senryu – why say? = pourquoi dire ?

why say?
you are in our prayers – say
we are the light

pourquoi dire ?
vous êtes dans nos prières - dites
nous sommes la lumière

Richard Vallance

Bahá'í logo for world religions = le logo des Bahá'í des religions du monde

To my mind, there are really no religions, there is only God and ourselves. So we do not need to pray, because we are in essence prayer. To love God and to love one another is the only thing that matters.

Selon moi, il n'y a pas de religions, il y a seulement Dieu et nous-mêmes. Donc nous n'avons pas besoin de prier, parce que nous sommes essentiellement la prière. La seule chose qui compte, c'est d'aimer Dieu et les uns les autres.  

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summer haiku = virgin of the sea, in Mycenaean Linear B, ancient Greek, English and French

summer haiku = virgin of the sea, in Mycenaean Linear B, ancient Greek, English and French



virgin of the sea,
the priestess of the winds
blesses our fleet

vièrge de la mer,
la prêtresse des vents
bénit notre flotte 
 
Richard Vallance

The Blue Mosque

The Blue Mosque



In Istanbul, the Blue Mosque, Allah’s shrine
of Holy shrines, invokes his Love for all
who visit her but once, His holy sign
for every faith, to those who heed the call;
Yes, raise your eyes on high, and view her vaults
and Carian columns so fairly nuanced
you’ll fall on your knees... where?... in Allah’s sight,
whose Mind is in our humblest minds ensconced.
And if you sense that Jesus too is there
and Moses from the Mountain has returned,
how can the world ignore your every prayer,
how can we fail if love is never spurned?  
    Religions of the world must reunite
    since this, our holy shrine, reveals the Light.


Richard Vallance
February 28 2019

I was profoundly blessed when I had the great good fortune to visit the Blue Mosque, Istanbul, on April 29 2012. Never in my entire life have I ever ever seen a religious shrine as lovely as this. I was utterly overwhelmed by its sheer glory. If you ever get the chance to visit the Blue Mosque, you should not pass it by. You will be so deeply moved and graced by it that you will never regret for an instant your having visited it.

The photo you see here is my own.

J’ai été profondément béni d’avoir la chance inestimable de visiter la Mosquée Bleue à Istanbul le 29 avril 2012. Je n’ai jamais vu de la vie un lieu saint aussi beau que celui-ci.  J’ai été complètement bouleversé par sa gloire imposante. Si vous aurez jamais l’occasion de la visiter, vous ne devez pas la laisser s’échapper. Vous serez tellement ému que vous ne regretterez jamais un seul instant une telle visite.

C’est ma propre photo que vous voyez ici.

 

No Isis, a sonnet lambasting the disgusting ISIS movement!

No Isis, a sonnet lambasting the disgusting ISIS movement!



No Isis, a sonnet lambasting the disgusting ISIS movement! The radical ISIS movement is an appalling  insult to the hallowed memory of the great immortal Egyptian gods, Isis and Osiris! I make no apologies whatsoever for writing this scathing sonnet, because, no matter what the religion, Christianity, Islam or any other religion, fundamentalists are a scourge on the eternal Love of Almighty God.

summer haiku d’ été − saffron goddess = déesse du safran

summer haiku d’ été − saffron goddess  = déesse du safran

saffron goddess
arrayed in white moiré 
in her sanctuary



déesse du safran
habillée en blanc moiré
dans son sanctuaire

Richard Vallance

Senryu – lotus illuminated = lotus illuminé

Senryu – lotus illuminated = lotus illuminé

Bahá’i temple  
all humankind lotus
illuminated



temple Bahá’i 
l’humanité lotus
illuminé

Richard Vallance

Set in the Andean foothills, just beyond Santiago, Chile, the Bahá’i Temple of South America is a domed, luminous structure echoing the rolling typography of the mountains where it is located.

This senryu is based on the famous quote of Bahá’u’lláh (1817-1892), founder of the Bahá’i religion, whose name means “The Glory of God”, as follows:

“The earth is but one country and mankind its citizens.”  

What is a senryu? 

A Senryu (also called human haiku) is an unrhymed Japanese verse consisting of three unrhymed lines of five, seven, and five syllables (5, 7, 5) or 17 syllables in all. A Senryu is usually written in the present tense and only references to some aspect of human nature or emotions, or a Japanese poem similar in structure to haiku, but more concerned with human nature, and is often humorous or satiric -- usually in three lines of seventeen kana.   This senryu is concerned with human emotion, or more accurately, human spirituality. It is not meant to be humorous or satirical. Unlike haiku, senryu do not contain season words = kigo. 

