geoffreycaveney's Judaeo-Greek theory

[geoffreycaveney]

Koen has asked how my system works for labels such as those on You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. , You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. , You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. , and You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. , and Linda has asked about page You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. .

This post is my reply to both requests.

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Now to You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. , which Linda has asked me about.

For now I can only address the prominent letters running down the left side margin of the top half of the page:

4th line: [s]
6th line: [d]
8th line: [q]
11th line: [s]
14th line: [o]
17th line: [l]
21st line: [k]
24th line: [r]
29th line: [s]

Treating them as one word or phrase, we have:
[sdqsolkrs]

My reading:
"dukt-Ondrd"

My interpretation:
δυκτ[οι]/διακτ[οι]-ανδρ[ι]δ[ες]

Translation:
"women carried through pipes"

Comments:
The Greek adjective "διακτος" is found in Liddell & Scott's A Greek-English Lexicon, with the meaning "carried through pipes, of oils or unguents used at the bath". Citations include "τα κατ' ανδρα δ[ιακτα] IGRom.4.860 (Laodicea ad Lycum)." Such citations suggest late classical Greek influenced by Latin, and I note the Medieval Latin word "ductus", meaning "conveyance (of water); hence, a channel". Thus the first vowel "u" in this word may not be so surprising. I further remind readers that by the medieval period the Greek vowel letters upsilon and iota were pronounced identically.
The Greek word "ανδρις, ανδριδος" is also found in A Greek-English Lexicon, with the meaning "fem. of ανηρ" (the familiar root and word ανηρ, ανδρος "man"), "woman", and the citation "Sm.Ge.2.23."

Geoffrey

Thank you Geoffrey. I wouldn't have thought the letters down the side would spell something legible, i had assumed they were being given specific values, so that in itself is surprising. When i run the greek word διακτος through google translate, i get its meaning in English as 'lasting', is that somehow linked to the pipes meaning? Conveyance of water, though, is perfect in terms of what i see as the quire's topic.

One has to be careful with Google Translate: If it doesn't recognize the word, it will just assume you misspelled some other word, and provide the translation of that other word. In this case, it gives "lasting" because it reads "διακτος" as a misspelling of "διαρκης", meaning "constant, endless" and thus also "lasting, durable", etc. With Google Translate one always needs to check for this by checking the reverse translation. If you do this in this case, you will see that for "lasting" it returns not "διακτος" but "διαρκης". When I use Google Translate I always double-check everything this way, and I further follow up by checking Wiktionary, Liddell & Scott's A Greek-English Lexicon, and other sources.

Here is a photo of the entry for "διακτος" in Liddell & Scott's A Greek-English Lexicon:

   

Geoffrey