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120-571: The Posthomerica ( ‹See Tfd› Greek : τὰ μεθ᾿ Ὅμηρον , translit. tà meth᾿ Hómēron ; lit. "Things After Homer") is an epic poem in Greek hexameter verse by Quintus of Smyrna . Probably written in the 3rd century AD, it tells the story of the Trojan War , between the death of Hector and the fall of Ilium (Troy) . The poem is an abridgement of the events described in the epic poems Aethiopis and Iliou Persis by Arctinus of Miletus , and

240-525: A Linear B clay tablet found in Messenia that dates to between 1450 and 1350 BC, making Greek the world's oldest recorded living language . Among the Indo-European languages, its date of earliest written attestation is matched only by the now-extinct Anatolian languages . The Greek language is conventionally divided into the following periods: In the modern era, the Greek language entered

360-618: A Nereid in Classical myths, Thetis was the daughter of Nereus and Doris , and a granddaughter of Tethys with whom she sometimes shares characteristics. Often she seems to lead the Nereids as they attend to her tasks. Sometimes she also is identified with Metis . Some sources argue that she was one of the earliest of deities worshipped in Archaic Greece , the oral traditions and records of which are lost. Only one written record,

480-706: A Polyxena, now lost. The storm scene has elements in common with that in Book 1 of the Aeneid (34–123). The storm and the assigning of the women are described in Euripides’ Trojan Women (48–97, 235–92). Locrian Ajax’ death is mentioned in Book 4 of the Odyssey (499–511). The destruction of the Greek walls is foretold in Book 12 of the Iliad (3–33). Its style has been criticized by many scholars as subpar to Homer , but it

600-577: A basis for coinages: anthropology , photography , telephony , isomer , biomechanics , cinematography , etc. Together with Latin words , they form the foundation of international scientific and technical vocabulary ; for example, all words ending in -logy ('discourse'). There are many English words of Greek origin . Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European language family. The ancient language most closely related to it may be ancient Macedonian , which, by most accounts,

720-645: A cult that was centered on a wooden cult image of Thetis (a xoanon ), which preceded the building of the oldest temple; by the intervention of a highly placed woman, her cult had been re-founded with a temple; and in the second century AD she still was being worshipped with utmost reverence. The Lacedaemonians were at war with the Messenians , who had revolted, and their king Anaxander, having invaded Messenia, took as prisoners certain women, and among them Cleo, priestess of Thetis. The wife of Anaxander asked for this Cleo from her husband, and discovering that she had

840-508: A faster, more convenient cursive writing style with the use of ink and quill . The Greek alphabet consists of 24 letters, each with an uppercase ( majuscule ) and lowercase ( minuscule ) form. The letter sigma has an additional lowercase form (ς) used in the final position of a word: In addition to the letters, the Greek alphabet features a number of diacritical signs : three different accent marks ( acute , grave , and circumflex ), originally denoting different shapes of pitch accent on

960-463: A fragment, exists attesting to her worship and an early Alcman hymn exists that identifies Thetis as the creator of the universe . Worship of Thetis as the goddess is documented to have persisted in some regions by historical writers, such as Pausanias . In the Trojan War cycle of myth, the wedding of Thetis and the Greek hero Peleus is one of the precipitating events in the war which also led to

1080-464: A girl, at the court of Lycomedes , king of Scyros. Achilles was already famed for his speed and skill in battle. Calchas , a priest of Agamemnon, prophesied the need for the great soldier within their ranks. Odysseus was subsequently sent by Agamemnon to try and find Achilles. Scyros was relatively close to Achilles's home and Lycomedes was also a known friend of Thetis, so it was one of the first places that Odysseus looked. When Odysseus found that one of

1200-590: A lesser extent, in the Western Mediterranean in and around colonies such as Massalia , Monoikos , and Mainake . It was also used as the official language of government and religion in the Christian Nubian kingdoms , for most of their history. Greek, in its modern form, is the official language of Greece, where it is spoken by almost the entire population. It is also the official language of Cyprus (nominally alongside Turkish ) and

1320-400: A limited but productive system of compounding and a rich inflectional system. Although its morphological categories have been fairly stable over time, morphological changes are present throughout, particularly in the nominal and verbal systems. The major change in the nominal morphology since the classical stage was the disuse of the dative case (its functions being largely taken over by

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1440-470: A message, that the gods are angry that Hector's body has not been returned. She does as she is bid, and convinces Achilles to return the body for ransom, thus avoiding the wrath of the gods. A noted exception to the general observation resulting from the existing historical records, that Thetis was not venerated as a goddess by cult, was in conservative Laconia , where Pausanias was informed that there had been priestesses of Thetis in archaic times, when

1560-523: A messenger. He says that the horse is a tribute to Tritogeneia, but Laocoon sees through the deception. He tries to urge the Trojans to burn the horse, but he is struck with blindness by Athena. He and his children are killed by two serpents. The Trojans attempt to sacrifice to the gods, but the sacrifices refuse to catch fire. Statues begin to weep and temples are stained with blood, but the Trojans are not impressed by these negative omens. Cassandra also knows

1680-459: A mixed syllable structure, permitting complex syllabic onsets but very restricted codas. It has only oral vowels and a fairly stable set of consonantal contrasts . The main phonological changes occurred during the Hellenistic and Roman period (see Koine Greek phonology for details): In all its stages, the morphology of Greek shows an extensive set of productive derivational affixes ,

1800-712: A perception among Classical Greeks of an early political role. Walter Burkert considers her name a transformed doublet of Tethys . After Achilles's death, Thetis does not need to appeal to Zeus for immortality for her son, as the two have an established rapport (due to Thetis helping him in a dispute with three other Olympians) and snatches him away to the White Island Leuke in the Black Sea , an alternate Elysium , where he has transcended death, and where an Achilles cult lingered into historical times. Pseudo-Apollodorus' Bibliotheke asserts that Thetis

