Part II: Specifics Phonology II§1. Despite the attestation of Greek as far back in time as the second millennium BCE, a chronological chasm remains between this language and the proto-language reconstructed as Indo-European. What I just said is most apparent on the phonological level. The necessity for positing a multitude of phases and patterns of phonology which must have been operative at some early point in… Read more
Part III: Conclusions III§1. For an understanding of the Greek language as the complex and variegated system that it is, the surest approach remains simply the mastery of such synoptic and exhaustive treatments as have been surveyed. The texts needed for further analysis are generally accessible. For an example, let us consider the Greek dialectal inscriptions; not only are the publications of epigraphically-attested dialectal material thoroughly listed in… Read more
Bibliography Adrados, F. R. 1952. La Dialectología griega como fuente para el estudio de las migraciones indoeuropeas en Grecia. Acta Salmanticensia 5/3. Salamanca. Ahrens, H. L. 1839 / 1843. De Graecae linguae dialectis. 2 vols. Göttingen. Allen, W. S. 1958. “Some problems of palatalization in Greek.” Lingua 7:113–133. ———. 1966. “Prosody and prosodies in… Read more
Introduction. Metaphors of Illegitimacy On a billboard advertisement for a DNA paternity testing service, the selling line is “because you want to know beyond a shadow of a doubt.” [1] Doubt over the child’s parentage casts a metaphorical shadow, one that may be imagined to cover the child himself or herself. The image exploits anxieties about proving paternity that remain even in… Read more
Foreword Building on the foundations of scholarship within the disciplines of philology, philosophy, history, and archaeology, this series concerns not just the archaic and classical periods of Greek traditions but the whole continuum—along with all the discontinuities—from the second millennium B.C.E. to the present. The aim is to enhance perspectives by applying various disciplines to problems that have in the past been treated as the exclusive concern… Read more
Acknowledgments For my parents, for all they made possible, and for Mark, for living through it with me. This book began as a doctoral dissertation for the Ph.D. in Classical Philology at Harvard University. I most gratefully acknowledge the help and encouragement of my readers for that dissertation: Gloria Ferrari Pinney, who gave me a new eye for metaphor and whose work continues to… Read more
Introduction. Metaphors of Illegitimacy On a billboard advertisement for a DNA paternity testing service, the selling line is “because you want to know beyond a shadow of a doubt.” [1] Doubt over the child’s parentage casts a metaphorical shadow, one that may be imagined to cover the child himself or herself. The image exploits anxieties about proving paternity that remain even in… Read more
Chapter 1. Where the Girls Are: Parthenioi and Skotioi Marriage and legitimacy are inseparably linked in ancient Greek thought. Not only is the legitimacy of children determined by the marital status of their parents, but marriage is defined in terms of legitimate children. [1] The often quoted line from Menander’s Perikeiromene Ταύτην γνησίων παίδων ἐπ’ ἀρότῳ σοι δίδωμι ‘I give you this… Read more
Chapter 2. Teucer, the Bastard Archer Teucer is well known as a nothos in classical Greek literature, and he appears in a number of narratives, including the Iliad, Sophocles’ Ajax, and Euripides’ Helen. As a result of his frequent appearance in the ancient sources, there are multiple metaphorical associations connected to Teucer as a nothos. His case is also particular in that he is defined above all… Read more
Chapter 3. Images of Fertility and Sterility Teucer’s emerging role in Euripides’ Helen (examined in the last chapter) as the founder of New Salamis on Cyprus is an example of the way in which narratives can provide a legitimization process within themselves. Teucer, rejected by his father, leaves behind a place and a life in which he is illegitimate. As the founder of a city, however, he… Read more
