Re: Semele and Demeter

From: Ivanovas/Milatos
Message: 876
Date: 2000-01-12

��<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"> <HTML><HEAD> <META content="text/html; charset=unicode" http-equiv=Content-Type> <META content="MSHTML 5.00.2014.210" name=GENERATOR> <STYLE></STYLE> </HEAD> <BODY bgColor=#ffffff> <DIV><FONT face="Lucida Sans Unicode">Dennis wrote:</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face="Lucida Sans Unicode">>Greece, Crete and the Aegean were integral parts of an East Mediterranean >cultural and economic sphere dominated by Egypt, at least from the >founding of the XI Dynasty until the invasions of the Sea Peoples, i.e. for >most of the 2<SUP>nd</SUP> millennium BC. Anatolia, dominated as it was by the >Hittites the traditional enemies of the Egyptians, was excluded from this >sphere. It would therefore seem more useful to look at Egypt and the >Levant when seeking elucidations of Greek myths, divine and mythical >names and other non-Greek words, rather than Anatolia or even further >afield, which, despite intensive scholarship, has proved singularly >unproductive.</FONT></DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face="Lucida Sans Unicode">The problem here, Dennis, is archaeological evidence. Actually it seems there are more artifacts from Crete found in Egypt than vice versa, especially for the second millenium B.C., as far as I recall. And it seems highly improbable someone should have 'imported' only language. On the other hand the second millenium shows an immense influence of Crete especially on mainland Greece (Mycenae, Pylos etc.) and on the islands of the Aegean. So certainly everybody would be looking for Cretan loanwords into the other languages around the Aegean - if we knew more of the Minoan language.</FONT></DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face="Lucida Sans Unicode">Best wishes from Crete</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face="Lucida Sans Unicode">Sabine</FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>