1920-518: A prophecy that Thetis's son would become greater than his father, as Zeus had dethroned his father to lead the succeeding pantheon. In order to ensure a mortal father for her eventual offspring, Zeus and his brother Poseidon made arrangements for her to marry a human, Peleus , son of Aeacus , but she refused him. Proteus , an early sea-god, advised Peleus to find the sea nymph when she was asleep and bind her tightly to keep her from escaping by changing forms. She did shapeshift, becoming flame, water,

2040-463: A raging lioness , and a serpent . Peleus held fast. Subdued, she then consented to marry him. Thetis is the mother of Achilles by Peleus , who became king of the Myrmidons . According to classical mythology, the wedding of Thetis and Peleus was celebrated on Mount Pelion , outside the cave of Chiron , and attended by the deities: there they celebrated the marriage with feasting. Apollo played

2160-428: A rock, forcing Paris to give up his attempt to take the corpse. The Greeks successfully drive the Trojans off and rescue Achilles’ body, bringing it back to the Greek camp. Ajax is the first to eulogize Achilles, then Phoinix, Agamemnon, Briseis, and Thetis , Achilles' mother. Calliope tells Thetis that her son will always be remembered. The Greeks then compete in funeral games to commemorate the death of Achilles. There

2280-515: A sense of closure. Many of the characters who had hated an ally in prior works, such as Philoctetes to Odysseus in Sophocles' play, now easily overcome the anger to create harmony. Greek language Greek ( Modern Greek : Ελληνικά , romanized :  Elliniká , [eliniˈka] ; Ancient Greek : Ἑλληνική , romanized :  Hellēnikḗ ) is an Indo-European language, constituting an independent Hellenic branch within

2400-510: A stag. Priam thinks she will save Troy and kill Achilles. Andromache doesn't think that Penthesileia is capable. Priam prayed to Zeus to let Penthesileia return, but he sees an eagle holding a dove, a sign that she will die. Ajax and Achilles are in the city resting. Hippoclameia tries to convince the Trojan women to fight, but Theano convinces them it is a suicidal idea. Penthesileia kills Podarces in battle. Ajax convinces Achilles that it

2520-409: A state of diglossia : the coexistence of vernacular and archaizing written forms of the language. What came to be known as the Greek language question was a polarization between two competing varieties of Modern Greek: Dimotiki , the vernacular form of Modern Greek proper, and Katharevousa , meaning 'purified', a compromise between Dimotiki and Ancient Greek developed in the early 19th century that

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2640-467: Is a heated argument between Odysseus and Ajax over which one of them is most deserving of receiving Achilles’ armor. The Trojan prisoners are asked to decide which one of them was the better warrior during the defense of Achilles’ body. The hero that fought most bravely and valiantly will be awarded the armor. It is decided that Odysseus will receive the armor. Similar to Sophocles ' play Ajax , this leads to Ajax's suicide, and Odysseus speaks his regret at

2760-527: Is a long description of his shield, which depicts the Labors of Heracles; this complements the description of Achilles’ shield in Book 5. The second half of the book tells of various encounters in battle between the Greeks and the Trojans, with Eurypylus leading the Trojan attack. The testing of troops is inspired by a similar episode in Book 2 of the Iliad, the battle scenes by parts of Book 11. Eurypylus figured in

2880-499: Is cured by Podalirius, honored, and offered compensation. Philoctetes and his wound are mentioned in the Iliad (2.721–25). The embassy to fetch him was told in the Little Iliad. Sophocles’ tragedy Philoctetes will have been known to Quintus. Euripides wrote a play, now lost, on the same subject. Book 10: In an opening similar to that of Book 2, the wise Polydamas advises the Trojans to fight defensively from their walls, but Aeneas

3000-575: Is emphatically repeated by Homer. Diomedes recalls that when Dionysus was expelled by Lycurgus with the Olympians' aid, he took refuge in the Erythraean Sea with Thetis in a bed of seaweed (6.123ff). These accounts associate Thetis with "a divine past—uninvolved with human events—with a level of divine invulnerability extraordinary by Olympian standards. Where within the framework of the Iliad

3120-468: Is for continuing the battle. Intense fighting ensues. Philoctetes, whose baldric is described at length, shoots many victims with the bow of Heracles and eventually wounds Paris. It has been prophesied that he can be cured only by Oenone, the wife whom he deserted in favor of Helen. She rejects his plea with scorn. Hera and the Seasons discuss what will happen after his death. Hecuba and Helen lament him, and

3240-476: Is off fighting the Trojans, Patroclus' body will decay and rot. Thetis, however, reassures him and places ambrosia and nectar in Patroclus' nose in order to protect his body against decay. After Achilles uses his new armor to defeat Hector in battle, he keeps Hector's body to mutilate and humiliate. However, after nine days, the gods call Thetis to Olympus and tell her that she must go to Achilles and pass him

3360-433: Is removed from the battlefield by Apollo. Poseidon supports the Greeks and warns Apollo not to kill Neoptolemus. Calchas reveals that Troy may not be captured without the help of Philoctetes. Odysseus and Diomedes go to fetch him from the island of Lemnos. They find him living in a cave and still suffering from the putrid wound whose stench had caused the Greeks to abandon him. He is persuaded to accompany them to Troy, where he

3480-444: Is rescued from his cave. They tell him that his wound can be healed by the surgeon Podaleninos if he agrees to come with them to Troy. Although Philoctetes considers Odysseus at fault for leaving him on the island, he forgives Odysseus. Aeneas attempts to convince the Trojans to stay within the city walls, without success. Panic, Fear and Strife arrive at the day's battle. Philoctetes shoots Paris with his poisoned arrows, grazing him on

3600-821: Is sometimes called aljamiado , as when Romance languages are written in the Arabic alphabet. Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Greek: Transcription of the example text into Latin alphabet : Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in English: Proto-Greek Mycenaean Ancient Koine Medieval Modern Thetis When described as

