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On reading the Wikipedia article about Magic, I learned that Agrippa , a German Renaissance man, wrote about many kinds of magicians and of magic, such as those we now call illusionists (doing tricks with playing cards, etc.), astrologers, sorcerers, "philosophers of nature" who make inferences...

The END? Oh yea! One thing leads to another......... I mentioned a well known fact, that in Greek (as well as in Latin and other languages) sometimes an adjective is used, with or without modifications, as a noun, which thereby becomes the name of the denoted thing. So, e.g., the adjective...

Another observation (while I continue investigating the classical Greek language): The Liddell-Scott Lexicon points out that Melissa [Bee] is an Ionian word, whereas Melitta is an Attic word, and that on some occasions, Melissa was used [in literature] as a synonym of Meli [Honey]. Unfortunately...

[never say NEVER.......] Yes, "melissa" must have been coined after the Bee was called by some other name (that does not utilize "meli"), but now I think that "melissa" was coined as an epithet of the insect. Some Dorian said, "*hA *hapa melissa estin" and somehow the descriptive adjective got...

Conclusion Unfortunately the English language does not have an adjective for Bee that employs this very word as its root; Bee is used as an adjective, as in "bee honey". // We know that Eng. Bee is < Anglo-Saxon [Old English] Beo, wherefore the famous Beowulf = Bee-wolf.// Now, in view of the...

I may as well continue dealing with some difficulties that I mentioned in this thread. As I noted, Melissa or Melitta [= bee, honey bee] is Apis in Latin. To add: The Cretan "Bee" was Spex, which, like the two aforementioned Greek names, is not a cognate of Apis. So, I have an unresolved...

It is true that, speaking of words, the English Greece comes from the Latin Graecia, but this word is < Gr. Graikia, the land of the Graikoi. In ancient times, specific ethnic names were used, IN GREEK, for the generic "/greeks/", namely Akheoi, Iaones, Graikoi, etc., and Aristotle mentions the...

Yesterday, unwittingly and for no reason, I used Bile as a synonym of Gall by writing "Gall/Bile". Only much later did I realize that Engl. Bile seems to be a direct derivative of Gr. KholE, which is also responsible for Cholic. // Engl. Melancholic is obviously from Gr. Melano-kholE...

Yesterday, after dealing with my Mg.Gr. Mele, I was reminded of a parallel lexical situation: Gall in Mg.Gr. is Fele; in Latin it is Fel/Fellis, which is the basis of many European cognate words -- Fiel, Fiele, etc. Again, my Fele is unique and presumably derived directly from a Cl. Greek word...

It's true that some Latin words entered Greek, but not in the case of "Honey". Indeed, Gr. Meli and Lat. Mel are cognate words, but there is no way offhand to tell which comes from which. I hold that Mel and the ubiquitous Miel is from Meli because Cl. Greek has many words [used by the ancient...

I, too, have mixed feelings about learning any extinct language. Isn't it a waste of time for students? The purpose for the study, to begin with, is to be able to read the great ancient Greek literature in the original language, ... or for a foreigner to study Italian in order to understand...

PAESTUM [Poseidonia], near Naples [Neapolis] in central Italy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paestum

SELINUNTE in Sicily https://en.visitselinunte.com/archaeological-park https://www.bing.com/search?q=selinunte+sicily&...

An extension rather than a reply. I understand that the modern Greek word for Almond is Amygdalo; that is, the terminal letter of the classical word [eta] turned into an omicron rather than into a customary Doric alpha. So, the vowel shift must have taken place among the Ionians or the...

Indeed "mandorla" [akin to "mandola"] is the standard Italian word for "almond", from the Latin word which is from the classical Greek "amygdalE". A nice circulation of words! Even though the Greek colonization [8th century B.C.] took place in southern Italy, there was a town in Etruscan...

The aforementioned hypothetical Yaos [*Yaos] was the name of a god whose daughters or sisters are called Yades. Actually I have never seen any mention of this god; the name -- or, more exactly "YAS" [correctly Hyas], mentioned online -- is a back-formation, a modern derivation, from the extant...

Francesco, thank you for your information. Online pictures of this place show its amazing beauty -- I only wish I could go there! As I do work in linguistics, its Greek name intrigues me, since "Piges" is not the classical name for "spring, fountain", namely "Pidax". Where could "Piges" come...

Furthermore, there are two ancient Greek words for "rain", namely Ombros (= rain-storm or thunderstorm, such as Zeus would send) and Yetos (the common rain). They said that Zeus uei as well as ombrei ; *Ya-os (and his daughters or sisters, the Yades) simply uei. (The idea that a God "causes"...

In my online searches, I found out that EIGHT is a sacred or powerful number, in many cultures. For instance, China had the eight Immortals, but not much information about the ancient Greek culture, except for the fact that 8 as a symbol of harmony, prosperity, etc., was associated with...

I still maintain this, but the sacredness of NINE was undoubtedly known also from other contexts, which are mentioned in various lexicons. In fact, I have figured out that the "nine judges" must be the nine archons instituted in many city-states after the middle of the 7th century B.C. They...