I was in the National Archeological Museum in Athens a couple of days ago, and
the English-language description under one of the early exhibits used the word
“ithyphallic,” which was new to me. It is of course no longer 1990 with the
associated need to make a written note of the word and consult a paper dictionary when such a difficulty comes up, and I learned fairly quickly that it means “having an erect penis.” [...]
If anyone is going to Athens, be aware there is a significant street drug problem. If you are bringing children check with the hotel about what streets to avoid, if you prefer not to have to explain what this man sitting on the ground with a needle and a syringe sticking into his arm is doing.
Another one that stuck for me was “metic”, “resident foreigner in a Greek city state,” apparently not related to meticulous.
On 19/09/2024 06:59, Aidan Kehoe wrote:
Another one that stuck for me was "metic", "resident foreigner in a
Greek city state," apparently not related to meticulous.
Try 'hermetic' as a related concept. A 'foreigner' in ancient Greek was someone from another city state, even if that was a city in Greece.
'Greece' did not become an entity until much later.
occam <[email protected]> wrote:
On 19/09/2024 06:59, Aidan Kehoe wrote:
Another one that stuck for me was "metic", "resident foreigner in a
Greek city state," apparently not related to meticulous.
Try 'hermetic' as a related concept. A 'foreigner' in ancient Greek was someone from another city state, even if that was a city in Greece. 'Greece' did not become an entity until much later.
Depends on what you want 'entity' to mean.
Those ancient Greeks certainly saw themselves as a cultural entity,
with a shared language and culture. This extended to 'Greater Greece'.
It was only the narrow sense of a political entity that was
inconceivable to them,
On Thursday, J. J. Lodder pointed out that ...
occam <[email protected]> wrote:
On 19/09/2024 06:59, Aidan Kehoe wrote:
Another one that stuck for me was "metic", "resident foreigner in a
Greek city state," apparently not related to meticulous.
Try 'hermetic' as a related concept. A 'foreigner' in ancient Greek was
someone from another city state, even if that was a city in Greece.
'Greece' did not become an entity until much later.
Depends on what you want 'entity' to mean.
Those ancient Greeks certainly saw themselves as a cultural entity,
with a shared language and culture. This extended to 'Greater Greece'.
It was only the narrow sense of a political entity that was
inconceivable to them,
Jan
I have a better sense of how Egypt came to be a cultural entity than I
do for Greece. On the one hand, the political development of the
winning Pharoahs is easy to read about; on the other, my histories of
Greece generally begin with the last king of Athens and the rise of the
early democracy, which seems to be well after there were several
city-states that considered themselves to be Greek.
On Thu, 19 Sep 2024 21:49:11 +0200
[email protected] (J. J. Lodder) wrote:
occam <[email protected]> wrote:
On 19/09/2024 06:59, Aidan Kehoe wrote:
Another one that stuck for me was "metic", "resident foreigner in a Greek city state," apparently not related to meticulous.
Try 'hermetic' as a related concept. A 'foreigner' in ancient Greek was someone from another city state, even if that was a city in Greece. 'Greece' did not become an entity until much later.
Depends on what you want 'entity' to mean.
Those ancient Greeks certainly saw themselves as a cultural entity,
with a shared language and culture. This extended to 'Greater Greece'.
It was only the narrow sense of a political entity that was
inconceivable to them,
In his travels (read killing spree) Alexander encountered some lost Greek settlement; unfortunately for them they hadn't kept up *all* the right procedures to appease the gods, so he had to slaughter them as well.
I was in the National Archeological Museum in Athens a couple of days
ago, and
the English-language description under one of the early exhibits used
the word
“ithyphallic,” which was new to me. It is of course no longer 1990 with the
associated need to make a written note of the word and consult a paper dictionary when such a difficulty comes up, and I learned fairly quickly
that
it means “having an erect penis.”
Interestingly etymonline also mentions the following, also new to me:
“1795, in reference to a type of meter used in ancient Greek poetry (earlier
as a noun, “poem in ithyphallic meter,” 1610s), from Latin ithyphallicus,
from Greek ithyphallikos, from ithyphallos “phallus carried in the
festivals,” from ithys “straight, straight upward” + phallos “erect penis”
(see phallus). Credited to Archilochus, the meter was that of the
Bacchic
hymns, which were sung in the rites during which such phalluses were carried.
Thus, in Victorian times, the word also meant “grossly indecent”
(1864) and
sometimes was used in scholarly works in its literal sense of “with
erect
penis” (1837).”
In general there is a wealth of English words to be learned from the descriptions of the exhibits in that museum, words that will likely not
be that
useful unless you are speaking with a scholar of ancient Greece about
ancient
Greece. Another one that stuck for me was “metic”, “resident foreigner in a
Greek city state,” apparently not related to meticulous.
If anyone is going to Athens, be aware there is a significant street
drug
problem. If you are bringing children check with the hotel about what
streets
to avoid, if you prefer not to have to explain what this man sitting on
the
ground with a needle and a syringe sticking into his arm is doing.
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