3720-763: Is still used internationally for the writing of Ancient Greek . In Greek, the question mark is written as the English semicolon, while the functions of the colon and semicolon are performed by a raised point (•), known as the ano teleia ( άνω τελεία ). In Greek the comma also functions as a silent letter in a handful of Greek words, principally distinguishing ό,τι ( ó,ti , 'whatever') from ότι ( óti , 'that'). Ancient Greek texts often used scriptio continua ('continuous writing'), which means that ancient authors and scribes would write word after word with no spaces or punctuation between words to differentiate or mark boundaries. Boustrophedon , or bi-directional text,

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3840-480: Is taken. In response to advice from the seer Calchas that this will not happen unless Achilles’ son Neoptolemus is present, Odysseus and Diomedes set sail for Scyros to fetch him. Eurypylus, leader of the Cetaeans, comes with his army to the aid of the Trojans. He is the grandson of Heracles and the son of Telephus, who once fought Achilles. Like Penthesileia in Book 1 and Memnon in Book 2, he is royally received. There

3960-531: Is the answer and Memnon, son of Dawn, and the Ethiopian army will be here soon. Polydamas says that Ethiopians will lose. Zeus thinks that tomorrow's battle will be ugly and full of death. Memnon kills Nestor 's son Antilochos in battle. Eventually, after a long and difficult struggle; Achilles kills Memnon. Dawn will not let the sun rise because she is so upset and retreats to Hades , until Zeus convinces her to leave. After Achilles tells him to stop interfering in

4080-402: Is time to fight: Achilles kills Penthesileia by impaling her and her horse, but Achilles notices her beauty and realizes that he should have made her his wife. Thersites tells Achilles not to worry about women; Achilles eventually kills him and upsets Diomedes. Thymoites tells Troy if they are to stay in the city, they will die, therefore everyone should leave. Priam and Paris say that fighting

4200-632: Is to modern spoken English ". Greek is spoken today by at least 13 million people, principally in Greece and Cyprus along with a sizable Greek-speaking minority in Albania near the Greek-Albanian border. A significant percentage of Albania's population has knowledge of the Greek language due in part to the Albanian wave of immigration to Greece in the 1980s and '90s and the Greek community in

4320-407: Is valuable as the earliest surviving account of this period in the Trojan War . The Iliad ends with "Such was the funeral of Hector, tamer of horses"; later poets changed this to however it might fit their needs. Quintus used it as an opening line: "Such was the funeral of Hector. And now there came an Amazon..." The purpose of the story seems to be to complete the Iliad and give the characters

4440-781: The Little Iliad by Lesches , all now-lost poems of the Epic Cycle . The first four books, covering the same ground as the Aethiopis , describe the doughty deeds and deaths of Penthesileia the Amazon , of Memnon , son of the Morning, and of Achilles ; and the funeral games in honour of Achilles. Books five through twelve, covering the same ground as the Little Iliad , span from the contest between Ajax and Odysseus for

4560-562: The British Overseas Territory of Akrotiri and Dhekelia (alongside English ). Because of the membership of Greece and Cyprus in the European Union, Greek is one of the organization's 24 official languages . Greek is recognized as a minority language in Albania, and used co-officially in some of its municipalities, in the districts of Gjirokastër and Sarandë . It is also an official minority language in

4680-657: The European canon . Greek is also the language in which many of the foundational texts in science and philosophy were originally composed. The New Testament of the Christian Bible was also originally written in Greek. Together with the Latin texts and traditions of the Roman world , the Greek texts and Greek societies of antiquity constitute the objects of study of the discipline of Classics . During antiquity , Greek

4800-516: The Indo-Iranian languages (see Graeco-Aryan ), but little definitive evidence has been found. In addition, Albanian has also been considered somewhat related to Greek and Armenian, and it has been proposed that they all form a higher-order subgroup along with other extinct languages of the ancient Balkans; this higher-order subgroup is usually termed Palaeo-Balkan , and Greek has a central position in it. Linear B , attested as early as

4920-563: The Oceanid Eurynome and the Nereid Thetis caught him and allowed him to stay on the volcanic isle of Lemnos , while he labored for them as a smith, "working there in the hollow of the cave, and the stream of Okeanos around us went on forever with its foam and its murmur" ( Iliad 18.369). Thetis is not successful in her role protecting and nurturing a hero (the theme of kourotrophos ), but her role in succoring deities

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5040-724: The United Kingdom , and throughout the European Union , especially in Germany . Historically, significant Greek-speaking communities and regions were found throughout the Eastern Mediterranean , in what are today Southern Italy , Turkey , Cyprus , Syria , Lebanon , Israel , Palestine , Egypt , and Libya ; in the area of the Black Sea , in what are today Turkey, Bulgaria , Romania , Ukraine , Russia , Georgia , Armenia , and Azerbaijan ; and, to

5160-468: The genitive ). The verbal system has lost the infinitive , the synthetically -formed future, and perfect tenses and the optative mood . Many have been replaced by periphrastic ( analytical ) forms. Pronouns show distinctions in person (1st, 2nd, and 3rd), number (singular, dual , and plural in the ancient language; singular and plural alone in later stages), and gender (masculine, feminine, and neuter), and decline for case (from six cases in

5280-417: The syntax of Greek have remained constant: verbs agree with their subject only, the use of the surviving cases is largely intact (nominative for subjects and predicates, accusative for objects of most verbs and many prepositions, genitive for possessors), articles precede nouns, adpositions are largely prepositional, relative clauses follow the noun they modify and relative pronouns are clause-initial. However,

5400-566: The 20th century on), especially from French and English, are typically not inflected; other modern borrowings are derived from Albanian , South Slavic ( Macedonian / Bulgarian ) and Eastern Romance languages ( Aromanian and Megleno-Romanian ). Greek words have been widely borrowed into other languages, including English. Example words include: mathematics , physics , astronomy , democracy , philosophy , athletics , theatre, rhetoric , baptism , evangelist , etc. Moreover, Greek words and word elements continue to be productive as

5520-737: The Aethiopis, in the Memnon and the Weighing of Souls of Aeschylus, and in the Ethiopians and the Memnon of Sophocles. The bird metamorphosis is not mentioned in Proclus’ summary of the Aethiopis. Quintus’ account of it is close to that given by Dionysius in his didactic poem on fowling, Ixeutica, a summary of which survives; cf. Ovid, Met. 13.576–622. Book 3: Apollo warns Achilles to stop the slaughter and, when he defiantly continues, shoots him in

