Appendix E. The ‘Lost Site’ of Kinyreia Pliny the Elder, in his list of fifteen Cypriot cities, states that “there was once also Cinyria, Mareum, and Idalium.” [1] A Kinýreion was also mentioned in the Bassarika attributed to Dionysios the Periegete (second century CE) in a passage listing the Cypriots who supported Dionysos’ conquest of India, which included “those [sc. who held]… Read more
Appendix F. Theodontius: Another Cilician Kinyras? One further and quite peculiar Cilician connection for Kinyras is found in Boccaccio’s Genealogy of the Pagan Gods. This massive and impressive synthesis, many years in the making (ca. 1350–1375), was undertaken at the behest of King Hugo IV of Cyprus (abdicated 1358). The work remained generally influential for centuries, [1] though its original Cypriot commission… Read more
Appendix G. Étienne de Lusignan and ‘the God Cinaras’ More than once I have cited the sixteenth-century Franco-Cypriot historian Étienne de Lusignan, arguing for some independent, traditional authority behind several of his unique notices. [1] These included metallurgical and ceramic inventions attributed to his ‘Cinaras’, [2] with associated topographic details; an anonymous brother, whom I connected with… Read more
Balang-Gods Wolfgang Heimpel Introduction [1] In his 1997 essay “The Holy Drum, the Spear, and the Harp: Towards an Understanding of the Problems of Deification in Third Millennium Mesopotamia,” Gebhard Selz found that the items in his title and other ‘cultic objects’ were deified by providing them with a name, animating them with the magic of the mouth-washing ritual,… Read more
Bibliography Abel, E. 1891. Scholia recentia in Pindari epinicia, vol. 1. Berlin. Ackerman, S. 2001. Under Every Green Tree: Popular Religion in Sixth-Century Judah. Winona Lake. Adang, C. 1996. Muslim Writers on Judaism and the Hebrew Bible: From Ibn Rabban to Ibn Hazm. Leiden. Ahl, F. 1985. Metaformations: Soundplay and Wordplay in Ovid and… Read more
Acknowledgments Many individuals deserve thanks for helping me produce this work, some for their great personal support, some for intellectual support, and many for both. First I must thank Jessica, my wife, for her unflagging encouragement and for the patience that she showed during my many late nights and weekends in the office. I also owe a great debt of gratitude to friends and mentors who read… Read more
Introduction The world of the ancient Greeks did not arise ex nihilo but developed from earlier cultures, which are harder to evaluate because of their extreme age. The last century or more of research has, however, proven that most of the languages of Europe, the Near East, and India all descend from a common language, Proto-Indo-European (PIE), and that the various cultures of the Indo-European (IE) world,… Read more
1. “Swift Horses” from Proto-Indo-European to Greek Horses are nearly ubiquitous in the early recorded poetries of the Indo-European world, and one particular facet of this presents a perfect starting point for our discussion: a reconstructible Proto-Indo-European poetic expression describing horses. For the earliest poetries of Greece, India, and Iran not only treat horses in ways that are strikingly similar but even utilize some of the same… Read more
12. Kinyras the Lamenter In the Gudea Cylinders, the ‘court’ of Ningirsu included two separate balang-gods, one overseeing music to “make the temple happy,” the other “to banish mourning from the mourning heart.” [1] This dichotomy, reflecting basic aspects of human experience and their musical expression, is also found in the evidence for Kinyras. We have seen that Kinyras was a performing… Read more
13. The Talents of Kinyras Our analysis of Cypriot iconography and the prehistory of kinýra (and associated music) is compatible with the idea that Kinyras could go back to the pre-Greek island in some form. And after all, our best evidence for divinized instruments is of BA date, from Kinnaru of Ugarit on back to third-millennium Mesopotamia. And, as it happens, while the fifth-century Pindar is our… Read more
