Re: scars

Jonathan Robie (jwrobie@mindspring.com)
Fri, 03 Oct 1997 07:27:34 -0400

At 12:44 AM 10/4/97 +1000, Rick Strelan wrote:
>I have frequently come across characters (esp in the papyri) who identify
>themselves (especially in official notices of birth or death) as ASHMOS or
>as having a scar (OULH) somewhere on their body/face. This looks pretty
>common, so I assume the classicists among us can tell me what that all
>means.

I'm not a classicist, but LSJ says that ASHMOS means "without mark or
token", so I assume this means that the person in question has no mark or
scar to identify them. The entry can be found here:

"http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/lexindex?entry=a)/shmos"

>In what sense can a city be ASHMOS (Acts 21:39)?

ASHMOS can also mean without significance, meaningless, unperceived,
unnoticed, without leaving traces.

Jonathan

***************************************************************************
Jonathan Robie jwrobie@mindspring.com http://www.mindspring.com/~jwrobie
POET Software, 3207 Gibson Road, Durham, N.C., 27703 http://www.poet.com
***************************************************************************