Illiad online
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Okay, Greek scholars, so I'm an idiot, but look at the second word of the Illiad in Greek, which means sing in imperative form.
What is that second letter? It's not made the way I've seen the Greek alphabet before. Help, I'm an idiot. |
It's called a digamma. Looks like an f, sounds like a w. Or so it is thought. You haven't seen it before because it's an archaic letter that isn't listed with the rest of the greek alphabet. The w sound just went out of use.
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For a moment I thought I was a complete moron. Thanks for the explanation. The grammar is tough enough without sneaking in a never revealed letter to me.
Are there any other "archaic" letters that I would like to know about? |
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This thread is great. "Hey guys, I am going to read the Illiad in Greek, but I am stuck on the second word." That's awesome, Archaea.
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:) |
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I like the Samuel Butler English translation of the Iliad that's online a lot.
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Would you be impressed if I told you that I've read The Godfather in Italian? |
Actually, the Greek is not that bad except it just requires work to memorize the endings.
Apparently, there are four letters which are not taught but used in some ancient letters. And nobody knows how those letters were expressed for certain. |
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The prose is difficult to grasp. Perhaps I should, but won't, tackle something easier. Here's the sentence, very first one, Lebowski, with some difficult structure. Μηνιν αϜειδε θεά Πηληϊαδεω Αχιλῆος ουλομενην ἥ μῡρί' Αχαιoῖς αλγε' εθηκε πολλὰς δ' ιφθῑμους ψῡχὰς ΑϜιδι προϊαψεν ἡρωων αυτοὺς δε Ϝελωρια τευχε κυνεσσιν οιωνοῖσι τε πᾶσι Note the second word is a weird imperative of to sing. It doesn't show up in my dictionary. |
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You're doing okay if you get the first word. RAGE pretty much sums up the whole book. |
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