A Trojan Echo in Clay: Hittite Tablet Discovery Reinforces Homeric Traditions A remarkable new discovery has emerged from the archives of Hittite texts, shaking the very foundations of how we perceive the Trojan War and its historicity. Unearthed and recently published under the auspices of Oxf

Quick summary: a tablet written in Hittite, from a likely vassal to their king, recounts how Attaršiya [Atreus?] of Ahhiyawa [the Achaeans] and his sons attacked Taruiša [Troy]. And at the end there’s a fragment in another Anatolian language, Luwian, saying the following:

wa-ar-ku-uš-ša-an ma-a-aš-ša-ni SÌ[R
wrath.ACC god(dess).VOC? si[ng

So roughly “Sing, oh goddess, the wrath…”

This is pretty much how the Illiad starts in Greek:

μῆνιν ἄειδε θεὰ Πηληϊάδεω Ἀχιλῆος
mênĭn áeide theā́ Pēlēïádeō Akhĭlêos
rage.ACC sing.IMP goddess.VOC Peleus.GEN Achilles.GEN
Sing, oh goddess, the rage of Achilles [son] of Peleus

    • Lvxferre [he/him]@mander.xyzOPEnglish
      18·
      9 days ago

      Gloss info. In a simplified way:

      • ACC = accusative = direct object; e.g. “I see you.”
      • VOC = vocative; e.g. “oh you!”
      • GEN = genitive; e.g. “this is your book.”
      • IMP = imperative; e.g. “do it!”

      It’s important in this case because both Luwian and Greek allow you to shift words back and forth for emphasis, and it’s poetry so the order gets even messier, so without that it’s hard to parse the sentence.

      Also note that this is from my part, it isn’t present in the original.

    • tiredofsametab@fedia.io
      11·
      9 days ago

      Grammar, I think. VOC = vocative, ACC = accusitive, GEN = genitive, IMP = small hellish creature (but probably Imperative, were I to guess).