Archive for September, 2023
The arresting Secession Building (Secessionsgebäude in German) is an exhibition hall that is situated on the west side of Karlsplatz (Charle’s Square) within the Innere Stadt (first district) in Vienna, Austria.
It shapes the oldest independent exhibition venue worldwide dedicated to contemporary art, completed in 1898, and was designed by architect Joseph Maria Olbrich as an architectural manifesto for the Vienna Secession, an art movement that emerged in the very late 19th century.
Closely related to Art Nouveau, the Vienna Secession (Wiener Secession) was formed in early April 1897 by a group of noted Austrian painters, sculptors, graphic artists and architects such as Josef Hoffman, Gustav Klimt and Koloman Moser that were shortly joined by Otto Wagner.
They all resigned earlier from the Association of Austrian Artists by means of a protest against its hard and fast traditional artistic styles so as to promote (modern) art over commerce with 85-year-old Rudolf von Alt as the Honorary President of the group.
A principal object of the group was to attain an exhibition venue that would help introduce international artists and art movements to Vienna so appointed Olbrich, a student of Wagner, to design the Secession Building in the heart of the city, which became their landmark.
The motto of the Secession figures above the entrance of the pavilion to the effect of “To every age its art, to every art its freedom,” with a sculpture of three gorgons representing painting, sculpture and architecture beneath.
Among their major events, the 14th Secession exhibition laid out by Hoffman and dedicated to Ludwig van Beethoven in April through to June 1902 was met by great success and praise, featuring Klimt’s acclaimed 34-metre-wide ‘Beethoven Frieze’ that can be still seen there nowadays.
Σήμερα θα ασχοληθώ λίγο με μια άλλη πόλη, και πιο συγκεκριμένα την πρωτεύουσα, της σημερινής Τουρκίας που είναι η Άγκυρα (Ankara στη γλώσσα τους) και θα κάνω μια προσέγγιση στο τι μπορεί να σημαίνει και ποια είναι η πιθανή ετυμολογία του ονόματός της.
Το σημερινό όνομα δείχνει να προέρχεται άμεσα από το αντίστοιχο μεσαιωνικό Άνκυρα στα Ρωμαίικα (ή ‘Γραικά,’ απόγονος της Κοινής) στο χώρο της Ανατολικής Ρωμαϊκής Αυτοκρατορίας (και όχι Βυζάντιο καθώς κάτι τέτοιο δεν υπήρχε) και το ουσιαστικά όμοιο Ancyra στα Λατινικά στη Δύση με την έννοια του ‘άγκυρα.’
Ωστόσο, μετά την κατάκτηση της περιοχής από τους Σελτζούκους Τούρκους (1073 μ.Χ.) δείχνει να παίρνει την μορφή Angora, που εμφανίζεται γενικότερα πλέον και στην Ευρώπη τότε, ενώ αντίστοιχο είναι και το Engürü από τους Οθωμανούς που έφθασαν αργότερα.
Στις αρχαίες ελληνικές διαλέκτους, αν και υπήρχαν σημαντικές διαφορές μεταξύ τους, που είναι η ρίζα των παραπάνω δείχνει να έχει κατά κύριο λόγο τη μορφή ‘Αγκυρα’ που προφερόταν όμως ως ‘Αν(γ)κούρα’ με τονισμό στην παραλήγουσα ενώ το ‘υ’ προφερόταν ως ‘ου’ και το ‘γ’ ως ‘ν(γ)’ πριν από το ‘κ’ – όπου τα γράμματα αυτά πήραν την προφορά ‘ι’ και (σημερινό) ‘γ’ αντίστοιχα στην Κοινή αντιθέτως (και που έχουν φθάσει έτσι και σε μας).
Η ρίζα και η πραγματική σημασία όμως του ονόματος της Τουρκικής πρωτεύουσας πιστεύω ότι πρέπει να αναζητηθεί σε αυτούς που την ίδρυσαν και αυτοί ήταν οι Φρύγες γύρω στα τέλη του 11ου ή τις αρχές του 10ου αιώνα π.Χ. και στους οποίους το όνομα εμφανίζεται ως ‘ΑΓΚΥΡΑ.’
Η προφορά του ήταν κάπως σαν ‘Αγκκουρα,’ με το ‘Υ’ να αποδίδεται ως ‘ου’ και το ‘Γ’ ως ‘γκ,’ και αν νομίζετε ότι αυτή είναι ελληνική γραφή κάνετε λάθος, είναι Φρυγική!
Η Φρυγική γλώσσα όπως και το αλφάβητο είναι μάλιστα παλαιότερα από τις ελληνικές διαλέκτους και, σε αντίθεση με ότι φέρεται, εκεί όπου φαίνεται ότι εμφανίζονται για πρώτη φορά τα φωνήεντα.
