Torsten Meißner
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- September 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780197266540
- eISBN:
- 9780191884245
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197266540.003.0002
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Prose and Writers: Classical, Early, and Medieval
The decipherment of Linear B in 1952 has added a completely new historical dimension to the study of Greek personal names. Due to the administrative nature of the texts, the Linear B documents ...
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The decipherment of Linear B in 1952 has added a completely new historical dimension to the study of Greek personal names. Due to the administrative nature of the texts, the Linear B documents provide ample evidence for personal names at the end of the Aegean Bronze Age. Much of the research has focussed on interpreting and etymologising individual names, a task made difficult, and to some extent uncontrollable, by the nature of the script that renders the Greek language less precisely than the later alphabetic script. The criteria to identify and therefore define a personal name in Linear B is examined and some common interpretations are questioned on this basis. Naming habits and name structures are also examined and compared to the situation in the first millennium, and the differences between the two periods are highlighted. This article argues that any overarching account of personal names in Mycenaean Greek needs to be sensitive to the different sites and find spots of Linear B documents, and therefore to the historical and social contexts reflected in the texts. The main aims of this article are both methodological and practical and can form the basis for future work in this area.Less
The decipherment of Linear B in 1952 has added a completely new historical dimension to the study of Greek personal names. Due to the administrative nature of the texts, the Linear B documents provide ample evidence for personal names at the end of the Aegean Bronze Age. Much of the research has focussed on interpreting and etymologising individual names, a task made difficult, and to some extent uncontrollable, by the nature of the script that renders the Greek language less precisely than the later alphabetic script. The criteria to identify and therefore define a personal name in Linear B is examined and some common interpretations are questioned on this basis. Naming habits and name structures are also examined and compared to the situation in the first millennium, and the differences between the two periods are highlighted. This article argues that any overarching account of personal names in Mycenaean Greek needs to be sensitive to the different sites and find spots of Linear B documents, and therefore to the historical and social contexts reflected in the texts. The main aims of this article are both methodological and practical and can form the basis for future work in this area.
Robert Parker (ed.)
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- September 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780197266540
- eISBN:
- 9780191884245
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197266540.001.0001
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Prose and Writers: Classical, Early, and Medieval
Changing Names investigates, in relation to the ancient Greek world, the ways in which preferences in personal name-giving change: through shifts in population, cultural contact and imperialism, the ...
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Changing Names investigates, in relation to the ancient Greek world, the ways in which preferences in personal name-giving change: through shifts in population, cultural contact and imperialism, the popularity of new gods, celebrity status of individuals, increased openness to external influence, and shifts in local fashion. Several major kinds of change due to cultural contact occurred: Greek names spread in regions outside Greece that were subject to Greek cultural influence (and later conquest), while conversely the Roman conquest of the Greek world led to various degrees of adoption of the Roman naming system; late in antiquity, Christianisation led to a profound but rather gradual transformation of the name stock. Individuals in culturally mixed societies sometimes bore two names, one for public or official use, one more domestic; but women of non-Greek origin were more likely to stick with indigenous names. 'Structural' changes (such as the emergence of the English surname) did not occur, though in late antiquity an indication of profession tended to replace the father's name as a secondary identifier; in some regions 'second' names became popular, perhaps in imitation of the longer Roman naming formulae. The volume is arranged partly thematically, partly through regional case studies (from within and beyond old Greece). Individuals who change their names (typically slaves after manumission) are also considered, as is the possibility that a name might change its 'meaning'.Less
Changing Names investigates, in relation to the ancient Greek world, the ways in which preferences in personal name-giving change: through shifts in population, cultural contact and imperialism, the popularity of new gods, celebrity status of individuals, increased openness to external influence, and shifts in local fashion. Several major kinds of change due to cultural contact occurred: Greek names spread in regions outside Greece that were subject to Greek cultural influence (and later conquest), while conversely the Roman conquest of the Greek world led to various degrees of adoption of the Roman naming system; late in antiquity, Christianisation led to a profound but rather gradual transformation of the name stock. Individuals in culturally mixed societies sometimes bore two names, one for public or official use, one more domestic; but women of non-Greek origin were more likely to stick with indigenous names. 'Structural' changes (such as the emergence of the English surname) did not occur, though in late antiquity an indication of profession tended to replace the father's name as a secondary identifier; in some regions 'second' names became popular, perhaps in imitation of the longer Roman naming formulae. The volume is arranged partly thematically, partly through regional case studies (from within and beyond old Greece). Individuals who change their names (typically slaves after manumission) are also considered, as is the possibility that a name might change its 'meaning'.
