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Category: Ancient Greek
Why do the spellings of ancient Roman and Greek names differ in English than in other languages?
Partly, source morphology. Partly, mediation via Latin. Partly, particularity of English. Remember first that Classical names in English came in via Latin most of the time. Hence Plato rather than Platon, and Hercules for Heracles. Second, not all final -ns are the same. So there’s no contradiction about Latin keeping the final -n in Xenophon […]
How come the concept of ‘homosexuality’ was not known in Ancient Greece (if it was in the Bible itself)?
Paul refers to ἀρσενοκοίτης, “sleeping with men”, which is an expression for the concept of homosexuality. Predating the modern term homosexuality. And indeed, which might well be rendered as “homosexuality”, even though it was not the word that Ancient Greeks used. There is a contrary opinion that it refers specifically to temple prostitution in Leviticus; […]
Why were there (apparently) more homosexual men in Ancient Greece than today?
In traditional Modern Greek society, there was a stigmatised group of gay men: poustides. In traditional Ancient Greek society, there was a stigmatised group of gay men: kinaidoi. The stigma in antiquity was more about being a bottom (i.e. about power) than about having sex with males per se. What was not stigmatised was homosexual […]
Why is the Ancient Greek verb ὀράω so horribly irregular?
https://www.quora.com/How-irregular-is-Ancient-Greek/answer/Joachim-Pense/comment/19063952: The question comes from an exchange Joachim Pense and I had about irregular verbs. My argument to him was that, if you know something about the history of Greek phonology, and factor in suppletion, the verbs do at least start to make some sense. Warning: if you don’t already know Ancient Greek, don’t bother […]
What does ‘hydra-headed evils’ mean and from where does it originate?
The reference is to the Lernaean Hydra, a legendary monster in Greek Mythology that Hercules killed. The Hydra was a snake-like monster with many heads; and if you cut off one head, two more would grow in its place. As Nikos Tsiforos‘ humorous retelling of Greek Mythology put it, Hercules’ reaction when he observed this […]
Did the era of the ancient Greeks happened before the flood or during the biblical period and how long did their time last?
Without getting into the issue of how much of Genesis is historical and how much is wishful thinking: The Babylonian captivity, which can be independently verified from archaeology, was 580 to 530 BC. That’s when the Hebrew Scriptures as we know them were consolidated. Omri is the first independently verified King of Israel, and he […]
Can someone identify a particular Ancient Greek word in this text by Strabo?
http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0239%3Abook%3D2%3Achapter%3D4%3Asection%3D1 Nothing to add to my esteemed colleagues, Lyonel. “Like a marine lung” is what it literally says; and the different relevant senses of “lung” (πλεύμων) that apply here, from Liddell-Scott, are: lungs sea-lungs = jelly fish The “jelly fish” meaning of πλεύμων is attributed to Plato, Aristotle, Theophrastus, and—surprise—Pytheas, as cited in Polybius. i.e. […]
How irregular is Ancient Greek?
You say irregular, I say older regularities that have fallen out of fashion. For example, the second aorist corresponds directly to English strong verbs—they’re both Ablaut. Ablaut used to be the regular way of making past tenses; then suffixing took over. But yes, there’s a lot of those older unfashionable regularities as cruft in the […]
What is Yahweh’s name (Hebrew) translated into Ancient Greek?
There was a taboo on saying YHWH out loud in Hebrew, and that extended to other languages; so yes, the Septuagint rendered YHWH as Kyrios, the Lord, just as Jehovah (when Christians rediscovered YHWH) comes from YHWH with the vowels of Adonai. Now, Jehovah has come into Modern Greek as Ιεχωβάς, /iexovas/. Jehovah’s Witnesses, for […]
Did Hebrew influence Ancient Greek?
Thx4A2A, Dimitra. The mainstream of Greek was not influenced substantially by Hebrew. The Hebrews were just another barbaric tribe in Classical times, as far as the Greeks were concerned, and not a terribly important one. Greek did get some words from Persian (the word for “chore”, αγγαρεία, is still used); but the Persians had an […]