The (hi)story of a word...
"Λαλούδα" or "Lalouda", written with Latin letters, is a word found in Homer (approx 800 B.C.), it means "rock", more specifically, it's a white round rock which has been shaped by the sea.Believe it or not, it is still being used by the inhabitants of Mani today...
Above, an authentic lalouda from the beach of St Nicolaos.
posted by vetdino at Wednesday, August 22, 2007
6 Comments:
This is interesting but what is the context in Homer? Is it religious? What is done with it?
The city "Laan" or "Las" (meaning city of the rocks) is one of the 9 cities of Laconia which participated in the Trojan campaign according to Homer, Iliad (Rapsody B', verse 585)
I don't think that the Greeks of the Pelopponesus of Homer were Dorians. They were probably Achean Greeks. If Troy was destroyed in c1200 BC, the Dorians didn't enter the Pelopponesus until c1150 BC.
that's correct Lindsay. of course a) there were common words among all ancient greek dialects and b) the iliad was written around 800 BC when the Dorians were already settles in southern Greece.
I found this very interesting. In Prof. Mueller's book 'History and Antiquities of the Doric Race' he quotes Homer to prove the antiquity of laconic speech of the Doric Greeks.
When Atreus' son harangued the list'ning train,
Just was his sense, and his expression plain, His words succinct, yet full, without a fault; He spoke no more than just the thing he ought. (Muller, pg 387, Homer {Popes translation} Illiad III. 213)
This quote does portray Doric character to a 'T'! Yet, the main characters of the Illiad use chariots. Chariots are not Dorian warfare at all but Achaen. There is a lot of mixture in Homer where the poets borrowed a lot of things to embellish the story.
Another thing of interest is that Homer was read in Sparta but not in Crete. And in Sparta there was a temple to Helen and they Doric Greeks there did use the temple.
This conundrum, I leave to other experts and ones with more access to Greek literature, knowledge and language finesse.
hey Lindsay!! thank you very much for the information!! indeed I did not know all the detail you provide!!
I am sorry for neglecting the blog, see we had elections in Greece last week and, like all Greeks, I was more intereted in them... also now I'm working overtime to cover my lazyness the last weeks :P
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