Help With Using Ligatures/Greek Fragments

Greek Learning Greek
1

Hello,

I am trying to render some Greek fragments on a page.

https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=jnZE_zao8_EC&hl=en&hl=en&pg=GBS.PA175

I tried. Not sure why the punctuation Ὃ precedes the characters in the Lexilogos type application (https://www.lexilogos.com/keyboard/greek_ancient.htm). Is there a rule?

Ὃ ς νάεις ματ πάντα μέωςη ϰόσμοὶο γεναωςχα,

ἀωςχιϰώτατον αἰπον,

τὸν Ἕωςωτα

Πρώτιςον μὲν Ἔωςωτα Θεών μητίοατο πάντων,

All the Best,
David

2

Hello again David,
First you have to learn to decipher medieval Greek script, then you have to learn to recognize hexameters.
As to the former, as I’ve noted before, you tend to misread στ as ς, and to misread ρ, etc.etc.

The Orphic verse (quoted from a prayer to Kronos) is Ὃς ναίεις κατά πάντα μέρη κόσμοιο γέναρχα. Ὃς is ὃς with upper-case ὃ at the first letter of the verse, as with Πρώτιστον μεν Ἔρωτα etc. in the Parmenides verse below, quoted from Platο. The accompanying Latin translates them nicely into Latin hexameters, which I presume you can read.
Oh and embedded in the text that’s ἀρχικώτατον αἴτιον(referring to Proteus), also translated.

3

Thank you,

Very helpful. Working through 1978 Cambridge course with Morwood materials. Was trying to upload a clear image file I have that is clear, but the text isn’t always clear. Appreciate the help, combining the postings for collective review. Gassendi tends to repeat ligatures and sticks close to the subject at hand. The Loeb Classical Library is phenomenal. Is there another useful Greek works collective site?

Will check out the site for Orphic fragments: https://www.hellenicgods.org/projectstatement

Thanks again!

Best,
David

4

Is there another useful Greek works collective site?

Yes! There’s the Perseus site, www.perseus.tufts.edu, with many ancient Greek and Latin texts (not always the best editions, however) and much more besides. It’s a great resource for classicists and getting better all the time (check out the home page).

It’s still very weak on Orphica, though, despite the surge of interest in such things in the wake of the Derveni papyrus. Otto Kern’s edition of the “Orphic” fragments has been superseded by Bernabé’s Poetarum epicorum Graecorum II, and more approachably by M.L. West’s The Orphic Poems. I’m not familiar with the site you refer to.

5

Perseus has a little tutorial http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/help/quickstart.jsp Wow, what a place (German and Arabic too). Thanks for sharing it.

Best,
Dave