Some are gloriously easy because they are (so far) always written in capital letters and are short. Once one goes from the Greek to Latin letters---thank you, Barbara---interpretation is easy. Still, looking at the exuberant mosaics in the glorious New Museum at Mytilini, and reading for oneself, MENANDER (shown as distinguished and pretty solemn for a writer of comedies) and THALIA (shown as beautiful with a distinctly mischievious smile)---is the stuff of which dreams are made. (This computer doesn't easily write the Greek letters, so please accept the Latin. There seem to be do differences between these ancient letters and those we've learned through Athenazde.)
This is, however, cheating a bit since most inscriptions in the museums are translated. So I have been hiking and clambering and wandering about the heaps and piles and stacks of antiquity all about most of the historical sites, being mindful of serpents. Persephone, intoxicated with light and sweet air after those six dark months, has danced like a Meanad across lovely Greece. In her footsteps are cascades, billows, mounds, carpets, galaxies of white daisies, big yellow daisies, grape hyacincths, scarlet anemonies, purple and blue windflowers, tiny enamelled four and five petalled lavendar flowers like jewels. And a few serpents.
There are inscriptions on stele, on plinths, on columns: just on the ground there by your foot. Lean over and let's see. These are just as easy to read letter-by-letter but are more difficult for me to translate, in part because there are no word indicators such as spaces.
Dear ECCE readers---can you help? Here's one from a plinth:
What else can a pre-novice in Greek read? Street signs, for one. Look, everywhere there's ODOS ("road, street", one of the first words we learned. The street names are also in capital letters so navigating is a pleasure, not only in the towns but also on the highways. And menus---well, quite a bit of the menus. Most of Greek television is captioned; so some television is a double-delight in coordinating (at least a bit) pronunciation and the written word. Church inscriptions are everywhere in these painting-and-inscription glories and marvels. An incentive, if one were needed, to learn more: much more!
Page 9 ~ Food and the Romans--I