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Why are the people of Troy called Trojans?
#16
My OED gives 1663 as the earliest date for the spelling, by Butler. Before that, Chucer and others had used Troian or Troyan.
Pecunia non olet
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#17
A better one: why is America called America, when it was Columbus who discover it? Ok, i know it was Americo Vespucci who said that the land discovered by Columbus wasn't asia (and some other guy gave the name of America in is map and everebody copied that), but it still seems unfair
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#18
Quote:A better one: why is America called America, when it was Columbus who discover it? Ok, i know it was Americo Vespucci who said that the land discovered by Columbus wasn't asia (and some other guy gave the name of America in is map and everebody copied that), but it still seems unfair

Yes, but what's "fair" got to do with it ? :wink:

Actually, the Greeks and Romans seem to be the only ones who named continents, so we inherited their designations. "Europa" originally refered only to mainland Greece but was later expanded to include the whole continent. "Afri" refers to some (Berber ?) tribe in the Latin, or in the Greek means "without cold." Actually, the Greeks may have refered to Africa as "Libya." So, all three continents were named after mythological women.

Austrailia comes from Latin meaning "South" and Antartica is Greek for "opposite the Arctic."

I forget the name of the Greek who described the known world and subdivided it according to five races : Greeks, Persians, Libyans, Egyptians, and Barbarians. Or maybe the Persians were covered by "Barbarians." Hmm...someone will let us know momentarily I'm sure :wink:



Theo
Jaime
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#19
Quote:A better one: why is America called America, when it was Columbus who discover it? Ok, i know it was Americo Vespucci who said that the land discovered by Columbus wasn't asia (and some other guy gave the name of America in is map and everebody copied that), but it still seems unfair

Actually, some people from the extreme eastern area of modern Asia beat Columbus to it. And, if you talk solely in terms of European discovery, Leif Eriksson is your man. At least Colombia bears Cristobal's patronymic; and the Northern american continent is often refered to, especially poetically, as Columbia. It does seem unfair that Amerigo-come-lately Vespucci should get all the glory, though. Tongue
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#20
I still rather like the idea that Troia was in Britain....and the Greeks landed on the East coast.....!
TroyinEngland
For noble Britons sprang from Trojans bold,
And Troynovant was built of Troyes' ashes cold.
-Edmund Spenser
The Faerie Queene
:wink: :wink:
What is the earliest record of London being named New Troy?
I just realised something....the Trinovante tribe - Troynovant.....hmmmmh
Cristina
The Hoplite Association
[url:n2diviuq]http://www.hoplites.org[/url]
The enemy is less likely to get wind of an advance of cavalry, if the orders for march were passed from mouth to mouth rather than announced by voice of herald, or public notice. Xenophon
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#21
Hmm.....well written and romantic but...

Thiaki for Ithaka is used for first time in a letter of the Venetian Provleptes of the ioninas arrount 1500 A.D. not earlier.
Danaoi appear in Egyptian plates as DanWWoi arrount 1250 B.C.
Greeks were familiar with the British isles under the name "Kassiterides nissi" or "Pewter Islands" as plaque from Amnissos Crete dated 1900 B.C.

The common origin of European words can be easily explained if you see a map of the Area arround 25000 B.C. were the Mediteranean is but two big lakes. Pontus ans Caspia are just one "Great Sarmtian Sea". The tribes and clans originating in this triangle seem to have a more common origin than once belived and yes oral tradition carries attavistic memories but the good professor oversimplifies.

Kind regards
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#22
Quote:
taira1180:2gigc317 Wrote:I forget the name of the Greek who described the known world and subdivided it according to five races : Greeks, Persians, Libyans, Egyptians, and Barbarians. Or maybe the Persians were covered by "Barbarians." Hmm...someone will let us know momentarily I'm sure :wink:



Theo

Yep - the word "barbarian" came from the Greek attempt to reproduce what they thought was the "ba-ba-ba" sound of the Persian language. So the Persians were the people who said "ba-ba-ba", or "barbarians".

That's what my Greek teacher taught me, anyhow.
"It is safer and more advantageous to overcome the enemy by planning and generalship than by sheer force"
The Strategikon of Emperor Maurice

Steven Lowe
Australia
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