Artemis and Archery

#Artemis and #Archery
some thoughts on the depiction of Artemis as an Archeress
The #greek #goddess NOT the fictional DC comics Amazon!

Many of you may have seen statues of Artemis wearing a short tunic with a hunting hound or deer by her side and presumed the images were Classical Greek art when they were actually Roman Dianas or Hellenistic works.

However the oldest known images of Artemis generally show her in her aspect as Potnia Theron Mistress of Animals like this Corinthian vessel from about 640 BCE

Artemis begins to be shown as an Archeress in the late Archaic and Classical period on vessels like these:

Artemis with her brother Apollo

Artemis firing her bow

Notice that she's shown wearing long robes not the sleeveless huntsman tunic of later art and NO ARM GUARD or Bracer.

With the Scythian Archers patrolling the streets of Athens artists must have been aware there were other styles of archery and bow shapes. Or were they?

I am wondering perhaps if a partial inspiration of this was some unknown ritual involving priestesses shooting a bow since as far as we know even upper class aristocratic women did not practise archery as a sport or hunt even in Sparta?

Another possibility is that potters and painters of pottery simply didn't get out of the studio often and observe actual archers?

Or being aware of Persian archers they were trying to make Artemis look as Greek as possible?

Islamophobia and Mercy

#mercy #islamophobia #aussievalues #christiannation #gospel #whatjesussaid #bible study

I'm getting very tired of seeing people claiming they're defending "Aussie Values" and acting like bigotry is a value and virtue rather than a vice.

So a few reminders

Jesus started life as a refugee with his parents moving to Egypt to get away from a ruler who was paranoid and megalomaniac slaughtering children.

Jesus reached out to and healed  people who were not Jewish, including Romans, Greeks, Syrians, and others.

Jesus preached about the Good Samaritan who didn't stop to do background security checks on the wounded person by the side of the road but helped him get to a safer location where he could receive medical attention.

Finally tying this back to the classics remember the ancient greek tradition of XENIA hospitality to strangers.

MERCY is a VIRTUE

In the Gospel of Matthew Chapter 20  verses 29 - 34 Jesus stops when two blind men sitting by the roadside cried out HAVE MERCY ON US
The crowd  okhlos rebuked them and tried to silence them but they continued to call for help HAVE MERCY ELEEESON

Notice jesus doesnt just bless them and go on his way he asks them

ti thelete poieesoo humin
what do you want me to do for you ?

Jesus showed mercy by healing them

He didn't post xenophobic rants on Twitter or other social media.

Okay you say I'm sitting on a laptop balanced on my knees posting to a blog.

Teaching however is also a form of ministry and a gift according to Paul.

You don't have to fly over to Syria and volunteer as an aid worker or medical staff and its okay if you don't have much money for donations but at least remind all the xenophobes and haters out there that if Australia is a "Christian nation" then we have to support not just Justice by fighting against ISIS but  also MERCY via practical actions.

Calling on bans on migration is not going to stop ISIS or terrorist actions.

Expressing Mercy by letting in more refugees is or should be an "Aussie value"

ELEEESON HAVE MERCY

on a technical note the 3 eees I typed represent a short e followed by a long vowel which has become I in modern greek.

Linear B place names Map

A useful map I found the other day while doing a random search of the WWW
#linearb #map #mycenaeangreece

Note to the copyright holder I don't have a link for the original source or contact details for you. Thank you for this great map. Hope its okay to share for educational purposes?

Contact me so I can add details or add a link in the comments!

THE WEIRDNESS OF WHITE

#white #color #colour #adjectives #classicalgreek

Have you ever considered just how strange color adjectives and names are in Classical Greek?

You can say WHITE as one word but not the concept of WHITENESS.

Also the adjectives describing pale grays and grays contrast with adjectives that describe things that are black or dark as murky dense dim obscure smoky.

Consider Leukos and Argos they often get used in contexts that impliy the white object is shiny or luminous or bright and Polios a common word for Gray implies a very pale gray fading to white like aging hair.

The words for black are Melas Melainos Kelainos Mauros and less common Aithaloeis and skia and skotos when used to describe something being dark seem to imply a contrast of a lessening or lack of lightand limiting of power  to light and strength shining with power and beauty.

Further proof of this ?

Leukos used to refer to chalk cliffs.

Arg+ being the stem of SILVER ARGURA the white metal.

When the ancient writers use color words they are often talking more about contrast in tones than what we would call hue or tint or shades.