5640-544: The Greek alphabet since approximately the 9th century BC. It was created by modifying the Phoenician alphabet , with the innovation of adopting certain letters to represent the vowels. The variant of the alphabet in use today is essentially the late Ionic variant, introduced for writing classical Attic in 403 BC. In classical Greek, as in classical Latin, only upper-case letters existed. The lower-case Greek letters were developed much later by medieval scribes to permit

5760-549: The Greek language was the Cypriot syllabary (also a descendant of Linear A via the intermediate Cypro-Minoan syllabary ), which is closely related to Linear B but uses somewhat different syllabic conventions to represent phoneme sequences. The Cypriot syllabary is attested in Cyprus from the 11th century BC until its gradual abandonment in the late Classical period, in favor of the standard Greek alphabet. Greek has been written in

5880-480: The Greek side, Aphrodite removes Aeneas from the battlefield, and the Trojans retreat within their walls. The second part of the book describes the Greeks’ assault on the city on the following day. The result is an impasse. The removal of Aeneas from the fighting is based on Iliad 5.311–17, 445–46, and several other scenes are inspired more generally by Books 5 and 13. The narrative of the siege has elements in common with

6000-747: The Greeks and the captive women. Athena complains to Zeus of Locrian Ajax’ sacrilege and is lent the weapons of storm. The ships are scattered. Ajax is defiant to the end. Many perish on the Capherean Rocks. Poseidon destroys all trace of the Greeks’ walls at Troy. The survivors come to land. The Odyssey can begin. Most of these events were treated in the Sack of Ilium and the Returns. The sacrifice of Polyxena and Hecuba’s metamorphosis feature in Euripides’ Hecuba (cf. Ovid, Met. 13.429–575). Sophocles wrote

6120-466: The Greeks from blaming her. There are general celebrations, with bards singing of the war. Menelaüs forgives Helen. Achilles appears to Neoptolemus in a dream, gives him moral advice, and demands the sacrifice of Polyxena to appease his continuing anger over Briseïs. Her sacrifice, and the misery of her mother Hecuba, are described at length. Hecuba is metamorphosed into a dog made of stone. The voyage gets under way, with very different emotions experienced by

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6240-461: The Greeks, pushing them back until they are rallied by Neoptolemos. The Greeks surge forwards and Aeneas manages to rally the Trojans and check the Greek advance. A dust storm settles over the battle. The next morning, the Argives hide under their shields to get to the gates of Troy, led by Odysseus. Ares gives Aeneas the strength to retaliate by throwing huge rocks. Aeneas exhorts the Trojans to leave

6360-506: The Greeks. The slaughter begins. Ilioneus vainly begs Diomedes for his life, but Priam is eager to be killed when confronted by Neoptolemus. Hector’s young son Astyanax is murdered; his mother, Andromache, begs for death but is taken into slavery. Antenor is spared as reward for past hospitality. Calchas warns the Greeks not to harm Aeneas, who is destined to found a new city. Menelaüs kills Helen’s new husband, Deïphobus, but Aphrodite prevents him from killing Helen. Locrian Ajax rapes Cassandra in

6480-471: The Homeric scenes but shows considerable independence, incorporating more of the horrors of war and including an allegorical scene, the lofty Mount of Virtue. The effect is disconcerting: Quintus and Homer cannot both be right. (Lines 97–98 hardly remedy this problem.) The contest for Achilles’ arms and its dénouement were described in the Aethiopis (which seems not to have had the story of Ajax’ madness) and in

6600-468: The Iliad. The story of the wooden horse was told in the Little Iliad and the Sack of Troy and is recounted in the Odyssey (8.492–520; cf. 4.271–89, 11.523–32). Sophocles wrote plays entitled Laocoön and Sinon, now lost, and many other authors treated the subject. The best-known extant account is that in Virgil’s Aeneid (2.13–249), where the narrator is Aeneas. Book 13: As the Trojans sleep, Sinon summons

6720-593: The Indo-European language family. It is native to Greece , Cyprus , Italy (in Calabria and Salento ), southern Albania , and other regions of the Balkans , Caucasus , the Black Sea coast, Asia Minor , and the Eastern Mediterranean . It has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning at least 3,400 years of written records. Its writing system is the Greek alphabet , which has been used for approximately 2,800 years; previously, Greek

6840-400: The Little Iliad and in a tragedy of Sophocles, now lost, named after him. Book 7: Some of the Greeks hold funerals for Nireus and Machaon, victims of Eurypylus. Machaon’s grief-stricken brother Podalirius is offered consolation by Nestor. The Greek forces are driven back to their wall by Eurypylus. A truce allows burial of the dead. Meanwhile Odysseus and Diomedes find Neoptolemus eager to join

6960-478: The Little Iliad. By Quintus’ time, countless rhetoricians and poets had composed speeches for Ajax and Odysseus. The fullest surviving version of the episode is in Book 13 of Ovid’s Metamorphoses, where, unsurprisingly, several similar arguments are deployed. Quintus’ account of the madness and suicide owes some details to Sophocles’ Ajax. Book 6: Menelaüs tests the Greeks’ resolve by proposing retreat, but Diomedes threatens to kill anyone who tries to leave before Troy

7080-421: The Trojans but is warned by Zeus not to fight Neoptolemus. Apollo encourages the Trojans, and fierce fighting ensues. Just as the Greeks seem about to break into the city, Ganymede begs Zeus not to let him see Troy’s destruction. Zeus hides the city in cloud, and Nestor warns the Greeks not to incur divine anger. They stop fighting, bury their dead, and honor the exploits of Neoptolemus. Both sides keep watch through

