The Forum

008

Stick Your Head in the Sand!

I don’t understand the people who are offended by articles like “How to Find a Brothel in Pompeii” (Thomas A.J. McGinn, January/February 2004). Why do they bother to read them?

All of your articles are extremely interesting, and I love to be reminded that “there’s nothing new under the sun.”

Real Life

Not long ago I decided that you would never publish articles that depict ancient cultures and societies as they truly existed. Then I read the issues with articles on prostitution in Pompeii and Roman toilets (Ann Olga Koloski-Ostrow, “Roman Latrines: How the Ancients Did Their Business,” May/June 2004). I then realized that I was mistaken, and I now wish I could afford to take out subscriptions to make up for the people who cancel theirs because they are offended by glimpses of real life.

A Fine and Private Place

Ann Olga Koloski-Ostrow noted that “Romans preferred the privacy and convenience afforded by a single-seat toilet at home.”

Things have not changed that much over the millennia. Not too long ago, trains were the preferred mode of long-distance travel. European trains had first-, second- and third-class coaches, but well-to-do travelers chose instead accommodations offered by the Compagnie International des Wagons-Lits et des Grands Express Européens—Pullman cars. These Pullman cars had the standard toilet facilities at each end of the car, but to accommodate the preference for privacy, each private compartment had its own sink and “chamber pot.” Naturally the Pullman car attendants took care of emptying and cleaning these amenities.

Transcribing Homer

I wonder what Gregory Nagy (“Is Homer Historical: An Interview with Gregory Nagy,” May/June 2004) thinks about the theory presented by Homeric scholar Barry Powell in your very first issue (“Who Invented the Alphabet? The Greeks,” Premiere Issue 1998)—that the Greek alphabet was developed from Phoenician script specifically to transcribe Homer? It does seem likely that the intricacies of Homer’s language could not be readily captured in Phoenician script, which was used mainly for commercial transactions.

Gregory Nagy replies:

This question is interesting, though I do not think the Greek alphabet was invented to record the Homeric Iliad and Odyssey. Also, I am wary of the assumption that writing was needed to capture the subtleties of poetry and to transmit poetry to other peoples and later generations. The earliest recorded Greek poetic inscriptions show a very inaccurate rendering of the underlying poetry, which was evidently composed without the involvement of writing. Writing was involved only in making the inscriptions, not in making the poetry that was being transcribed. Poetic inscriptions needed to be written 010because they were meant to be inscriptions, not because they were meant to record poetry per se. (For more on this, see my Homeric Responses [University of Texas Press, 2003].)

Were There Two Homers?

Gregory Nagy views the Iliad and the Odyssey as “streamlined and regularized” rhapsode performances not written down until the sixth or fifth century B.C.. In other words, no “Homer” required. Yet canonical scholarship has seen the two poems differing so much in attitude that the assumption of an author seemed to require a half century separating their compositions—one (the Iliad) by a young Homer and the other (the Odyssey) by an elderly Homer. Hence the debate on one versus two Homers. How does Nagy explain the different “feel” of the two poems, if they were parallel performances through the same centuries, regularized by the same rhapsodic process?

Gregory Nagy replies:

It is not that “no Homer is required.” The history of Homeric reception in the ancient world shows that the concept of Homer was indeed required. But the problem is, this concept kept changing over time. Early on, Homer was thought to be the author of many epics. By the fifth century B.C., however, people viewed Homer as the author of only the Iliad and Odyssey. The latter view is connected to a tradition of performing the Iliad and Odyssey as parallel epics at the Panathenaea festival in Athens. The differences between the two epics could certainly have been maintained and even highlighted in these parallel performances. I discuss this idea of parallel evolution via parallel performances in Homeric Questions (University of Texas Press, 1996).

What’s in a Pim?

There seems to be some question as to the value of the pim mentioned in 0531 Samuel 13. The New Revised Standard Version, the Jewish Study Bible, the New International Version Study Bible, the International Standard Version and the New American Standard Bible give its value at two-thirds of a shekel. In your interview with Gregory Nagy, however, you give its value at half a shekel. How are these values determined?

Oded Borowski, of Emory University, replies:

To calculate the value of the pim, one does not have to be a rocket scientist. The most common weights from the biblical period (called Iron Age II by scholars, roughly the first half of the first millennium B.C.) in the archaeological record come from Judah; they are made of stone and are dome-shaped. We have an ample collection of shekel weights marked with different denominations. By weighing each of these objects and dividing by the number of shekels inscribed on the dome, we know the average weight of a shekel (around 11.5 grams, or .4 ounce). When a domed stone weight with the inscription pim was discovered and weighed, it was found to be equal to two-thirds of a shekel (not a “half-shekel,” as stated in the interview). By using this method, we have also discovered the value of other weights, such as the beqa, or half-shekel, and nzp, or five-sixths of a shekel. (For more information, see my “From Shekels to Talents: Money in the Ancient World,” Biblical Archaeology Review, September/October 1993.)

Happy to Oblige

I am worried about Iraq’s irreplaceable archaeological heritage, particularly such sites as Babylon, Nineveh, Assur, Kalhu, Ur, Nippur and Lagash. The war and military activity threaten all of them. Please keep us posted. Damage to any of these sites would be a world tragedy.

I would also like to see an article on the Amazons, the legendary female warriors of antiquity. Herodotus, Plutarch and Homer all mentioned them. Could they have been a historical reality rather than a myth? Such an article would be fascinating.

Mr. Denit, it turns out, foretells the near future. We have already assigned an article describing the current archaeological situation in Iraq, including both damage to ancient sites caused by looting or fighting and an update on the state of the Baghdad Museum’s collection of antiquities. We also have an article in the works on the Amazons, but we will not let this cat out of the bag.—Ed.

Stick Your Head in the Sand!
I don’t understand the people who are offended by articles like “How to Find a Brothel in Pompeii” (Thomas A.J. McGinn, January/February 2004). Why do they bother to read them?