I-je-re-ja, ka-ra-wi-po-ro and others, article by Cécile Boëlle, academia.edu

I-je-re-ja, ka-ra-wi-po-ro and others, article by Cécile Boëlle, academia.edu:

Click here to read this fascinating study on the role of women as priestesses in Mycenaean Religion.



This article is in French. You can download it from the link above and open it in WORD or Open Office.

Academia.edu THESIS The Minoan and Mycenaean Agricultural Trade and Trade Routes in the Mycenaean Empire by Rita Roberts

Academia.edu THESIS The Minoan and Mycenaean Agricultural Trade and Trade Routes in the Mycenaean Empire by Rita Roberts:

Click on this logo to download her thesis:



We are proud to announce that Rita Roberts has fulfilled the requirements of her second year of university, and has passed with a mark of 85 %. We have awarded her 90 % for thesis, The Minoan and Mycenaean Agricultural Trade and Trade Routes in the Mycenaean Empire, which is a finely researched document I highly recommend to any and all. It deals in great detail with every conceivable aspect of Minoan and Mycenaean agricultural trade via their trade routes in the Mycenaean Empire, ca. 1600-1450 BCE. We congratulate Rita on her splendid achievement, and we look forward to her fuflling the exacting requirements of her third and final year of university which commences on July 1 2018, Canada Day. Once she has completed her third year, she will have earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in Minoan and Mycenaean studies.

Rita Roberts’ translation of Knossos tablet KN J 1 f 01, her last tablet for her second year of university

Rita Roberts’ translation of Knossos tablet KN J 1 f 01, her last tablet for her second year of university:

Line 1: Deukijojo = month name + temeno = shrine. The damaged first syllabogram looks like TO. The actual word temeno = “temple” does not appear on the first line of this tablet, since it appears that the the scribe has made a scribal error, which actually happens quite often on Linear B tablets. The writing is messy, and appears to read teno, which would explain the scribal error, i.e. he missed on one syllabogram. Deukijojo could either be a month name, in which case it means “the tenth month” or more properly in this content, “of the tenth month” or it could simply be a person’s name. If it refers to the tenth month, then it follows that the entire tablet refers to this month.

Line 2:

Wakatanujo – or- Dukatanayo = name + newejo = “of something new” + 3 units (probably bales) of barley. Hence the line refers to 3 new units (probably bales) of barley from Wakatanujo – or- Dukatanayo

Line 3:

Padarejode = a place hame, which is a sanctuary = hence, olive oil from Dardare and 2 units (probably bales) of barley.

Line 4:

Pade = name plus olive oil and 1 unit (probably a bale) of barley

Line 5:

Pasiteoi = “to all gods” barley and 1 unit of olive oil

Line 6:

olive oil and barley for Qerasiya = goddess Artemis, with numerals absent because of right truncation.

Line 7:

1 unit of barley to all the gods at Aminiso = Amnisos

Line 8:

2 units (probably pithoi) of olive oil for the goddess Erinu. Note that Erinu references one of the Furies (Erynies) in Greek. So it would appear that the scribe tells us that there was a sacrifice to at least one of or probably all of the Furies to appease them so that crops would thrive.

Line 9:

Gold and olive oil and 1 cyperus plant, probably dedicated to the priestess of the winds in Line 10.

Line 10:

4 cyperus plans dedicated to Anemo Ijereja = to the priestess of the winds

Line 11:

Blank and truncated.

Line 12:

3 units (probably pithoi) of olive oil and 2 units of barely plus 2 cyperus trees (also probably dedicated to the priestess of the winds)

Line 13:

Blank and truncated.

COMMENT:

This is the very last tablet Rita Roberts is to translate for her second year of university, and it is by far the most challenging she has ever been confronted with to date. Congratulations to Rita! She is now about to take her final examination for her second year, which is to consist of 25 questions in increasing level of difficulty, the last 5 of which are to be translations of tablets, plus her second year thesis paper, What did the Minoan agricultural sector contribute to the Mycenaean Empire? This paper must be at least 25 pages long, inclusive of the bibliography but excluding illustrations, which will add to the page length of her thesis. Since this thesis paper is much more difficult than her first year thesis, I am allotting her three months to complete it, i.e. Feb. 15 – May 15. However, she must complete the rest of the examination in just 2 weeks (Feb. 15 – March 1 2018).

