From: Timothy Tow (ttow@tow.com)
Date: Mon Jan 22 1996 - 16:23:28 EST
I'm posting this question to this list on the advice of a friend.
I'm not on this mail list so please reply to me directly.
I was re-reading the Odyseey and the Iliad, and I recall reading
from some literary source that the expression of '10 years' in Homeric
Greek was a colloquialism for "a long period of time."
I asking this because if Homer's use of the expression '10 years'
for the duration of siege of Troy is taken figuratively then his stories
makes more sense chronologically then if it were taken literally.
Then the Trojan War and all of its assorted aftermath events may
not have taken over 20 years after all. Should I take the '10 years'
expression literally or figuratively.
Was '10 years' a common colloquialism for a "a long time" even in
other Greek dialects?
Tim
____________________________________________________________________________
Timothy Tow ttow@tow.com Phone 415 813-6813
3460 West Bayshore Road, Palo Alto, CA. 94303 Fax 415-493-0281
____________________________________________________________________________
Tim
____________________________________________________________________________
Timothy Tow ttow@tow.com Phone 415 813-6813
3460 West Bayshore Road, Palo Alto, CA. 94303 Fax 415-493-0281
____________________________________________________________________________
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