Some complain English has too large a vocabulary but much as i love Greek it is a paucity of color adjectives compared to English but fortunately their use of creative metaphor and simile often leads us to not notice this.

Servants Among You

Servants Among You
Matthew 20:25-28

#biblestudy #whatjesussaid #greeknewtestament

What Church leadership should be! Servants to all ?


Verse 25 and the Jesus summoning them said

You know that the rulers of the nations lord over them and the great have power over them

Verse 26

NOt so will it be in in you plural
(changed to among in English in the sense of being IN a group)
but whoever wants among you great to become will for you servant
diakonos can refer to a free or slave servant attendant or minister and the word implies someone who stirs up dust being busy for you  dia + koneoo )

Verse 27

and whoever wishes among you to be first will be for you slave!

diakonos and doulos alike serve others

Verse 28 even as the son of man not came to be served but to serve and to give the soul / life of him (as) ransom instead / for many.

Anti here ... remember how the greeks romans and jews measure coinage not just by counting but also balancing weighing and assessing coins. One gold coin would be worth many silver or copper!

Real leadership is having and taking responsibility for others not just having orders but service!

Greek Spring

Double Metousia Today to make up for the lack of a mid week post!

Spring in Greek is

ἔαρ

which yes is a cognate of

Latin VER

Greek Autumn

#autumn #classicalgreek #greek #season 

AUTUMN

in Greek is

ὀπώρα

the fruit time from the rising of Sirius

to Arcturus a season also of rain

It is also called μετόπωρα and

φθινόπωρον

Orderly Ordinals

#ordinals #greeknumerals #greekgrammar #numerals #greek

First and Last and ORDINALS

Chapter 20 has quite a few so a list of the

Greek Ordinal Numeral Adjectives should be useful.

Words featuring in Chapter 20 of Matthew are highlighted in BOLD RED.

FIRST. πρῶτος SECOND. δεύτερος THIRD. τρίτος

FOURTH. τέταρτος FIFTH. πέμπτος SIXTH. ἕκτος

SEVENTH. ἕβδομος EIGHTH. ὄγδοος NINTH. ἔνατος

TENTH. δέκατος Eleventh ἑνδέκατος

Lastly ἔσχατος always has the final word !

Ancient S.T.E.A.M. Arts in the Classroom

Here's an image that proves ancient schools did include MUSIC and the ARTS in their Curriculum. Note that the instrument shown has SEVEN strings and there also appears to be two cymbals on the wall.

For those who could afford classes or private tutors though in some polises basic literacy and some other courses were sponsored by the state the curriculum seems to have been basic arithmetic and some geometry, reading, music, dance, reciting Homer and some of the lyric poets, and then, more geometry and music and perhaps rhetoric and law.

Note that what we would call visual arts were taught by apprenticeship and there were no universities. The equivalent of tertiary educations was largely public.

Whether or not there were scholarships for the gifted is not known.
I suspect young men from families that could not afford tutors probably hung around the rare public free lecture taking notes and hoping to get the attention of teachers.

As for girls basic literacy seems to have been limited to the upper classes and wealthy and probably also extended to singing and dance training for public choirs and rituals.

so we are lucky to be able to have discussions about STEM  versus STEAM and how much science and technology should be in the curriculum.

Support public schools not private academies or home schooling !

One thing we can certainly do better than the greeks is to NOT limit education to the wealthy!

RHINOS ARE N-LESS !!!

I've been on a break due to adjusting to a new inhaler with a different dosage level for a chest / sinus problem so some grammar revision

#greek #greekgrammar #classical greek #rhis #rhino #nose #nasals

RHINOS ARE N-LESS !!!

in Greek anyway

Greek has an interesting relationship with nasals especially at the end of words or next to a S.

Instead of fusing with another sound unless its an M or G or creating a nasalized vowel in a medial orfinal position as in some IndoEuropean languages the N disappears before a S.

This feature makes accusatives easy to spot and is responsible for all the many forms of πᾶς: πᾶσα, πᾶσι, πᾶν, πᾶντα and more.

It is also why RHINO- “ ῥῑς “Nose is classified in traditional grammars like Goodwins as having a Liquid stem.

This means the inflection of ῥῑς varies from case to case to avoid placing a nasal next to a S.

So The Noun for Nose with its stem of ῥῑν- has this pattern

Singular

N. ῥῑς A. ῥῖνα G. ῥῑνός D. ῥῑνί

Plural

N. ῥῖνες A. ῥῖνας G. ῥῑνῶν D. ῥῑσί

I will try to schedule extra posts later this week to make up for the hiatus!