In the next post, I shall re-inscribe the entire tablet in archaic Greek from the Mycenaean.

 

Translation of a very tricky Linear B tablet, Knossos KN 913 D k 01 by Rita Roberts

Translation of a very tricky Linear B tablet, Knossos KN 913 D k 01 by Rita Roberts:

The decipherment of this tablet is far from clear-cut, and all because of 1 word, paro, the first on both lines 1 and 2. This word very likely corresponds to the ancient Greek pa/loj (palos) = a lot (cast), meaning a lot cast by one or more people to decide who is obliged to do something, and in this case, which is apparently a religious context, that something is the sacrifice of a billy goat and a she goat. Etowono got the lot for the ram, probably the long stick, if that is what it was, given that we are dealing with a ram here. Komawete got the short one for the she goat. It kind of makes sense, and in fact there would seem to be no other rational interpretation of this tablet. It is one of the trickiest I have ever assigned to Rita, and this aroused her suspicions in the first place. Because she could not possibly have recognized the (archaic or ancient) Greek for paro, I had to delve into that word. Otherwise, her translation is highly commendable, and deserves a full 100 %.

 

New interpretation of Linear A tablet HT 7 (Haghia Triada)

New interpretation of Linear A tablet HT 7 (Haghia Triada):

 

A few months ago, I tentatively deciphered Linear A tablet New interpretation of Linear A tablet HT 7 (Haghia Triada), but when I look back on that decipherment now, I find it implausible. So I have re-interpreted here in light of new data I have acquired since then. As the tablet is inscribed mostly in Old Minoan, it is rather difficult to make complete sense of it. However, the two Mycenaean-derived New Minoan (NM1) terms offer us a clue. These are iruja = “a priestess” and tanati, which appears to be dative singular for “death”. However, although iruja is nominative singular, it is followed by the number 3, which would seem to indicate that there are 3 priestesses. And the Minoan plural of a is e, hence iruje. The only explanation I can find for this discrepancy is that the 3 priestesses are operating independently, one by one, each one making at least 1 offering, while 1 priestess makes 2, for a total of 4. But this translation, which is rather convoluted, remains in doubt because I cannot verify with any real certainty the meanings of the Old Minoan words. However, it does manage to hold together. Perhaps someday in the future, we shall unearth more Linear A tablets, which will provide us with insight into the significance of the Old Minoan vocabulary.

Silver pin from Mavro Spelio: A.Y. Nikolaos Museum PL Zf 1

Silver pin from Mavro Spelio: A.Y. Nikolaos Museum PL Zf 1:

 

This silver pin, PL Zf 1, from Mavro Spelio, now housed in the A.Y. Nikolaos Museum, Crete, bears an inscription which may read dextrograde (left-to-right) or sinistrograde (right-to-left), but either way the text reads the same way. The inscription is a mixture of Mycenaean-derived New Minoan (NM1) and Old Minoan. The words Tanunikina (nom. fem. sing.) and Ninuni (dat. sing.) are almost certainly eponyms, with the former acting in some way as an agent of healing to the latter. Apart from the eponyms, the Old Minoan text is indecipherable. But that does not mean we cannot catch the drift of the inscription, because we can. It certainly makes sense that Tanunikina, despite her best efforts to spin or weave a magic spell, cannot heal Ninuna. We can infer that Tanunikina is a healer priestess. Such personages were extremely common in the ancient world, and certainly in Minoan Crete and on the Mycenaean mainland, with this practice surviving into archaic and classical Greece. She may even be an oracle, such as we find at Delphi much later on in ancient Greek history. If she is an oracle, she probably worked from a Minoan peak sanctuary.   

Linear A haiku: the saffron goddess, her crimson dress adorned with ivy

Linear A haiku: the saffron goddess, her crimson dress adorned with ivy:

In this haiku, all of the words except sarai = “flax” or “saffron” (the latter in this context) are Mycenaean-derived New Minoan (NM1). The onomatopoeia of the 3 phrases rolls off the tongue. Not only is her dress adorned with ivy, apparently she is as well.

