>It's not a whole lot of work to give the complete text of the Lemnos
>stele, so here it is:
Cool, thanx Miguel. I've stored it on my computer for future reference and
analysis. I've already inspected it lightly and would suggest that
comprehensability is further enhanced when "$" is replaced by "z" and "o" by
"u". More below.
><holaie-> is probably a name (cf. Grk. Kolaios the Samian who went to
I must agree. B-1: /Hulaie-zi/ "to Hulaie"
><$ivai> a name?
Aargh. You can't be serious!! It's the word /ziva/ which means "dead", you
fool! B-3: /zivai aviz sialchviz .../, literally "dead year 40-[gen] ..." or
"dead at the age of 40".
><avi$> cf. Etr. avil-s "[at the] age"?
Of course, /aviz/ is "year" or "age". This seems very clear.
><sialchv(e)i$> cf. Etr. sealch(s) "[of] 60"(?)
Yes, or 40.
><mara$m>, the -m might be a suffix: "and", or "minus" (cf. Etr. ><ci-em
>zathrum> "minus-3 20 = 17", <mara(s)> must then be a number, >but Etr.
><mach> "5" (<muv-alch> "50") doesn't convince.
An illogical analysis.
><naphoth> may be compared to Etr. <neft$>, PIE *<nepot->.
Most likely, if Hulaie is a name as it most strongly appears to be. Thus
A-III: /Hulaie-z naphoth/ "Hulaie's nephew". Perfectly parallel to Etruscan
grammar... actually parallel to Northern Etruscan grammar... Just thinking
things.
>The sense is not very clear. A man called $ivai ruled(?) $erona(?)
>and Murina (for?) Holaie the Phocaean (?) whose <naphoth> he was ....
>and died at age 65(??).
I can confidently say there is no man named Zivai since it clearly means
"dead" based on Etruscan /ziva/. Where can we say that "65" is written
here?? Your "mav=five" analysis is logically handicapped for so many
reasons. Another leap of your imagination again.
What I would say is that two persons are important here, Hulaie and Phuke.
One is the grandson, the other the deceased. This is based on the fact that
we have Phuke repeated twice. Once on B-1 with what appears to be a double
genitive ending -asi-ale, then on B-2 with bare stem. I would expect a place
name to be mentioned only once, not twice, and so it would seem highly
unlikely for Phuke to mean Phocaea. Phuke must be a person relevant to the
death, either the deceased or a family member. Those are my thoughts anyway
from finally having access to the stele :)
Again, many thanx Miguel! I won't sleep for a while with this on my mind...
- gLeN
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