7200-487: The Trojans from Neoptolemos. Apollo tries to kill Neoptolemos, but Zeus threatens to destroy Ilion if he does. The battle is halted by Calchas, who declares that the battle is not fated to end until Philoctetes joins the Argives. Philoctetes had been left on the island of Lemnos due to receiving a bite on the foot from a poisonous water snake that became infected and repulsive to the other Greeks. This scenario draws on source material from Sophocles' Philoctetes . Philoctetes

7320-404: The acute during the late 20th century, and it has only been retained in typography . After the writing reform of 1982, most diacritics are no longer used. Since then, Greek has been written mostly in the simplified monotonic orthography (or monotonic system), which employs only the acute accent and the diaeresis. The traditional system, now called the polytonic orthography (or polytonic system),

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7440-427: The ankle with an arrow. After a desperate struggle over his body, in which Ajax, son of Telamon, takes the lead on the Greek side, the Trojans fall back and the body is recovered. Book 3, like Books 1 and 2, ends with mourning. Achilles is lamented by Phoenix, Briseïs, the Nereids, and his mother (Thetis), and the preparations for his funeral are described. Poseidon consoles Thetis with an assurance that Achilles will join

7560-416: The armor to Odysseus. Quintus has narrated the fighting in Book 4 so as to show that this is the wrong decision. Ajax, raging with disappointment, plans to slaughter the Greeks during the night, but Athena diverts his fury against a flock of sheep. Once his madness leaves him, he feels humiliated and kills himself. He is lamented by his half-brother Teucer and his concubine Tecmessa. Odysseus tries to conciliate

7680-429: The arms of Achilles, the death of Ajax by suicide after his loss, the exploits of Neoptolemus , Eurypylus and Deiphobus , the deaths of Paris and Oenone , to the building of the wooden horse . The remaining books, covering the same ground as Iliou Persis , relate the capture of Troy by means of the wooden horse, the sacrifice of Polyxena at the grave of Achilles, the departure of the Greeks, and their dispersal by

7800-430: The army with a patently insincere speech. The book closes with Ajax’ funeral, which recalls that of Achilles at the end of Book 3. Four of the first five books have ended in lamentation, and each side has lost two champions. Having engaged closely in Book 4 with Homer’s account of funeral games, Quintus now offers a description of the shield of Achilles described already by Homer in Book 18 of the Iliad. He alludes to some of

7920-479: The arrival of Proto-Greeks, some documented in Mycenaean texts ; they include a large number of Greek toponyms . The form and meaning of many words have changed. Loanwords (words of foreign origin) have entered the language, mainly from Latin, Venetian , and Turkish . During the older periods of Greek, loanwords into Greek acquired Greek inflections, thus leaving only a foreign root word. Modern borrowings (from

8040-460: The artistic contests commonly included in games in Quintus’ time. Book 5: Achilles’ armor is displayed by Thetis, and there is a long description of the shield. She offers the armor as a reward for the man who recovered Achilles’ body. Ajax (son of Telamon) and Odysseus claim the prize, and the invidious decision between them is left to Trojan prisoners of war. After hearing the speeches, they award

8160-471: The battle, Apollo tries to shoot Achilles, wounding his ankle; this will later prove fatal. Zeus is furious with Apollo as he is not supposed to interfere in the mortal world. The Trojans are still scared to fight the injured Achilles. Achilles dies and Paris attempts to remove his corpse. Ajax defends the body, killing Glaucos, who falls on top of Achilles. Ajax also injures Aeneas. Odysseus helps Ajax defend Achilles' body. Ajax stuns Paris by hitting him with

8280-462: The birth of their child Achilles . One of her epithets was Halosydne ( Greek : Ἁλοσύδνη ), meaning "sea-nourished" or "sea-born" goddess. Most extant material about Thetis concerns her role as mother of Achilles , but there is some evidence that she was more central to the religious beliefs and practices of Archaic Greece in her role as a sea-goddess. The pre-modern etymology of her name, from tithemi (τίθημι), "to set up, establish", suggests

8400-474: The book is similar in plan to Book 1. Trojan hopes are raised by the arrival of Priam’s nephew Memnon and his Ethiopian troops. Like Penthesileia, he is royally entertained, enjoys initial success in the battle, and is defeated by Achilles. His divine mother, the Dawn, has his body carried away by the winds and metamorphoses his troops into birds. The book closes with mourning, both divine and human. Memnon featured in

8520-457: The child with ambrosia . When Peleus caught her searing the baby, he let out a cry. Thetis heard him, and catching up the child threw him screaming to the ground, and she like a breath of wind passed swiftly from the hall as a dream and leapt into the sea, exceeding angry, and thereafter returned never again. Some myths relate that because she had been interrupted by Peleus , Thetis had not made her son physically invulnerable. His heel, which she

8640-461: The city, but the battle continues around the gates. Philoctetes shoots at Aeneas, but his shield protects him, allowing the arrow to hit Mimas instead. The seer Calchas sees an omen of a hawk and dove, suggests that the Greeks try a new strategy to take Troy. Odysseus comes up with a plan to create the Trojan Horse . He gets Epeios to construct the horse. Neoptolemos and Philoctetes do not like

8760-796: The country. Prior to the Greco-Turkish War and the resulting population exchange in 1923 a very large population of Greek-speakers also existed in Turkey , though very few remain today. A small Greek-speaking community is also found in Bulgaria near the Greek-Bulgarian border. Greek is also spoken worldwide by the sizable Greek diaspora which has notable communities in the United States , Australia , Canada , South Africa , Chile , Brazil , Argentina , Russia , Ukraine ,

8880-441: The dative led to a rise of prepositional indirect objects (and the use of the genitive to directly mark these as well). Ancient Greek tended to be verb-final, but neutral word order in the modern language is VSO or SVO. Modern Greek inherits most of its vocabulary from Ancient Greek, which in turn is an Indo-European language, but also includes a number of borrowings from the languages of the populations that inhabited Greece before

9000-528: The earliest forms attested to four in the modern language). Nouns, articles, and adjectives show all the distinctions except for a person. Both attributive and predicative adjectives agree with the noun. The inflectional categories of the Greek verb have likewise remained largely the same over the course of the language's history but with significant changes in the number of distinctions within each category and their morphological expression. Greek verbs have synthetic inflectional forms for: Many aspects of

