Postcard 72: The Seventh Quarry (& The Women of Linear B)

The Archive Room [where Linear B tablets were found], Palace of Nestor, son of Neleus at sandy Pylos
[Top two photographs copyright David Gill]

Looking out over sandy Pylos

July 2010: my poem, 'The Women of Linear B' [ref. 15/2005] has just been published in 'The Seventh Quarry' [p.11, issue 12, Summer 2010, editor Peter Thabit Jones].

I have loved the adventurous tales of the Homeric hero Odysseus since childhood, so it is hardly surprising that I went on to take my degree in Classical Studies [at Newcastle upon Tyne]. It is perhaps not surprising either that I went on to marry a Mediterranean Archaeologist!

I have always been fascinated by the Homeric epithets [and here]: rosy-fingered Dawn and wine-dark Sea come immediately to mind. You may also be familiar with grey-eyed Athena or crafty Odysseus.

Many have heard of Penelope, wife of Odysseus, and her battle with the suitors while her husband was away at the war. The Olympian goddesses play their part in the Homeric epic, along with females of supernatural powers like Circe - and the alluring Sirens, whose songs drove sailors onto the rocks.

Such is the stuff of mythology and epic, but I wanted to look behind what we know as timeless literature (though it actually began as oral poetry, delivered in ring cycles by bards), to see what tasks were being undertaken by the real women - many of them slaves - who lived through most uncertain times.

Linear B tablets, deciphered by Michael Ventris and John Chadwick, provide some clues for the role of those women who beavered away behind the scenes in the area of sandy Pylos, in the western Peloponnese. This was the starting point for my poem.

A Linear B tablet, listing religious offerings of olive oil.
This one is in the British Museum.
This one was not from the mainland:
it was found at Knossos on Crete by Sir Arthur Evans,
and is Minoan [LMII].

N.B. If you would like to take out a subscription
to The Seventh Quarry poetry magazine, details can be found here.

Websites of interest:

• In Search of the Trojan War by Michael Wood (you may have watched the television series)
• David Gill's Pylos pictures
• The Linear B Tablets
  
• Pylos - site information
  
• Finds from Pylos in the Chora Museum
  
• Troy - the movie
• Linear B on heritage-key.com and here
  
• Resource on ancients scripts
  

Postcard 34: Museum Meanderings

The debate over the Parthenon marbles and their rightful place has continued for many years.

The new purpose-built museum in Athens will open its doors to visitors on 20 June 2009.

Keats wrote about the Parthenon sculptures in London in his celebrated poem, 'On seeing the Elgin Marbles...'; but although the Parthenon has been a subject of much political debate, it has not been a source of great poetic inspiration in modern times. Liana Giannakopoulos has identified three Greek poets, however, who have tackled the subject.

Ancient writers on the Parthenon include Plutarch: you can read about some of them here.

Postcard 13: Swifts over the Parthenon

My archaeologist husband, David, has supplied the podcast (via YouTube) for this postcard from Athens. He writes,

'I was sitting next to the Parthenon in late September and the sky was thick with swirling swifts (or were they swallows? Please let us know!). I pointed the microphone of my digital recorder skywards and here is a snatch of the sound. The pictures, some from Philopappos Hill, were taken in the late afternoon.'

See Robert D. Lamberton and Susan I. Rotroff, Birds of the Athenian Agora (Excavations of the Athenian Agora, Picture Book 22; Princeton NJ: American School of Classical Studies at Athens, 1985) [Google Books] [Oxbow UK] [Oxbow USA].

Caroline continues:

'Menippus calls himself the swallow'
(The Herald in The Birds by Aristophanes)

Here in Britain, the RSPB Birdwatch 30 has been much on our minds this past weekend, so it seemed a good idea to take a different slant on the avian theme. You can see my recent sightings on my 'Birdstack' in the right hand column of this blog. Incidentally, the Little Owl (Athene noctua) was named after the goddess of Athens and wisdom, Athene [aka Athena]. Did you know about the origin of the phrase 'owls to Athens'?

Further reading

• Aristophanes' Birds, a book by Nan Dunbar [Clarendon Press] about The Birds, the comic play by Aristophanes, including a discussion on the different species (e.g. the quasi-bird character of the Hoopoe) in the script.
  
• A Magical Tour of Ancient Greece - a travel diary by Classics student, Ellen Brundige.
• Birds and beasts of the Greek Anthology by Norman Douglas (birds from p.68, beginning with the eagle).
• The British Museum: Birds (2008, ed. Mavis Pilbeam). I spent a Christmas book token on this lovely book. It has a fine illustration of the Common Hoopoe by John White and an excerpt from The Swallow by Charlotte Smith.
  
• What would Hadrian Say? online poem about Athens by David Gill
• Athens: an Art Deco house with an Acropolis view? (Times online)