Linear A haiku: a prayer for the hearth shared with an immortal … wine vowed to Mother Earth

Linear A haiku: a prayer for the hearth shared with an immortal ... wine vowed to Mother Earth:

Linear A fragment PH 7 (Phaistos) which is definitely a religious incantation

Linear A fragment PH 7 (Phaistos) which is definitely a religious incantation:

Linear A fragment PH 7 (Phaistos), entirely inscribed in Mycenaean-derived New Minoan, is definitely a religious incantation. It is fascinating to note that the incantation is highly reminiscent of the Christian mass or communion, call it what you will. The priestess pours water, udiriki (instr. sing.), from a cup, dipaja (gen. sing.) and offers jatimane or the blessed bread of healing to her suppliants, while the whole ceremony, apparently conducted in a small shrine, is illumined by a firebrand. What a lovely, intimate picture of a scared religious ceremony this draws!

Inscription from Malia in New Minoan Linear A, Tainaron, a town with authority

Inscription from Malia in New Minoan Linear A, Tainaron, a town with authority:

Here we have yet another inscription from Malia in New Minoan Linear A, which appears to invoke the supreme authority of Tainaron, a town at the southern tip of Laconia, with the blessings of the gods. If this tablet is indeed inscribed in Mycenaean-derived new Minoan, then it is the fourth of the tablets from Malia I have deciphered, all of them in New Minoan. It would thus appear that the Mycenaeans had assumed suzerainty over Malia before these tablets were inscribed, and that the scribes there were still using the Linear A syllabary to inscribe tablets in Mycenaean Greek, just before the switch-over to the new official syllabary, Linear B. It cannot simply be co-incidental that all of the inscriptions from Malia, including the famous IDAMATE labrys from the Archalochori Cave, appear to be inscribed in Mycenaean-derived New Minoan. In fact, the word Idamate can easily be rendered as “the mother (goddess) of Mount Ida”. It is also a matter of great interest to note that Tainaron itself is the toponym of Cape Tainaron,

where there was a sanctuary of Poseidon, who may very well be the god who has brought blessings on the town. It is to be noted that the Archalochori axe inscribed in proto-Greek is also in a sanctuary where a horde of bronze votive weapons, mostly axes, were discovered. Moreover, Malia tablet MA 1 appears to deal with Minos, the legendary king of Knossos offering gold to Rhea, mother of Zeus. In other words, all of the inscriptions from Malia deal with religious rites. This should come as no surprise, as more Linear A than Linear B tablets appear to focus on religious symbolism or rites.

Except for Tainaro, which is equivalent to the nominative neuter in Linear B, all proto-Greek spellings on this inscription have been adjusted to meet the exigencies of Old Minoan syntax. It would thus appear that etanasu is the Minoan orthography for hestanwn (standing, Greek Latinized), while pijani is the dative or instrumental singular in Minoan of the noun derived from the Greek verb, piainw, to enrich. The orthography of Tainaro appears to confirm that the nominative neuter in Linear B underwent no change in Minoan. This conclusion conforms with the table of 45 apparent Minoan masculine and neuter nominatives I recently posted:

https://linearbknossosmycenae.wordpress.com/2017/05/18/linear-a-nouns-ultimate-o-masculineneuter-nouns-and-adjectives/

Free translation of Linear A tablet KH 5 (Khania) concerning the shipping of wine by sea?

Free translation of Linear A tablet KH 5 (Khania) concerning the shipping of wine by sea?

If this tablet, KH 5 (Khania) is inscribed in Mycenaean-derived New Minoan, then it would appear that it deals with the shipping of wine by sea. The fact that the floor boards are apparently level would imply that the shipment was carried out successfully in calm seas. On line 1, adakisika, which is Mycenaean-derived New Minoan with orthography adapted to Old Minoan, translates as “and adorned with ivy”, which implies that the cargo has been blessed by a priest(ess). If this is the case, there is text missing before this phrase, which after all ends with “and”, hence possibly “and adorned with ivy (blessed by a priest(ess))”. If NA references nauwi, i.e. “on a ship”, then the mention of “on a level wooden floor (i.e. deck)” makes sense in context. This decipherment may be largely correct, but there is no way of verifying this with any certainty. Finally, if PA is the first syllabogram of pa3ni (paini), which I interpret as Old Minoan for “amphora”, then the wine is being shipped in amphorae, the only way wine could have been shipped in Minoan times. As if…

Haghia Triada roundels & noduli

Haghia Triada roundels & noduli:



From: The Haghia Triada administrative documents:

http://www.aegean-museum.it/musint2/en/crete/documents.inc.php

Descriptions from this site (quoted):

Although the writing has not been deciphered neither the language has been interpreted (sic, poor grammar) various data may be obtained from the tablets. First of all, a list of Linear A signs may be hypothesized, which, with its 97 symbols, reveals a syllabic script of a simple typology (consonant + vowel and vowels): the signs are, in fact, too many, to represent a complex syllabic system (as the Near Eastern Cuneiform and the Aegyptian Hieroglyph). To these syllabic signs a long series of "logograms", representing each one a word, are added. 

