Greek inscription at Anemurium
- Thread starter lagarthes
- Start date
It's Greek, but as to what it says, I'm not sure.
The first two words look like καλως ελου, could it be...? "Take well..." or something?
I'm a beginner in Greek and I'm still less used to ancient Greek writings, wait and see if someone else comes.
The first two words look like καλως ελου, could it be...? "Take well..." or something?
I'm a beginner in Greek and I'm still less used to ancient Greek writings, wait and see if someone else comes.
It's at the exit to a bath-house and says ΚΑΛΩΣ ΕΛΟΥΣ[Ο]Υ, which means "you had a good wash/bath". Maybe the words had a metaphorical (i.e. spiritual) as well as literal significance. If this had been Attic Greek you'd have expected ΕΛΟΥΣΩ, not ΕΛΟΥΣΟΥ, for the 2nd sing. aor. middle of λούω, which is what I'm assuming the writer was aiming at.
If I'm not mistaken Ionic would have had ΕΛΟΥΣΑΟ, since it didn't contract the second person singular ending of the first aorist middle. Could αο have contracted to ου in certain dialects?
I don't know, but it's tempting to see that as a possibility. Do we know how the pronunciation of -ω and -ου (or -εο and -αο) would have differed in 2nd century Anatolia? I'm woefully ignorant on the subject, I'm afraid, but maybe the two had coalesced in pronunciation to some extent.
My theory was that the writer had simply used the standard Attic/Koine imperfect middle ending (-εσο contracted to -ου) on the aorist stem instead of the usual aorist ending (-ασο contracted to -ω). I have no idea though whether there is any evidence that this was ever done.