However, his remark made me think that the key words are not ‘ama’ and ‘meizwn’, but the verb ‘hn’ and the Past Continuous Tense used.
If I remember correctly from my schoolyears, in classic Greek, a hypothesis (such as Thomas proposes) would not use the past continuous tense but in the euctici (optative mood). In later times, the euctici was abandoned and replaced with past coninuous or past perfect in such conditional clauses. I don’t know exactly when this change occured, but for Thomas explanation to be valid, the text must have been written AFTER this shift.
I think that there is another possible interpretation, which would stand both for classic and later Greek: Taking into account that the text seems to belong to a geographical descrition, the text might refer to past times, and be translated as
The island of Cyprus was (once) greater than Turrhnia and Asia put together.
I can’t make any safe guess as to why the author would make such a statement. It might be to praise Cyprus; he might be quoting an earlier text; he might even consider that Cyprus was Atlantis! He might also mean (as Thomas suggested) that Cyprus was greater in importance/power and not in size. There is really no way to tell without the rest of the text.
Entre esta parte y la continuación apenas hay un espacio borrado (dañado por el fuego) que cabrían una dos o tres palabras más.
Todo el resto de este folio, habla continuamente del poder de conquista, colonización, o sea de poder de gobierno de algunos países sobre otros y se mencionan ciudades y reyes de los tiempos romanos no tiene nada que ver con Atlantis.
En todo momento se describe el poder ecónimo y militar de las ciudades se menciona a Carthago y se habla también de las guerras entre roma y Carthago, como ya dije en ningún pasaje hemos detectado que se esté hablando de geografía, es decir, de las carácterísticas o del tamaño de los países. Por esa razón nos parece más lógica la hipótesis de Thomas.
Thomas viene a decir que se alegra de que su sugerencia fuese útil, aunque no sea un experto. Añade que para el uso de “ama” se consulte un diccionario de “griego purificado” (katharevousa). Que buscó en un diccionario online y también encontró los usos “tan pronto como”, “on … do” (no pregunte) y “cuando … entonces…”; pero que “si … entonces…” es el que le va más al contexto. Termina diciendo que “meizwn” suele ir seguido de un adjetivo, pero que a menudo el adjetivo se omite y “meizwn” pasa a contener todo el significado.
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From Mario to xar:
Dear xar,
Between this fragment and the next there’s a space damaged by fire that would have contained up to three words.
The rest of the page talks about conquest and colonization, that is, about the power of some governments over others, and talks about cities and kings from Roman times, nothing to do with Atlantis. [Xar estaba siendo hiperbólico, don Mario.]
At all times the text describes the economic and military power of the cities mentioned; it talks about Carthage and the Punic Wars, and as I said earlier we don’t think that the descriptions are geographical. For that reason we find Thomas’ explanation more plausable.
Mario.
Three different versions of translation struggle in my head. 1st: “Meanwhile the island of Cyprus was [for some time, at that time?] greater [in power, maybe, in military or marine power?] (or more important, perhaps, “meizôn [biai”]?) than both Tyrrhenia and Asia (Minor)”. 2nd: “Meanwhile the island of Cyprus, as taken together with Tyrrhenia and Asia was greater [in power than …] (here “hama” + gen. means simply “together”). 3rd: “Meanwhile the island of Cyprus, as taken together with Tyrrhenia was greater [in power] than both Asia and …” (i. e. “…kai Asias meizôn, [te kai Aiguptou etc]).
We have made a survey, and we have asked 18 professors of Greek Clasic of several Universities (Spain, USA, England, Germany, and Italy), and 17 agree in which the correct translation must be “power”, “more important”.
All argue that the context and the geographic knowledge that had old the Greeks prevent to accept a translation like Cyprus was “larger”, or “greater” (in size) that Thyrrhenia and Asia, and as Meizôn allows the alternative of “more powerful”, “more important”, or “huger” (in being able), without a doubt the correct translation must be this.
In fact, 15 of the encuestados ones, put like example, the fragment of the Timaeus and the Critias, that according to them also badly has been translated by the old translators, from the medieval time (and the modern ones by influences of the Latin translations), since according to the knowledge which they had the Greeks in the Solon or Plato’s times, it is impossible to admit that they called NHSOS, that is to say, “island or peninsula”, to a earth that outside greater or longer (in size) that all Asia and all the Libya put to together. If Atlantis had been so enormous and giant, the Greeks they would have considered it a continent, but never a NHSOS.
The conclusion of the professors is that also Atlantis must be rectified like “more important” or “more powerful” than Libya and Asia, because in addition the context demonstrates it, since history treats on the great power of conquest of Atlantis.
