Homeric Greek Research Articles

Homemric Survivals in the Medíeval and Modern Greek Folksong Tradition?

The basis of comparison between the Homeric poetry and Modern Greek folksong is that in either case we have a body of poetic texts behind which stretches a long tradition of oral composition; they both have existed, roughly, in the same geographical area, including mainland Greece, Asia Minor, the islands of the Aegean and the Ionian Sea, Crete, and Cyprus; and they are cast in cognate language forms. But the two bodies of poetry are separated by a great time distance, though how great it is difficult to determine because whatever we can say about the origins of modern folksongs is hypothetical and uncertain.

Verbal noun as ‘equivalent’ of finite verb in Welsh

AbstractIn the Brythonic languages—in Welsh more commonly than in Cornish and Breton—a construction is encountered in which the verbal noun (a more satisfactory term than ‘infinitive’) performs the function of a finite verb. It that role it does not act eliptically, or ana-phorically, for it can begin a work (an essay, article, letter—not frequently a novel) and there is no possibility of discerning what would fill the alleged ellipsis. Some writers avoid the construction, others favor it, a state of affairs reminiscent of the Latin ‘historical infinitive’.In the Goidelic group of Celtic (Irish, Gaelic, Manx) the same construction also occurs, but more sparsely by far.A similar, but not identical, formation is found in Russian, the so- called ‘actor-infinitive construction,’ but there is usually nothing to express the actor in Celtic occurrences of verbal noun instead of finite verb.Other languages have shown nominal expressions in place of verbal ones, including Homeric Greek, scholastic Latin, certain t...

AHHIYAWANS AND MYCENAEANS – AN ANATOLIAN VIEWPOINT

Summary. Ever since the 1920's, when Emil Forrer claimed to have discovered Homeric Greeks in the Hittite texts, there has been much debate about the identity and location of the Land of Ahhiyawa, to which frequent reference is made in these texts. Although the matter is not yet settled to everyone's satisfaction, an increasing number of scholars have come round to the view that the term Ahhiyawa must have been used in reference to the Mycenaean world, or at least to part of that world. My intention in this paper is to indicate a number of developments that have in recent years taken place in Hittite scholarship, and which lead to a clearer understanding of the relations between the Lands of Hatti and Ahhiyawa. Several of the most important texts relevant to the Ahhiyawa question will be discussed, and conclusions will be drawn from them with regard to the nature and extent of Ahhiyawan enterprise in Anatolia. These texts provide evidence which in my opinion gives compelling (if still circumtantial) support to the Ahhiyawa‐Mycenaean equation. This clearly has substantial implications for Mycenaean as well as Hittite scholarship. If Mycenaean scholars are prepared to entertain the equation, it will be their task to consider the extent to which the Hittite references to Ahhiyawa can be accommodated to a Mycenaean/Aegean context.

Une construction syntaxique négligée dans la langue homérique ?

The starting point of the author's reflections is the doubling of objects - a construction which is widespread in Balkan languages. The origin of this construction, being a well-established subject of linguistic research, has failed to be satisfactorily explained. However, it may be observed that the doubled construction has in Greek a longer tradition than is commonly acknowledged, since in Homer there are some records of a very similar syntactic phenomenon, i.e. the doubling of objects by means of the pronouns μιν, οι and ό. Furthermore, a certain regularity observable in the Homeric construction may suggest that this is a grammatical, and not only stylistic phenomenon. Even though the Modern Greek construction cannot be directly related to that of Homeric Greek, one may suppose that there is an indirect relation between them, which fact must be taken into account in further investigations of the origin of the doubling of objects in Balkan languages.

Un problema de lengua homérica: la desinencia -φι

The author of this paper tries to show the historical evolution of -φι in Mycenaean and Homeric Greek. In spite of the apparently considerable divergence between mic. - pi and hom. -φι, the function of the -φι case in Mycenaean —instr. locat.— is also the primary function of -φι in the Epic language. Moreover, in the language of Homer -φι always functions in a way closer to the dative than to the genitive. The traditionally adduced examples of -φι as a genitive in some passages of the Iliad and the Odyssey can be interpreted otherwise. The evolution of -φι that we can test in the Homeric works, was not a merely artificial one. On the contrary, it bears a close relation with a series of morphophonological developments which took place in the spoken language during the shift from the second to the first millennium B.C. As a result from that, -φι disappears from the normal spoken language very early, but the Homeric bards maintain this archaism for metrical and poetical reasons.

Homeric Greek: A Book for Beginners

Homeric Greek: A Book for Beginners

Homer's Iliad and Pope's Vile Forgery

W HAT IS purpose of a translation ? Should it, as Matthew Arnold contends, reproduce the movement and general effect of its original ? Or should it, in Douglas Knight's words, merely maintain ordered relation to its text ?2 Undoubtedly aims of translation differ from age to age. Vladimir Nabokov, perhaps most extreme advocate of modern servile path, concedes that he forfeits elements of form to achieve total accuracy and completeness of meaning.3 This sacrifice of form would have seemed a pedantic aberration to Pope and his contemporaries. Even Richard Bentley's famous attack on Pope's Homer did not fault it for level of its diction or for its heroic couplets; as Richmond Lattimore observes, Neither Bentley nor Pope would have considered any verse form more appropriate.4 For Augustans, form was a necessary component of meaning. There are, of course, many other differences between twentiethcentury attitude toward translator's role and Augustan viewpoint. While Pope might count on his public for some small familiarity with Homer's Greek, a modern translator can no longer depend on his reader's classical knowledge. The kind of historical scholarship prevalent in last two hundred years has distanced us from Homer; current linguistic theory has made present-day translator skeptical about his ability to capture Homer's Poetical Fire. Pope works within unbroken heroic tradition of Virgil and Milton, certain that nothing less than idiom of Latin and English epics will approximate Homer's Rapture.

Note on the Name of Machaeranthera odysseus

In the recently published article (Syst. Bot. 3(2): 218-225), it was not clear which of two epithets, odyssei or odysseus, was intended to apply to the new species of Machaeranthera described. For several reasons I would like to have the spelling of odysseus accepted as the legitimate one. This epithet is the one which directly precedes the Latin description, and the type sheets have been distributed as Machaeranthera odysseus. Also, according to Dr. D. H. Nicolson, whose interesting lesson in philology is quoted below, odysseus is the better choice, though either epithet could be regarded as correct. . . this epithet is given in honor of Odysseus, the mythic Greek hero of Homer's Odyssey, and is offered in substantive, not adjectival, form. As such it must be genitive, singular, and masculine. Unfortunately, Odysseus (nominative) is not a Latin word, it is only a Latin transcription. The Latin name was Ulixes (or Ulysses), a third declension noun with the genitive Ulixis (or Ulyssis). The various Greek dialects used different genitives and Homer's Epic Greek actually used the genitive O8VO-EVO-; which in Latin transliteration would be Odysseus, the accent (or tone) being different in genitive from the nominative. Hence, M. odysseus is correct if the epithet is regarded as Latin transliteration of the Homeric Greek genitive.

Essays in Mycenaean and Homeric Greek. G. P. Shipp

<i>Essays in Mycenaean and Homeric Greek</i>. G. P. Shipp

Essays in Mycenaean and Homeric Greek

Essays in Mycenaean and Homeric Greek

Nominal and pronominal dual in Tocharian

ion made of the -n-, the form can be compared with a genitive dual ending in another Indo-European language: Homeric Greek -oiin, Arcadian -oiun (cf. Eduard Schwyzer, Griechische Grammatik 1.557 [Munchen, 1939]) must be derived from earlier *-oysun or *-oysu; B -aiswould be the regular reflex of either form.46 The Greek-Tocharian isogloss is highly important, as there is very little to suggest especially close ties between these two languages: *-oysu(n) then has a greater claim to antiquity than the competing form found in Skt. vrkayos or OCS dvoju. The distribution of -oiin in Greek seems to suggest a pronominal origin of the

Essays in Mycenaean and Homeric Greek

Essays in Mycenaean and Homeric Greek

Ἄn With the Future: A Note

The use of with the future indicative (and the corresponding participle and infinitive) is admittedly rare in post-Homeric Greek. In the passages concerned many deny the usage completely and either omit the particle or resort to emendation, or dismiss the construction as a mere ana-colouthon. In an instructive article in the Classical Quarterly, xl (1946), Moorhouse argues in favour of retaining many of the readings, and it is only his interpretation that is in question here. His main thesis is that in Homeric Greek, where the usage is common enough, κ∈ or with the future means either ‘in that case’ (where a condition is stated or implied) or ‘probably’ (where there is no such condition). The latter usage, however, he regards as sometimes assuming a tone of dogmatic certainty (‘ironical meiosis’), and this ‘emphatic future’ came to be the regular and literal meaning of the later idiom, without any irony being involved.

Indo-European Negative Composition

The functional history of the IE negative prefix, the variants of which we conveniently designate by their central form *n-, is an integral part of the history of IE composition. A classification of IE compounds, based on historical rather than logical considerations, would include (1) old types, generally declining during the historical period of IE-bahuvrihis and synthetic compounds (verbale Rektionskomposita), and (2) distinctly younger types-pronominal hypostatics, determinatives, and copulatives. The earliest types available to us in which *nappears are bahuvrihis and (synthetic) verbal adjectives.' A thorough analysis of these types is therefore essential for an adequate comprehension of the nature of *n-. The bahuvrihi type has been variously explained. Whereas in earlier times a mechanical consideration of its semantic contents led to the assumption that it represents a secondary development from the determinatives with added possessive value and conversion to adjectives (e.g. Brugmann, KZ 24.40), more modern theories2 have made unquestionably clear the primitive and primary nature of the type. In the most primitive forms of IE-Vedic, Gathic, Homeric Greek, Gothic-the bahuvrihis are found in their greatest expansion, whereas the tatpurusa type is rare and still largely expressed by uncompounded elements; its gradual extension can be followed in the later stages of the languages.' The synthetic compounds4 form, together with the bahuvrihis, the oldest layer, and seem to have been the most common primitive type. A survey by Risch (IF 59.5) of the Greek material, which has a recognized conservative character, shows that about 60% of all compounds come under the heading of synthetics, 25-30% are bahuvrihis, and the rest are mainly hypostatics, determinatives, and occasional copulatives. The synthetic type comprises variants with the verbal element second (Gk. &Sv, Skt. ayuj, Lat. coniux) and with the verbal element first (Gk. AXKEXLTWV, CXKE-OTleXhos, Skt. viddd-vasu).5 This classification has only lately been recognized. The whole &Svu type was classed with the tatpurusas by the Sanskrit grammarians, which is logically acceptable but historically impossible.

CHAPMAN'S MATERIALS FOR HIS TRANSLATION OF HOMER

OF the materials used by George Chapman for his translation of Homer, the importance of two, Spondanus's edition of Homer and Scapula's Greek Lexicon, was established by Dr. Franck-Louis Schoell in his L'Humanisme continental en Angleterre (Paris, 1926); and Chapman's use of them has been further studied by Prof. H. B. Lathrop in his Translations from the Classics from Caxton to Chapman (Univ. of Wisconsin, 1933) and by Phyllis Brooks Bartlett in an article, 'Chapman's Revisions in his Iliads', in E.L.H. (Baltimore, 1935). His use of three other works is the subject of the present article: these are Valla's Latin prose translation of the Iliad, Eobanus's Latin verse translation, and Calepinus's Latin Dictionary. i. LaurentiusValla, 1407-57, whose patrons were the Medici of Florence, translated Herodotus, Thucydides, and two-thirds of the Iliad, which was completed by Raphael Volaterranus (but Chapman refers to it as 'Valla' even in xvii and xviii, where it is Raphael's work). Repeatedly reprinted in the following century, it was not used for bilingual editions, being too free, but formed a small handy volume by itself. The accepted version for bilingual editions,' printed with some verbal variations in Spondanus and in successive editions of Stephanus, was faithfully literal, but so un-Latin as to be frequently misleading and always disagreeable to read. Valla's translation is free, and sometimes it makes mistakes and shirks difficulties, but it is good Latin prose, as if Homer had been a Roman historian. The idiom of prose history marks even the opening words of the Iliad: the Greek poet says, 'Sing, goddess, of the wrath'; the Latin prose period begins, Scripturus ego quantam .... Now, that Chapman read Valla he himself often declares: in his Commentaries on books xIII, xIv, xv, xvII, and xvIII, and in the Prefaces to the Reader, both verse and prose. But he never commends him. The Commentaries reject individual interpretations, and the Prefaces example him as 'ten times more paraphrastical' than Chapman himself, who was being taxed with circumlocution. We shall get a good notion both of Valla's style and of Chapman's strictures if we examine the passage in the prose Preface. (The relevant lines are III. 422-30.)z Schoell, op. cit., says the author of this was Andreas Divus. But the British Museum copies of Divus, dated 1537 and 1538, differ much from Spondanus, and often for the better; they are, it is true, revised editions. 2 All references are to Chapman's lines, not Homer's, unless the contrary is stated. 4690.6 9

The Greek Aspirated Perfect

.aKa4/a : perf. a9tKaca might lead to P iXcaa beside 9PXata. The reason why this theory alone cannot account for the facts is that all the assumed inducing forms are ambiguous. The first element of Gk. 41 is a part of the phoneme 4 as well as a part of the phoneme r, and therefore arKac/a must have been interpreted as containing the stem TKaWas long as this stem was clearly preserved in numerous related forms. Osthoff discovered a part of the machinery by which the aspirated perfects spread; but he did not point out the necessary models in which an aspirate in the perfect came to stand beside an unambiguous non-aspirate in related forms. A further weakness of Osthoff's treatment was that he did not take into account the remarkable distribution of the aspirated perfects in Homeric Greek. This had already been pointed out and Osthoff duly mentioned it; but, since it did not fit into his explanation, he simply disregarded it. In Homer the aspirated perfect is confined to third

Homeric Greek: A Book for Beginners - Homeric Greek: A Book for Beginners. By Clyde Pharr, Ph.D. (Yale), Professor of Greek in South-Western Presbyterian University. One vol. Octavo. Pp. xlii + 391. Two maps, ten plates, and numerous woodcuts. Boston, New York, Chicago: D. C. Heath and Co.; London: G. G. Harrap and Co. 8s. 6d. net.

Homeric Greek: A Book for Beginners - Homeric Greek: A Book for Beginners. By Clyde Pharr, Ph.D. (Yale), Professor of Greek in South-Western Presbyterian University. One vol. Octavo. Pp. xlii + 391. Two maps, ten plates, and numerous woodcuts. Boston, New York, Chicago: D. C. Heath and Co.; London: G. G. Harrap and Co. 8s. 6d. net. - Volume 36 Issue 1-2

Homeric Greek: A Book for Beginners

Homeric Greek: A Book for Beginners