Did (The) Homer Use The Article? 🍩⚔️ Epic Greek!

Does Homeric Greek use the Classical and Koine Greek word ὁ ἡ τό for the definite article "the," or for a completely different purpose? Let's dive into the fascinating world of Greek philology, and see if we can answer this question *definitively* (heh).

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Intro and outro music: Overture of Die Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute) by Mozart

[scamper]

I got inspired to learn Latin from you Luke! I'm 15, and needed a hobby so I started studying Latin, and have actually found a tutor!

[DerMelodist]

Homer: Look, Marge, I composed the two most important foundational works of Western Literature!
Marge: Homey, the Iliad and Odyssey are likely an oral composition that moved through numerous Greek speaking groups, and part of the evidence for that is the lack of the definite article.
Homer: o D'oh!

[marinanguish]

0:57 a Clint's Reptiles reference was a pleasant surprise

[fabiopaolobarbieri]

Not all Romance languages derive their definite articles from ille, illa. Sardinian uses So and Sa, which come from ipse, ipsa, "the same".

[midtskogen]

One thing I can remember from when I was five or six years old was that I asked my mother what the word 'the' means which I had noticed was so frequent in English texts. She replied that we don't have a word for that, and it really puzzled me that such a common word didn't have a translation. It just seemed impossible.

[stevekaczynski]

I was reading about Linear B and apparently it does not have articles. John Chadwick, an associate of Michael Ventris in showing Linear B to be early Greek, noted that articles are not fully developed in Homer so it was not surprising they seemed to be absent in Linear B.

[sohopedeco]

0:56 Is that a Clint's Reptiles crossover? 🦎

[permanenttrack]

You are one of the people that I would avoid meeting because I would not want to let you down. So thank you for making this channel so that I can enjoy your YOU without any fear of my nature.

[Firebreath]

I would love to hear you talk more about homeric greek! What it sounded like, how it's similar/different from later varieties of greek, all that good stuff! Also maybe videos about mycenaean greek and digamma later down the road?

[PugalshishOfficial]

I find it interesting that "the" Italian words for the come from the Latin for "that". Fun fact, the German word for "the" in the nuter case is "das", which is related to the English word "that"

[Demandroid]

Does the article occur in the earlier Mycenean Greek from Linear B texts?

[labasurasesacasiempre]

That's so interesting! Have you ever thought of creating your own editorial with all these ancient texts worked on by your expertise? Publishing an Illiad edition with the vowel lenght and the digamma in it. Or any integral version of a latin text with all the (so needed) macrons in it. That would be a great addition to the community, besides the huge amount you've given already.:) Thanks for the hard work!

[killerbee]

May I ask why you never reference Mycenaean Greek? Is it because most Mycenaean texts are inventories and not literature?

[emilev]

I really like the videos about Homeric\Archaic greek, thank you! Would be interesting to have one dedicated solely to the prononciation of the name of various characters and gods at the time!

[Ali-fcbv]

Hey man. Just wanna tell you that this channel helped me a lot with my legal lessons that involve Latin and Greek terminology and gave me new insights on history. Thank so much for your dedication and hard work (performs Roman imperial salute)

[susannemuller]

I'm from a special Region in Germany and we need the article For persons😂😂😂 " the Susan" 😅

[labby]

Very interesting that this doesn’t just show up in Indo-European languages, but the very same thing happens in Ancient Egyptian as well. Due to the longevity of the language, you can clearly see an evolution from no definite article, to using a demonstrative in a sense somewhat between English “the” and “this/that”, and finally becoming weakened to a proper definite article.

[cattubuttas]

More on archaic Greek would be to see how were the declensions prior to classic era and to reconstruct some lost cases like ABLATIVE and LOCATIVE. There is something on wiki.

[Angie]

@polyMATHY_Luke This reminds me of a Jeopardy! category they did called "Readings from Homer". X'D

[michellecouturier]

Thank you for your videos, Luke. Have you considered creating readings of classical Greek authors with translations? This content would be very useful.