A flurry of new videos has recently been dropped by notorious YouTube pop historian Whatifalthist (henceforth WIAH). One of the videos is an "explanation" of Classical Civilization. The video has bad history ranging from small(ish) factual mistakes/speculations to wild overgeneralizations of historical trends. This post will focus on some of the simpler errors, especially regarding the history of the early Greeks. In fact, most of the arguments will be linguistic in nature (this could have been a post on r/badlinguistics, probably), yet the linguistic information nevertheless serves to illuminate historical cultural characteristics, interactions, and migrations which are of relevance to the video. Moreover, this post will serve as part 1 of an analysis of the video in question, with the sequel to be posted by u/UpperLowerEastSide.
Edit: Here's the link to part 2
The Video
We see at the 4-minute mark the following list:
>Influences upon Greek Civilization: > >1. Pre-Indo European > >2. Minoan > >3. Myecenaean [sic] > >4. Dorian > >5. Phoenician
This list already seems a bit strange; why are Minoans singled out from the other Pre-Indo-Europeans? Why are the Mycenaeans and Dorians (which are both "kinds" of Greeks) listed as if they were "external" influences exerted upon the Greeks?
Minoans
WIAH elaborates on the Minoan Civilization: >For the briefest rundown, the Minoans were an Indo-European kingdom on the island of Crete
Aha - our first question is answered: WIAH considers the Minoans to have been Indo-European. However, this is not generally accepted, for several reasons. Primarily, the linguistic information we have regarding the Minoans' language is too scant for a reliable classification, and moreover, our limited information does not point solidly to a relationship with any known language family. Hence, it is presumed to be a pre-Indo-European language (note that there are languages with fragmentary preservation which nevertheless can be reasonably classified as Indo-European; e.g., Phrygian, Thracian, Illyrian) [Fo10]. A few words on the extant data on the "Minoan language": inscriptions in several different scripts dating to the "Middle Minoan" period (2100-1600 BC) have been uncovered. Notably, a script known as Linear A seems to have been later adapted and for
... keep reading on reddit ➡I've struggled for a long time to figure out certain identifiers for Greek authors (something I've never had trouble with when reading Latin). I know you can go by the dialect (Homer uses Homeric, Sappho and Alcaeus use Aeolic... is there anything else that makes this easier?
General Info
Name: Anisia
Nickname: Anni/Annis
Apparent Age: 15
Sex: Female
Birthplace: Mount Kissos, Greece
Species: Oread (Mountain Nymph)
Family:
Sister - Ersi
Sister - Heo
Adoptive Mother - Artemis
Adoptive Sisters - Hunter of Artemis
Appearance
Faceclaim vibes: Here
Eye Colour: Light brown, like the colour of sunbaked earth
Height: 5’3
Voice:
From the different way she pronounces some sounds, to the unusual way she sometimes places her stresses or pitches in words, it's clear English isn’t her first language. Apart from her accent, her voice is clear and mostly understandable, if a bit quiet at times.
Hair:
She has spent the best part of her life finding ways to keep her brown hair up and away from her face while hunting, keeping it in various braids or buns where it can’t get in her way. When she rarely lets it down, it comes down to just below her collarbones in not-quite curls.
Clothing:
Like most Hunters her clothes come in grey, grey and grey, with silver occasionally sneaking in. She’ll usually be seen in a variety of grey zip up jackets, with a white t-shirt or vest top underneath depending on the weather. Although she used to wear black jeans or leggings she has recently become enamoured with cargo shorts, and quite how many pockets they have. Depending on the activities she’s doing she might be seen wearing black combat boots, or more casual white converse.
Additional:
Like all Hunters, she has a faint silver aura around her, a sign of the blessing of Artemis, that is more obvious to those who can see magic. Additionally, because of her Nymph birth her features are a little elf-like. But after renouncing her immortality and spending so long away from her birthplace, it has become difficult to notice without knowing what to look for. Her formerly immortal body still has traces of its immortal past in small, but visible, streaks of ichor throughout her otherwise mortal blood. Anisia is also left handed.
Personality
Anisia is a protective person, caring deeply for her sisters and the natural world she was part of. While she tries to be calm and patient with people, she gets defensive easily and her pride makes it difficult for her to stand slights against her or her adoptive family.
Powers and skills
Passive Power:
- Enhanced stamina
I don't want to step on anybody's toes here, but the amount of non-dad jokes here in this subreddit really annoys me. First of all, dad jokes CAN be NSFW, it clearly says so in the sub rules. Secondly, it doesn't automatically make it a dad joke if it's from a conversation between you and your child. Most importantly, the jokes that your CHILDREN tell YOU are not dad jokes. The point of a dad joke is that it's so cheesy only a dad who's trying to be funny would make such a joke. That's it. They are stupid plays on words, lame puns and so on. There has to be a clever pun or wordplay for it to be considered a dad joke.
