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Category: Ancient Greek
Are Greek and Latin roots the only atomic words we know so far from which we can build all the compounded words?
I think what you mean, OP, is: are Graeco-Latin stems the only stems from which compound words can be formed in English. The answer is of course no: there are plenty of compounds in English based on indigenous Germanic words, and there were all the way back to Old English. Statecraft. Breastfeed. Windmill. There was […]
Why have you learned Latin, Ancient Greek or Sanskrit? What aspects of those languages are you fascinated by?
Latin: Opportunity. My uncle’s and aunt’s old Latin textbooks were in my grandfather’s storehouse, and I discovered them when I was 10 (1981). Thinking back, that’s where my love of language started. I read through the grammar, and then went to work translating Cornelius Nepos. I loved the intricacies of the grammar, I guess, but […]
Why are all Harpies female?
Looked up the Pauly at Wikisource (Paulys Realencyclopädie der classischen Altertumswissenschaft); alas, that page has not been digitised. Looked up the Roscher dictionary (Ausführliches Lexikon der griechischen und römischen Mythologie – Wikipedia), 1884. After noting the frequent conflation of sirens and harpies, it mentions “The meaning of harpies in nature is clear enough: they are […]
What does this mean in Ancient Greek?
All hail Steve Theodore’s answer, which is exemplary. OP has been kind enough to provide the original in https://www.quora.com/What-does-…. It is from a modern textbook: Ἐγώ εἰμι Ἑλληνικὸν παιδίον καὶ οἰκῶ ἐν ἀγροῖς. Ἐν τοῖς ἀγροῖς ὁ Φίλιππος γεωργός ἐστιν: αὐτὸς γεωργεῖ καὶ ἔχει χωρίον. Ἆρ΄ ἐροτᾷς τίς μὲν εγώ, τίς δ΄ ὁ Φίλιππος; What […]
What was the status of black people in the Roman Empire?
I would like to take the opportunity afforded by this question, to translate the epigraph to Ptolemy’s Geography, which is included in the new edition. It might be Byzantine rather than Roman, but for these purposes, Byzantine can serve for Roman. And it illustrates that Romans looked down on all foreigners, not just ones with […]
What is the origin of “Thermodon”, the river near which the mythological Amazons lived?
Well, there was also a Thermodon river in Boeotia, mentioned by Herodotus (Thermodon – Brill Reference). So it was a real river name, both in Boeotia and in Asia Minor: Terme River. This commentary on Lysias A Commentary on Lysias, Speeches 1-11 speculates that Therm-odon was picked as the location for the Amazons because Aristotle […]
What kind of ancient Greek dialect is usually learnt?
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E1%BC%80%CE%BA%CE%BF%CF%8D%CF%89#Ancient_Greek In refutation of Jose Pineda: You need Old Ionic (Epic) to understand Homer, and all of Greek literature is suffused with Homer. You need Ionic for Herodotus and Hippocrates, and the authors imitating them (more of them for Hippocrates, for Herodotus just Lucian in one work). You need Doric for the choruses of the […]
Ancient Greek: What pronunciation scheme do you use for 5th-4th century B.C.E. writings? Modern, reconstruction with pitch, Erasmian, etc. and why?
Ah, I see this is the question where all the cool people hang out! Νικόλαος Στεφάνῳ, Δημήτρᾳ, Μιχαήλ, Ἰωακείμ, Βενιαμείν, Ῥοβέρτῳ τε ἐρωτήσαντι, εὗ πράττειν. Related question, with rationales: What are the pros and cons of the Erasmian pronunciation? When I am on my own, I actually mutter Ancient Greek aloud to myself, to try […]
Are there really 10 times as many ancient texts written in Ancient Greek as there are ancient texts written in Latin?
It’s kinda true; I’ve certainly seen the number cited multiple times—it was the guess around 1900, for scholars saying there was no point even attempting a dictionary of all of Greek, to rival the Thesaurus Linguae Latinae. I work at the Thesaurus Linguae Graecae, although it is not a dictionary per se, but an online […]
What is the meaning of the Greek word ‘atomos’?
Indivisible; literally, uncut. From the verb temnō, to cut; cf. tomē, a cut. Answered 2016-05-14 [Originally posted on http://quora.com/What-is-the-meaning-of-the-Greek-word-atomos/answer/Nick-Nicholas-5]