9120-400: The expression 'she poured the divine salt' . Zeus then bestowed the wings of Arce to the newly-wed couple which was later given by Thetis to her son, Achilles. Furthermore, the god of the sea, Poseidon gave Peleus the immortal horses, Balius and Xanthus . Eris , the goddess of discord, had not been invited, however, and in spite, she threw a golden apple into the midst of the goddesses that

9240-412: The extent that one can speak of a new language emerging. Greek speakers today still tend to regard literary works of ancient Greek as part of their own rather than a foreign language. It is also often stated that the historical changes have been relatively slight compared with some other languages. According to one estimation, " Homeric Greek is probably closer to Demotic than 12-century Middle English

9360-667: The fact that the Judgement of Paris , which kicked off the war, occurred at her wedding to Peleus , Thetis consistently influenced the actions of the Twelve Olympians and her son, Achilles . Nine years after the beginning of the Trojan War, Homer's Iliad starts with Agamemnon (king of Mycenae and the commander of the Achaeans ) and Achilles (son of Thetis) arguing over Briseis , a woman married to Mynes (son of

9480-458: The five rivers that run through Hades , the realm of the dead). However, the heel by which she held him was not touched by the Styx's waters and failed to be protected. Peleus gave the boy to Chiron to raise. Prophecy said that the son of Thetis would have either a long but dull life, or a glorious but brief one. When the Trojan War broke out, Thetis was anxious and concealed Achilles, disguised as

9600-470: The funeral. He is cremated at sea. At this point, the gods give Eurypylus to the Trojans. Eurypylus is able to kill many Argive soldiers and drives the Argives to despair. They draw near to the ships, but Neoptolemos arrives to fight the Trojans back. Ares demoralizes the Argives, but Neoptolemos holds his ground and slays Eurypylus. He continues to kill Trojans, such that the author expresses surprise at his body count. Deiphobos challenges him, but Apollo saves

9720-419: The girls at court was not a girl, he came up with a plan. Raising an alarm that they were under attack, Odysseus knew that the young Achilles would instinctively run for his weapons and armour, thereby revealing himself. Seeing that she could no longer prevent her son from realizing his destiny, Thetis then had Hephaestus make a shield and armor. Thetis played a key part in the events of the Trojan War. Beyond

9840-404: The gods and receive special worship. Achilles’ funeral featured in the Aethiopis. Quintus’ account recalls the funeral of Patroclus in Book 23 of the Iliad and alludes to the description of Achilles’ funeral in the Odyssey (24.43–84). Book 4: The gods react variously to Achilles’ death, and the Greeks prepare to resume hostilities. But Thetis wishes to hold funeral games in honor of her son, and in

9960-502: The gods, sent by Hera , who tells him to rejoin the fighting. He refuses, however, citing his mother's words and his promise to her to wait for her return. Thetis, meanwhile, speaks with Hephaestus and begs him to make Achilles armor, which he does. First, he makes for Achilles a splendid shield , and having finished it, makes a breastplate, a helmet, and greaves. When Thetis goes back to Achilles to deliver his new armor, she finds him still upset over Patroclus. Achilles fears that while he

10080-534: The hand and striking him in the groin. Paris, mortally wounded, tries to get help from his first wife, Oenone, who spurns him because of his affair with Helen. Paris passes away. Priam laments that he was his second best son, and Helen curses the position he put her in. Oenone, regrets her actions and commits suicide by jumping on Paris' funeral pyre. They are buried next to one another, their headstones facing opposite ways. The battle evens out for both sides. Apollo pushes Aeneas and Eurymachos to fight like madmen against

10200-446: The hard-pressed Trojans, her initial successes in battle, and her defeat by Achilles, who kills Thersites for mocking his admiration for the beautiful victim. The book closes with burial of the dead. Penthesileia featured in the Aethiopis. Book 2: The Trojans debate their situation. Thymoetes is despondent, Priam encouraging. The wise Polydamas’ suggestion that Helen should be given back meets with an angry response from Paris. The rest of

10320-642: The heroes of the Argives. Much of the events here are similar to the events in Euripides ' Trojan Women . Ajax the Lesser rapes Cassandra in Athena's shrine, so he is killed by the gods. Book 1: Quintus dispenses with the customary invocation of the Muses in order to make his first line continue from the end of the Iliad. Book 1 tells of the arrival of the proud Amazon queen Penthesileia, the welcome she receives from

10440-463: The horse, but his sudden blinding by Athena persuades them that they should ignore his advice and drag it into Troy. Two serpents emerge from the sea and devour Laocoön’s sons. Troy is filled with sinister omens. Cassandra warns the Trojans of their danger, but they prevent her from attacking the horse and begin their final carouse. The battle between the gods is inspired by the Theomachy in Book 20 of

10560-473: The horse. A fight between the gods on opposing sides in the war is quelled by Zeus. Sinon volunteers to stand by the horse and persuade the Trojans to take it inside their city. Nestor is keen to join the ambush, but is dissuaded. Quintus invokes the Muses to help him list those who entered the horse. The rest of the Greeks, with Nestor and Agamemnon, sail away to Tenedos. When questioned by the Trojans, Sinon maintains his story. The priest Laocoön urges them to burn

10680-512: The king of Lyrnessus ). She was kidnapped and enslaved by Achilles. After initially refusing, Achilles relents and gives Briseis to Agamemnon. However, Achilles feels disrespect for having to hand over Briseis and prays to Thetis, his mother, for restitution of his lost honor. She urges Achilles to wait until she speaks with Zeus to rejoin the fighting, and Achilles listens. When she finally speaks to Zeus, Thetis convinces him to do as she bids, and he seals his agreement with her by bowing his head,

10800-449: The language show both conservative and innovative tendencies across the entire attestation of the language from the ancient to the modern period. The division into conventional periods is, as with all such periodizations, relatively arbitrary, especially because, in all periods, Ancient Greek has enjoyed high prestige, and the literate borrowed heavily from it. Across its history, the syllabic structure of Greek has varied little: Greek shows

