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Category: Mediaeval Greek
How did Byzantine Greeks regard ancient Greek civilization?
As a complement to Dimitra Triantafyllidou’s answer and Niko Vasileas’ answer: There was an undercurrent of resentment of the ancients and their pagan wisdom, but it remained an undercurrent. There’s the renowned hymn on the Pentecost by Romanos the Melodist, dismissing ancient learning with puns on the pagan scholars—and alas, a favourite of the Greek […]
What is the word for the thief in the every day language of your country and in the New Testament?
Ancient Greek made a distinction between thieves and robbers: kleptēs vs lēistēs or harpax. Both kleptēs and lēistēs are used in the New Testament; the men crucified with Jesus were lēistai. The Modern Greek vernacular had lost the word lēistēs, and had kept the word kleptēs (as kleftis) to refer to both thieves and robbers. […]
Why did you think the Greek population disappeared so completely from Anatolia after the Ottoman conquest?
To clarify what this question is likely talking about: We know that there was a continuous Greek presence in Thrace up to Constantinople, the Pontus (Black Sea), and Cappadocia, after the arrival of the Ottomans. We know that there was a substantial Greek population in Western Asia Minor in the 19th century, which is linguistically […]
In Christian historical movies, why aren’t the Romans speaking in Greek instead of Latin?
Because lots of Westerners know Latin (or at least know about Latin), relatively few Westerners know Ancient Greek, and Latin is the language Westerners associate with the Roman Empire. Having Greek spoken in a movie would really just confuse people, who’d expect the Romans in Palestine to be speaking Latin. That, and the logistics of […]
How did the world’s major countries all conform to using first and last names from an early era?
Surname – Wikipedia Surnames seems to have been invented independentishly in Europe at a similar time: they were reintroduced after the Roman three-way names fell out of use in the West. From Wikipedia, I see it’s a messy web of transmission. Wikipedia suggests (not very loudly) that the Modern Western notion of surnames was transmitted […]
In “whosoever looks upon a woman to lust after her,” might that ‘to’ indicate a purpose clause?
To corroborate John Simpson’s answer to In “whosoever looks upon a woman to lust after her,” might that ‘to’ indicate a purpose clause?: The Greek literally says Ἐγὼ δὲ λέγω ὑμῖν ὅτι πᾶς ὁ βλέπων γυναῖκα πρὸς τὸ ἐπιθυμῆσαι αὐτῆς, ἤδη ἐμοίχευσεν αὐτὴν ἐν τῇ καρδίᾳ αὑτοῦ, “towards the desiring of her”. That “towards” is […]
The Death of Twyborn
Digenes Akritas was a hero of mediaeval Acritic songs, ballads celebrating the deeds of border guards of the Byzantine Empire. The hero survived into Modern Greek folk song, and The Death of Digenis is a song that got a lot of renown. I cited its depiction of the Grim Reaper at https://necrologue.quora.com/Som… , since I’ve […]
What are all the Greek star names?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Arabic_star_names Drawing on: History of Constellation and Star Names In Greek astronomy the stars within the constellation figures were usually not given individual names. (There are only a few individual star names from Greece. The most prominent stars in the sky were usually nameless in Greek civilization. If there was a system of Greek star […]
What were the last years of the Byzantine Empire like in Constantinople?
Stop reading this, and go upvote Michael Pothoven’s answer to What were the last years of the Byzantine Empire like in Constantinople? I MEAN IT. I’ll wait. One of the conundrums of early Ottoman Constantinople is that there were many churches that were left alone after the Conquest, and not converted into mosques. The norm […]
Why are miaphysite/ old Oriental churches called Orthodox when they are not Orthodox and not related to (Eastern) Orthodoxy?
Well, OP, at least you’re not calling them Monophysites. 🙂 The Greek Wikipedia, and as far as I can tell the Greek Orthodox Church, refers to Oriental Orthodoxy as Pre-Chalcedonian Orthodoxy (Προχαλκηδόνιες Εκκλησίες – Βικιπαίδεια). Of course, a church who thought Chalcedon got it wrong is not going to call itself that. Orthodoxy – Wikipedia […]