Types of seals represented:



Roundels:

The roundel is a characteristic document of the Neopalatian Minoan [1] administration, beside the tablet. It is a round clay disk (classified as Wc) with seals impressions along the edge - from one to six impressions - and, on most cases, one inscription on one or both sides. Frequently the inscription consists of a logogram, sometimes also of a sign-group. It seems to represent the last act [2] of an administrative transaction and probably functioned as a receipt. 

The seals stamped on roundels fully coincide with seals stamped on the other different documents. At Haghia Triada 22 roundels have been found, one of them being without (an) inscription. 

Nodules:

It is (sic, They are) the most widespread Aegean Bronze Age document, both geographically and chronologically. These clay small object (sic, objects) (defined as noduli by J. Weingarten) were not always inscribed but only sealed. They appear in two shapes: dome (classified as We) (fig. 4) and disk (classified as Wf) (fig. 5).  At Haghia Triada 54 noduli have been found, in dome shape, and only 7 are inscribed. 

Types:
1 Flat-based nodule:
This type of document is rarely inscribed but regularly sealed. Its characteristic is the negative impression on its reverse (or base) which shows that it had been placed upon a folded piece of parchment around which a thin thread was wound which was also wound into the clay. It appears in two different shapes: standing (fig. 6) or recumbent (fig. 7) (both classified as Wb). At Haghia Triada 76 flat-based nodules have been found, only 2 having a carved inscription. 

2 Hanging nodule [3]:

This small clay piece is characterized by string holes which show that it was fastened to another object by a string. They may present one or two holes. 
Those with two holes (classified as Wd) have an elongated shape (fig. 8), while those with one hole (classified as WA) present five slightly different shapes: pendant, pyramid, cone, dome, pear (fig. 9) [4]. At Haghia Triada 936 single-holes have been found, 851 being inscribed, and 11 two-hole, only 2 being inscribed. 

Comments by Richard Vallance:

[1] Neo-palatial Minoan administration: This is the Minoan administration at Haghia Triada dating from the Middle Minoan MM ca. 1750-1550 BCE & Late Minoan LM1A, ca. 1550-1500 BCE. Documents in Linear A inscribed during the LM1A period may have been inscribed in Mycenaean-derived New Minoan.  
[2] “the last act”. This is ambiguous English. Does it refer to the “the most recent” of the Haghia Triada administration? And if so, does this mean the act or acts date from the Late Minoan LM1A period?  And if so, are these acts inscribed in Mycenaean-derived New Minoan?
[3] The nodules illustrated in my decipherment of Figure 9 above are hanging nodules.
[4] See my 3 decipherments in Figure 9 at the outset of this post. If the syllabogram SI is the first syllable of a Mycenaean-derived New Minoan word, it could represent any of the 3 decipherments I have proposed. If on the other hand, SI represents any Old Minoan word, it is indecipherable.  

Decipherment of the Linear B seal BE Zg2

Decipherment of the Linear B seal BE Zg2:

This decipherment is straightforward. It certainly makes sense that a Linear B seal could deal with 5 torches, more than likely in the context of a religious or royal rite.

Second of 6 Linear A fragments from Phaistos in New Minoan = matere = to Mother (Earth)?

Second of 6 Linear A fragments from Phaistos in New Minoan = matere = to Mother (Earth)?



This second of 6 Linear A fragments from Phaistos appears to bear the inscription 2. = matere, which would be Mycenaean Greek dative for  “to mother”, with right-truncated text possibly following being waiaia or gaiaia = genitive singular = “of Earth”, i.e. “to Mother Earth”. The inscription tagged 1. consists of what appears to be an unidentifiable right-truncated syllabogram on the left, followed by the 2 ideograms identified.  It would thus appear that this fragment is at least partially inscribed in New Minoan, with the word “to mother” being derived from Mycenaean. There is a greater likelihood than might have otherwise been the case that this fragment is in New Minoan, since its provenance is Phaistos, where a large number of Linear B tablets, many of them quite detailed and lengthy, have been unearthed. So in view of this, it would appear that this fragment (of a larger tablet) was probably inscribed in the Linear A syllabary immediately prior to its abandonment and replacement by the new official syllabary, Linear B. Hence its date of composition would probably have been ca. 1450 BCE, and no earlier.