10920-467: The late 15th century BC, was the first script used to write Greek. It is basically a syllabary , which was finally deciphered by Michael Ventris and John Chadwick in the 1950s (its precursor, Linear A , has not been deciphered and most likely encodes a non-Greek language). The language of the Linear B texts, Mycenaean Greek , is the earliest known form of Greek. Another similar system used to write

11040-583: The lyre and the Muses sang, Pindar claimed. At the wedding Chiron gave Peleus an ashen spear that had been polished by Athena and had a blade forged by Hephaestus. While the Olympian goddesses brought him gifts: from Aphrodite , a bowl with an embossed Eros , from Hera a chlamys while from Athena a flute. His father-in-law Nereus endowed him a basket of the salt called 'divine', which has an irresistible virtue for overeating, appetite and digestion, explaining

11160-452: The many other countries of the Greek diaspora . Greek roots have been widely used for centuries and continue to be widely used to coin new words in other languages; Greek and Latin are the predominant sources of international scientific vocabulary . Greek has been spoken in the Balkan peninsula since around the 3rd millennium BC, or possibly earlier. The earliest written evidence is

11280-531: The messenger speech in Euripides’ Phoenician Women (1090–1199) and with Virgil’s account of the attack on the Trojans’ camp at Aen. 9.503–89. Book 12: Prompted by an omen, the seer Calchas advises the Greeks to resort to trickery. Odysseus suggests a wooden horse. Neoptolemus and Philoctetes wish to continue fighting, but an omen from Zeus guarantees the plan. Epeüs is inspired by Athena to construct

11400-465: The morphological changes also have their counterparts in the syntax, and there are also significant differences between the syntax of the ancient and that of the modern form of the language . Ancient Greek made great use of participial constructions and of constructions involving the infinitive, and the modern variety lacks the infinitive entirely (employing a raft of new periphrastic constructions instead) and uses participles more restrictively. The loss of

11520-450: The night. The killing of Eurypylus was narrated in the Little Iliad and is mentioned in the Odyssey (11.519–21). The second half of the book is inspired by the interventions of Ares and Athena in Book 5 of the Iliad. Book 9: The Trojans bury Eurypylus, and Neoptolemus prays at the tomb of his father, Achilles. Deïphobus encourages the fearful Trojans to fight, and both he and Neoptolemus slay countless victims. Finally they meet, but Deïphobus

11640-399: The plan, because they prefer a more direct battle. Epeios prays to Athena. The horse causes the gods to break out in a brief fight until Zeus ends it. Neoptolemos, Menelaos, Odysseus, Sthenalos, Diomedes and Philoctetes are among those that board the horse. Agamemnon and Nestor stay behind. The Argives leave the horse and Sinon at Troy and pretend to flee. Sinon is heavily disfigured and left as

11760-643: The regions of Apulia and Calabria in Italy. In the framework of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages , Greek is protected and promoted officially as a regional and minority language in Armenia, Hungary , Romania, and Ukraine. It is recognized as a minority language and protected in Turkey by the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne . The phonology , morphology , syntax , and vocabulary of

11880-492: The remainder of the book these competitions are described. Funeral games for Achilles were described in the Aethiopis, but Quintus is chiefly concerned to engage with the Homeric narrative of the games held by Achilles for Patroclus in Book 23 of the Iliad. He adds all-in wrestling, the long jump, and horse riding, all of which featured in the games of the Roman imperial period; and Nestor’s verse encomium of Achilles probably reflects

12000-580: The remorseful Oenone leaps on his funeral pyre. The opening debate recalls that between Polydamas and Hector in Book 18 of the Iliad. In the Little Iliad Paris was killed by Philoctetes in the battle itself. Oenone’s story had been familiar at least since the Hellenistic period. Book 11: The first part of the book tells of the battle on the plain. Aeneas and Eurymachus are urged on by Apollo. The Trojans are driven back by Neoptolemus and his Myrmidons, but Aeneas rallies them. When Athena intervenes on

12120-442: The same episode. Deïdamia’s tearful farewells are inspired by the scene between Jason and his mother, Alcimede, in Book 1 of Apollonius’ Argonautica. Neoptolemus is mentioned in both the Iliad (19.327–33) and the Odyssey (11.505–37). Book 8: Eurypylus and Neoptolemus lead out their forces, and each is successful in the battle. Eventually they meet, exchange proud words, and fight. Eurypylus is slain. Neoptolemus runs riot. Ares rallies

12240-465: The storm. The plot of Posthomerica begins where Homer's Iliad ends, immediately after Hector's body was regained by the Trojans. Penthesileia, a daughter of Ares , arrives at Troy with a group of Amazon warriors . They arrive from the Thermodon River. Penthesileia has come to share the hardships of war and to escape her people after accidentally killing her sister ; she was aiming for

12360-437: The stressed vowel; the so-called breathing marks ( rough and smooth breathing ), originally used to signal presence or absence of word-initial /h/; and the diaeresis , used to mark the full syllabic value of a vowel that would otherwise be read as part of a diphthong. These marks were introduced during the course of the Hellenistic period. Actual usage of the grave in handwriting saw a rapid decline in favor of uniform usage of

12480-404: The strongest oath that he can make. Following the death of Patroclus, who wore Achilles's armor in the fighting, Thetis comes to Achilles to console him in his grief. She vows to return to him with armor forged by Hephaestus , the blacksmith of the gods, and tells him not to arm himself for battle until he sees her coming back. While Thetis is gone, Achilles is visited by Iris , the messenger of

12600-444: The temple of Athena, incurring the goddess’s wrath. The city is set ablaze. Theseus’ mother, Aethra, unexpectedly meets her grandsons. Priam’s daughter Laodice prays to be swallowed up by the earth. Most of these events were narrated in the Sack of Ilium. The best-known extant account is that in Virgil’s Aeneid (2.250–804), where the narrator is Aeneas. Book 14: The women of Troy are assigned to their new masters. Helen’s beauty prevents

