but to have to turn around and sail back home with their tails between their legs, something no man as arrogant and pig-headed as Agamemnon would ever accept. When we next return to our translation of The Catalogue of Ships, starting with line 484, everything is hunkey-dorey again, since Agamemnon has finally (finally!... was there ever any question he would not!) got his way, and he is mustering all the companies of ships of all his kings in fealty from every country state in Greece, and is hell-bent & determined to get his way, and sack the city of Troy.... which everyone knows that is precisely what he will do, even poor old blow-hard Zeus, who can do nothing about it anymore.
I shall focus specifically on the extreme importance of translating the Catalogue of Ships (lines 484-789), which is considered to be written in the most archaic Greek of all the Iliad over and above all of the rest of the Iliad, even the rest of Book II,. But enough of that for now.
Richard
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Homer: Iliad: Book II: The Catalogue of Ships (continued) – Introduction: Lines 76-108
Homer: Iliad: Book II: The Catalogue of Ships (continued) – Introduction: Lines 76-108 (Click to ENLARGE):
With this post, we continue our translation of the Introduction to Book II of Homer’s Iliad, which contains the famous Catalogue of Ships (lines 484-779). You can find the Introductory texts to Book II of the Iliad in sequence by clicking on the Heading, “Iliad: Book II” at the top of our home page, right under the title, Linear B, Knossos & Mycenae. I have so far translated lines 1-108 of the Introduction, and I shall soon post lines 109-130, which will bring my translation of the Introduction to Book II of the Iliad to an end.
I have translated the Introduction specifically to provide the setting for the translation of the entire Catalogue of Ships (lines 484-779). which is much more germane to our purposes, given that the a good deal of the grammar and vocabulary of Catalogue of Ships (lines 484-779) can be seen to have been either directly or indirectly derived from the much earlier Mycenaean Greek grammar and vocabulary in Linear B, and from that of Arcado-Cypriot Linear C, the closest cousin of the East Greek dialects to Mycenaean Greek. I shall shortly post (what I consider to be) the remainder of the Introduction to Book II of the Iliad, that is, lines 109-130, after which I will jump straightaway to the Catalogue of ships, starting at line 484 of Book II, and proceeding all the way to the end of the Catalogue of Ships (line 779). I expect this translation to take up the rest of 2014 and the better part of 2015.
IT IS WELL-NIGH IMPOSSIBLE TO RECONSTRUCT MYCENAEAN GREEK GRAMMAR AND VOCABULARY IN LINEAR B WITHOUT RECOURSE TO BOTH THE CATALOGUE OF SHIPS IN BOOK II OF THE ILIAD, AND TO THE FAMOUS “IDALION” TABLET IN ARCADO-CYPRIOT LINEAR C, both of which I intend to translate by early 2016 at the latest, all things being equal.
Richard
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A blazing hot summer haiku in Linear B: The golden lion, Potnia Mistress of the Wild and…
A blazing hot summer haiku in Linear B: The golden lion, Potnia Mistress of the Wild and... (Click to ENLARGE):
I think this ferocity of this haiku speaks for itself. But who dies, the hunter or the lion? And does Potnia Therion, The Mistress of the Wild Beasts, really care that much who does, any more than any of the other great gods of Olympus were to care in later centuries about humans and their paltry world? She holds two snakes. Death can go either way.
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Comparison between 5 words in Mycenaean Linear B & Arcado-Cypriot Linear C, using the 22 syllabograms we have seen so far
Comparison between 5 words in Mycenaean Linear B & Arcado-Cypriot Linear C, using the 22 syllabograms we have seen so far: Click to ENLARGE:
For your entertainment and, if you like, instruction, here is a table of 5 words in the Mycenaean Greek dialect in Linear B and the same words in its closest cousin, Arcado-Cypirot in Linear C. As you can see from these examples, the syllabograms for DA or TA (there is no DA series in Linear C), PA, NA & TO look similar in each of the syllabaries. These 5 words also serve to illustrate that Linear B & C words (vocabulary) are very similar, and in many instances, precisely the same.
Enjoy! Richard
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