Lemnian language: Encyclopedia II - Lemnian language - Translation of the Lemnos Stele

Lemnian language - Translation of the Lemnos Stele

In order to properly translate the stele, one must sift through a sea of hearsay and speculation that abounds about this cloudy text. Some words attract an especially inordinate amount of controversy, yielding multiple and conflicting translations for the same word. We need to obtain a more accurate picture of what this text is telling us. The only way to do this is through a balanced analysis of the smallest details while keeping sight of the larger context at the same time. Let's undo some of the myths that continue to rear their ugly head.

No, <mav> is not a numeral

One of these overly debated words is <mav>. The word is seen in A.2 and assumed by some to be part of a phrase <mav sialχveiš> identifying the age of a deceased person with further comparison to Etruscan . Thus <mav> is often translated as "five" with slight resemblance to Etruscan <maχ> 'five' and <muvalχ> 'fifty'. However this is certainly false because the age is repeated two times in the text, once on line A.3 and another on B.3 where <mav> is nowhere to be seen. Unable to accept this fact, some further imagine that <marašm> must be a scribal error for *mavašm. Again, however this is unlikely because the so-called error is repeated twice (<maraš> on line A.2). More likely is that a would-be translator has fallen prey to his or her own imagination without paying proper attention to these important text patterns. Whatever the value of <mav> really is, it is certainly not a number.

The value of <šivai>

Most have already seen that <šivai aviš sialχviš> is surely relatable to well attested phrases in Etruscan, most notably <zivas avils LXXVI> 'lived 76 years' (inscription known as TLE 880). Since <ziv-> is without a doubt 'to die' in Etruscan, there is strong likelihood that Lemnian šivai means 'died' and thus the person to whom this stele is dedicated had died at the age of 60. But who then was this person?

The name of the person to whom this was dedicated

As one would expect, the person being celebrated is very likely at the beginning of the text on A.1 (<hulaieš>) with a genitive suffix -š attached, meaning 'of' as it does in Etruscan. The name is repeated again at the very beginning of line B.1 (<hulaieši>) with a dative suffix -ši meaning "to" or "for", which is again comparable to Etruscan <-si>. Immediately after we find <φukiasiale> with another recognizable dative suffix from Etruscan, -ale. Thus the name of the person deceased is most likely Hulaie Phukiasi. Both the first and last names are given the dative suffix on line B.2. This may seem odd to English speakers, but this is the pattern we see also in Etruscan -- <mi laris-al meminiie-s> means 'I am of Laris Meminiie', not 'I am of Laris of Meminiie', written on a cup in Campania (ETP 30). So this last name on the stele is then further compared with <φuke> (line B.2) presumed to mean Phocaea, an important region in Asia Minor in those times. This suggests that he was Phocaean, and thus called literally Hulaie the Phocaean.

Suffixes <-m> & <-c>

The comparison between the instances of both <marašm> and <maraš> helps us to properly identify a suffix -m which when compared to Etruscan is the phrasal conjunctive meaning 'and'. A phrasal conjunctive is a suffix used specifically to link two sentences together. An example of phrasal conjunction is "I went to school and I listened to the teacher". In Etruscan, phrasal conjunction is distinguished from nominal conjunction (eg: <apa-c ati-c> "both the father and the mother", Pillar of the tomb of Claudii in Cerveteri, 4th c.BCE) where two nouns, not two phrases, are linked with another suffix, <-c>. Surprisingly, we see that in Lemnian -c may indeed be also used as a second conjunction suffix (note line A.7 <murinai-c>)

Is Hulaie's age "60" or "40"?

Another important controversy involves the value of <sialχveiš> itself. Some say it's 'of 60'; some say it's 'of 40'. This confusion stems from the interpretation, or rather misinterpretation, of the Tartaria dice, an important Etruscan find. On the dice we find the numbers '1' to '6' just as we find on modern dice, except they have been kindly written out in letters for us by the person who made them long ago. Many presume that the pattern of the numbers as they are arranged on the six sides of the dice is such that the value for each side when added to the value on the opposite side equals seven. See Etruscan numerals for further information on this debate.

Assuming this pattern is real for a moment, if we find <ša> on one side and <ci> on the other, and if we are certain from other texts that <ci> is "three", then <ša> must be "four" since 3 + 4 = 7. Unfortunately, these are only assumptions based on even more assumptions. Other Etruscan dice have been found which do not show the same pattern. We can't assume. For all we know the Tartaria dice could in fact show another equally valid pattern: Maybe all the sides when subtracted give three (eg: <ša> "six" minus <ci> "three" perhaps).

Also, based on the first pattern, if <ša> is really "four", <huθ> must be "six" but it is known that the pre-Greek name of Tetrapolis (meaning 'Four-cities' in Greek) was <Υττηνια> "Yttenia", thought to be a Tyrrhenian name containing the numeral <huθ> and dating to a time when Etruscans were still in Asia Minor and the Aegean islands (nb. Herodotus' account in Histories). Thus some insist the opposite, that <huθ> means "four" and <ša> means "six". Which value should we give this number?

Some common sense is in order by directing our attention to the phrase <hulaieš naφuθ>. Since Etruscan <neftš> is known to mean 'grandson', it stands to reason that Hulaie is a grandfather. If he were truly '40', we can't explain the mention of his grandson here who is surely old enough to have participated in the funeral to have special mention! Further while there was much hardship in ancient times, nobility were known to live much longer than common folk. Forty would still be a little young for someone with enough money to erect a stele with his name on it.

So in all, it's likelier that Hulaie was in fact sixty at the time of his death, meaning that <sialχveiš> has the value of 'of 60' and that Etruscan <ša> must mean "six".

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Translation of the Lemnos Stele", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki