ClassicsTober 2021

A new trend in #classicstwitter is the suggestion artists into classics do items from this list inspired by the #inktober concept. 

It seems to me many of these items could be useful for word studies or class discussion topics ? 

Share the list ! 

Hieros Versus Hagios

There are various words to express the concept of something or one being holy blessed or divine in Greek. 

The two most people recall easily are adjectives derived  Hiero- or  Hagi- along with related verbs and nouns.

I was actually looking for which words Greek Classical or Koine  uses for "temple" and while looking at the usage of hieron for temple once again pondered on its New Testament usage. 

While both words are used hieron frequently means not just any temple but the one at Jerusalem with naos used for jewish n greek shrines and holy is more often hagios or hagia.

Part of the reason for hagios being a preferred usage seems to be its meaning holy and also often pure ? 

A Temple in Greek is usually a  Hieron holy thing or a Naos a dwelling place for a god separated from the mundane by a Temenos.

However other beings persons and places can be holy. 

One notes the Holy Spirit is Hagia not Hiera but yet the Jerusalem Temple is Hieron and not Hagios.

I think another factor may be Hieros was seen as being  more formal and literary than Hagios. 

Plus the need to stress while there were many temples and shrines - naos there was only one Temple at Jerusalem.

Being hagios - holy for early Christians was not simply a privilege associated with temples and the Jerusalem elite. It was something you didnt have to go to Jerusalem to experience and acquire. Othere things a d places a d actions could be hallowed - hagizoo the verb  from the hag root.

Anyway those are my opinions and thoughts on that subject. 

Hopefully they are of som ed use to you? 

The Unexamined Life - a Worksheet

Here's an example of the word sheets I post in the Hellenika tier of my Metousia patreon. 

For a $1 pledge  you can get posts dating back over several months and yes I do post some freebies ! 

The Unexamined Life

A quote from Socrates

From the Apology 38A

ὁ ἀνεξέταστος βίος οὐ βιωτὸς ἀνθρώπῳ

Exercise –

Parse and translate each word.

Think about how they work together to create meaning.

Break ἀνεξέταστος into its morphs.

Which part is a prefix? Which a suffix. Which the radical?

Have you read The Apology?

What do you think Socrates meant?

Why is this statement so often quoted by others?

What personal insights has studying Greek and reading Plato helped you obtain?

BYZANTINE PSALTER

Just a reminder that Psalters were not just produced in Western Europe. 

Here is a Byzantine Greek manuscript. 

 

P>I>E> S to GREEK H

 

S TO H

You may have noticed some words that start with S or K or other sounds in other IndoEuropean languages start with an aspirate vowel in Classical Greek.

ἁ ἑ ἱ ἡ ὁ ὑ

Here's a list of words scholars believe started with an initial sibilant in PIE with cognates as proof:

ἅλς Salt or sea PIE seh2ls Sanskrit sara salila Latvian sals Latin sal Old English sealt

ἑλίκη Willow PIE sVlVh Welsh helyg Latin salix Irish saileog Old Englsih sealh > sallow Gaelic seileach

ἕλος marsh PIE selos Sanskrit saras

ἑνος when it means last or former may be a cognate of Latin senex old Irish sen Welsh hen Sanskrit sanas PIE senos

ἡ the Sanskrit sa Gothic sa or so

ἡδυ ἡδονη PIE sweh2dus ProtoHellenic hwadus Sanskrit svadu Latin suavis Old Englsih swete

ἥλιος from *hawelios from PIE *soh2wl sun Baltic Saule Gaelic suil Latin sol Welsh Haul

ὓπνος Gaelic suain Welsh hun Latoin Somnos Sopr Old English swefan Sanskrit svapnas

ὗς pig swine sow PIE suh Latin sus Sanskrit sukara Hindi suar Irish soc

ῶν is a contraction of – οντος *hnt honts Note Hittite asha-a-an-za ashanza if PIE is * sont

Sanskrit has sat reality being.

This does not mean All words with an initial aspirate were originally Initial – S. Some of them originally started with a “W” or or other sound.

A pdf of this will be posted to my metousia patreon. 

Ancestral S

 ANCESTRAL S -  YES S

This form from the #Egyptian #hieratic cursive #script is the ancestor or one of a small group of letter forms that were borrowed into ProtoSinatic and then Phoenician and Greek.

YES THIS IS AN S well part of  a word with an initial sibilant sound.

The first sibilant symbols keep shifting from representing s to sh and became /S/ in Greek which had no "SH" sibilant whereas Afro-Asiaitic languages like Middle Egyptian Punic and Hebrew had at least 2 and sometimes more. Then someone changed this is a zigzag shape which got rotated probably so its could not be confused with some forms of m or n and we have S our simple elegant modern S which by the way probably has nothing to do with Snakes or Serpents. 

More on this and how it became sigma  next time! 

Before Loebs - An Early Bilingual Iliad

 BEFORE there were #loebs thee were #bilingual texts of #homer. This is a #Renaissance manuscript of #Homer 's #Iliad with Greek facing Latin .

Note the different style of ornamentation and the way the page layout uses columns and architectural details rather than interlaced floral patterns.