Again, to all the fellow dads, I apologise if I'm sounding too harsh. But I just needed to get it off my chest.
07/11/21
δεῦρο (OP: this word has possibly the most varients I have seen. We have δεῦρυ in Aeolic, δεύρω in Homeric, and finally δευρί, δεῦρε, δευρεί and δεῦρο in Attic Greek. So what does this suggest? Well, there is a way in Greek to write towards a place simply by placing -δε at the end of a word. This is something that beginner Greek books don’t mention! Partly, because the demonstrative δε began to fade away in Attic Greek, becoming only reserved for Proper nouns. Etymologically, it suggests that the δε- part indicates motion, and the final part perhaps meant ‘here’ or ‘where’ written in different cases in different parts of Greece. That appears, to me, the most logical reason for the word’s appearance in Greek.)
I. Of place, hither with all Verbs of motion. Plato, Theaetetus (143a) κελεύσειν ἐπιδεῖξαι διατέτριφα δεῦρο - I urge you to come here and show it to me. Aristophanes, Thesmophoriazusae (663) καὶ τὰ δεῦρο/ πάντ᾽ ἀνασκόπει καλῶς - look well for the things hidden here
II. Used as Interjection, come on! in Hom. with 2sg. imperative. (δεῦτε (q. v.) being used with pl.), δεύρω ἄγε (Il.11.314) δεύρω ἄγε (Od.8.145) δεύρω ἴθι (Il.3.130) δεῦτε ἴτω (7.75) δεῦτε ὄρσο (Od.22.395)
III. (Of time) now, hitherto - (OP a good indicator of the change of context into Time rather than Place is if μέχρι is found near δεῦρο) Plato, Timaeus (21d) διὰ δὲ χρόνον καὶ φθορὰν τῶν ἐργασαμένων οὐ διήρκεσε δεῦρο - although the record of it has not endured until now owing to lapse of time and the destruction of those who wrought it Thucydides, The Peloponnesian War (3.64) οὕσπερ μέχρι τοῦ δεῦρο - untill the present hour
Do your worst!
I'm surprised it hasn't decade.
Hello there, I am interested in Ancient Greek and I want to start with then first book of Harry Potter (Harry Potter and the philosopher's stone) that has been translated to Ancient Greek by Andrew Wilson (Άρειος Ποτήρ και η του φιλοσόφου λίθος). Does anyone know what dialect is used? People say his writing style is like Lucian's style. Does this mean it's basically in Koine? Or Attic/Aeolic/Ionian/Doric?
For context I'm a Refuse Driver (Garbage man) & today I was on food waste. After I'd tipped I was checking the wagon for any defects when I spotted a lone pea balanced on the lifts.
I said "hey look, an escaPEA"
No one near me but it didn't half make me laugh for a good hour or so!
Edit: I can't believe how much this has blown up. Thank you everyone I've had a blast reading through the replies 😂
It really does, I swear!
Because she wanted to see the task manager.
Heard they've been doing some shady business.
but then I remembered it was ground this morning.
Edit: Thank you guys for the awards, they're much nicer than the cardboard sleeve I've been using and reassures me that my jokes aren't stale
Edit 2: I have already been made aware that Men In Black 3 has told a version of this joke before. If the joke is not new to you, please enjoy any of the single origin puns in the comments
They’re on standbi
Pilot on me!!
A play on words.
Nothing, he was gladiator.
Or would that be too forward thinking?
Dad jokes are supposed to be jokes you can tell a kid and they will understand it and find it funny.
This sub is mostly just NSFW puns now.
If it needs a NSFW tag it's not a dad joke. There should just be a NSFW puns subreddit for that.
Edit* I'm not replying any longer and turning off notifications but to all those that say "no one cares", there sure are a lot of you arguing about it. Maybe I'm wrong but you people don't need to be rude about it. If you really don't care, don't comment.
What did 0 say to 8 ?
" Nice Belt "
So What did 3 say to 8 ?
" Hey, you two stop making out "
When I got home, they were still there.
I won't be doing that today!
Where ever you left it 🤷♀️🤭
[Removed]
This morning, my 4 year old daughter.
Daughter: I'm hungry
Me: nerves building, smile widening
Me: Hi hungry, I'm dad.
She had no idea what was going on but I finally did it.
Thank you all for listening.
There hasn't been a post all year!
You take away their little brooms