12720-417: The truth about the horse, but is cursed so that nobody believes her. She attempts to burn the horse but is prevented from doing so. The Trojans celebrate their victory, but are left unprepared for the Argives as they exit the horse and kill the Trojans. Priam is killed by Neoptolemos. Menelaos kills Deiphobos, who has married Helen after Paris' death. Troy is burned to the ground. The women of Troy are given to

12840-528: The ultimate recourse is to Zeus for protection, here the poem seems to point to an alternative structure of cosmic relations." Once, Thetis and Medea argued in Thessaly over which was the most beautiful; they appointed the Cretan Idomeneus as the judge, who gave the victory to Thetis. In her anger, Medea called all Cretans liars, and cursed them to never say the truth. Zeus had received

12960-467: The war, in spite of the pleading of his mother, Deïdamia. They return to Troy just in time to rescue the Greek cause. Neoptolemus is given his father’s armor, and he rushes into battle. The book closes with his formal welcome from Phoenix and the Greek commanders. Both sides are now confident of success. The embassy of Odysseus and Diomedes to Scyros was told in the Little Iliad. Sophocles and Euripides wrote plays entitled Men of Scyros, now lost, which treated

13080-406: The wooden image of Thetis, she set up the woman Cleo in a temple for the goddess. This Leandris did because of a vision in a dream, but the wooden image of Thetis is guarded in secret. In one fragmentary hymn by the seventh-century BC Spartan poet Alcman , Thetis appears as a demiurge , beginning her creation with poros (πόρος) "path, track" and tekmor (τέκμωρ) "marker, end-post". Third

13200-580: Was skotos (σκότος) "darkness", and then the Sun and the Moon . A close connection has been argued between Thetis and Metis , another shape-shifting sea-power later beloved by Zeus. but prophesied-bound to produce a son greater than his father because of her great strength. Herodotus noted that the Persians sacrificed to "Thetis" at Cape Sepias. By the process of interpretatio graeca , Herodotus identifies

13320-574: Was a distinct dialect of Greek itself. Aside from the Macedonian question, current consensus regards Phrygian as the closest relative of Greek, since they share a number of phonological, morphological and lexical isoglosses , with some being exclusive between them. Scholars have proposed a Graeco-Phrygian subgroup out of which Greek and Phrygian originated. Among living languages, some Indo-Europeanists suggest that Greek may be most closely related to Armenian (see Graeco-Armenian ) or

13440-526: Was about to burn away when her husband stopped her, had not been protected. (A similar myth of immortalizing a child in fire is seen in the case of Demeter and the infant Demophoon ). In a variant of the myth first recounted in the Achilleid , an unfinished epic written between 94 and 95 AD by the Roman poet Statius , Thetis tried to make Achilles invulnerable by dipping him in the River Styx (one of

13560-557: Was also used in Ancient Greek. Greek has occasionally been written in the Latin script , especially in areas under Venetian rule or by Greek Catholics . The term Frankolevantinika / Φραγκολεβαντίνικα applies when the Latin script is used to write Greek in the cultural ambit of Catholicism (because Frankos / Φράγκος is an older Greek term for West-European dating to when most of (Roman Catholic Christian) West Europe

13680-556: Was by far the most widely spoken lingua franca in the Mediterranean world . It eventually became the official language of the Byzantine Empire and developed into Medieval Greek . In its modern form , Greek is the official language of Greece and Cyprus and one of the 24 official languages of the European Union . It is spoken by at least 13.5 million people today in Greece, Cyprus, Italy, Albania, Turkey , and

13800-498: Was courted by both Zeus and Poseidon , but she was married off to the mortal Peleus because of their fears about the prophecy by Themis (or Prometheus , or Calchas , according to others) that her son would become greater than his father. Thus, she is revealed as a figure of cosmic capacity, quite capable of unsettling the divine order. (Slatkin 1986:12) When Hephaestus was thrown from Olympus, whether cast out by Hera for his lameness or evicted by Zeus for taking Hera's side,

13920-485: Was recorded in writing systems such as Linear B and the Cypriot syllabary . The alphabet arose from the Phoenician script and was in turn the basis of the Latin , Cyrillic , Coptic , Gothic , and many other writing systems. The Greek language holds a very important place in the history of the Western world. Beginning with the epics of Homer , ancient Greek literature includes many works of lasting importance in

14040-459: Was to be awarded only "to the fairest." In most interpretations, the award was made during the Judgement of Paris and eventually occasioned the Trojan War . As is recounted in the Argonautica , written by the Hellenistic poet Apollonius of Rhodes , Thetis, in an attempt to make her son Achilles immortal, would burn away his mortality in a fire at night and during the day, she would anoint

14160-580: Was under the control of the Frankish Empire ). Frankochiotika / Φραγκοχιώτικα (meaning 'Catholic Chiot') alludes to the significant presence of Catholic missionaries based on the island of Chios . Additionally, the term Greeklish is often used when the Greek language is written in a Latin script in online communications. The Latin script is nowadays used by the Greek-speaking communities of Southern Italy . The Yevanic dialect

14280-637: Was used for literary and official purposes in the newly formed Greek state. In 1976, Dimotiki was declared the official language of Greece, after having incorporated features of Katharevousa and thus giving birth to Standard Modern Greek , used today for all official purposes and in education . The historical unity and continuing identity between the various stages of the Greek language are often emphasized. Although Greek has undergone morphological and phonological changes comparable to those seen in other languages, never since classical antiquity has its cultural, literary, and orthographic tradition been interrupted to

14400-673: Was written by Romaniote and Constantinopolitan Karaite Jews using the Hebrew Alphabet . In a tradition, that in modern time, has come to be known as Greek Aljamiado , some Greek Muslims from Crete wrote their Cretan Greek in the Arabic alphabet . The same happened among Epirote Muslims in Ioannina . This also happened among Arabic-speaking Byzantine rite Christians in the Levant ( Lebanon , Palestine, and Syria ). This usage

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