Αν και σε σημαντικό βαθμό λανθασμένα λέγεται ότι το Φοινικικό αλφάβητο, από το οποίο προέρχεται το Φρυγικό, δεν είχε φωνήεντα καθώς κάποια σύμβολά του μπορούσαν να χρησιμοποιούνται εναλλακτικά είτε ως σύμφωνα ή ως φωνήεντα.
Μάλιστα, οι πρώτες Ελληνικές διάλεκτοι, οι λεγόμενες ‘Λεσβιακές’ ή ‘Αιολικές,’ παρουσιάζουν ένα σχεδόν όμοιο αλφάβητο με το Φρυγικό και εμφανίστηκαν στη Λέσβο προς τα τέλη του 9ου αιώνα π.Χ. η οποία είτε ήταν υπό την πιθανή κατοχή των Φρυγών ή κάτω από έντονη επηροή τους όπως δείχνει η κουλτούρα της εποχής στο νησί.
Αν και οι γλωσσολόγοι δείχνουν να τείνουν στην άποψη ότι το ‘ΑΓΚΥΡΑ’ έχει την έννοια του ‘καμπή,’ ‘στροφή’ ή ‘άγκιστρο’ (από το Πρωτο-Ινδο-Ευρωπαϊκό ‘h₂enk’) η αλήθεια είναι ότι για τους Φρύγες μπορεί να είχε πολυ πιθανώς διαφορετική έννοια ως ‘καταφύγιο’ ή ‘ελπίδα’ αντιθέτως.
Και πιστεύω ότι αυτό έχει ισχυρή βάση καθώς ονομάστηκε έτσι από τον ιδρυτή της, τον Μίδα (όχι τον πιο γνωστό και σημαντικά πρωτύτερο Φρύγα βασιλιά), που οδήγησε τους κατοίκους της Φρυγικής πρωτεύουσας του Γορδίου (πόλη στα Φρυγικά) όταν αυτό πλήγηκε από ισχυρό σεισμό για να μεταναστεύσουν μαζικά στη θέση της σημερινής Άγκυρας.
Στη θέση υπήρχε ήδη μια παλιότερη, μάλλον εγκαταλελειμμένη, πόλη αλλά αυτή ξανακτίστηκε και επεκτάθηκε σημαντικά τόσο σε μέγεθος όσο και σημασία/βαρύτητα στην εποχή των Φρυγών.
Κάτι που δίνει και νόημα σε αυτά που αναφέρει ο Παυσανίας, που πιστεύω ότι έχουν παρερμηνευτεί, καθώς θα ήταν μάλλον αδύνατο να βρει άγκυρα (με τη σημερινή έννοια) σε μια ηπειρωτική περιοχή και πολύ πιο πιθανό ένα καταφύγιο για τους ανθρώπους του.
Μάλιστα η ιταλική λέξη ‘ancora,’ που είναι συγγενική, φέρει επίσης και την έννοια ‘καταφύγιο’ ή ‘ελπίδα’ θα πρέπει να σημειωθεί.
Τέλος, η σύνδεση από κάποιους της Άγκυρας με την Ankuwa, της οποίας το πρώτο συνθετικό δείχνει ομοιότητα, των Χιττιτών δεν νομίζω ότι ευσταθεί καθώς η δεύτερη βρισκόταν σε σημαντική απόσταση ανατολικά της πρώτης.
Tutankhamun (c. 1341 – 1323 BC), or alternatively Tutankhamen, was the antepenultimate Pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty (Dynasty XVIII), or first Dynasty of the New Kingdom, that ascended the throne at a mere nine years old to reign until his very death at the young age of eighteen in ancient Egypt.
Lineage
He was most likely son of his predecessor Pharaoh Akhenaten (reigning c. 1353 – 1336 or c. 1351 – 1334 BC) and grandson of Pharaoh Amenhotep III (or the Magnificent, ruling between 1386 and 1349 or 1388 and late 1351/early 1350 BC) whilst his Great Royal Wife was his half sister Ankhesenamun, who was apparently (maybe even as many as seven years) older than him.
That said, his likely eldest brother Smenkhkare squeezed in a relatively short stint (1335 – 1334 BC) and female co-regent Neferneferuaten a further two years (1334 -1332 BC) at the helm in between Akhenaten and Tutankhamun himself shaping a second and third Pharaoh respectively at the end of the apostate so-called Amarna Period.
All the same, Tutankhamun’s mother wasn’t his apparent father’s Great Royal Wife famed Nefertiti but rather a female of unknown identity dubbed as ‘the Younger Lady,’ quite likely a daughter of Amenhotep III and his own first lady Tiye.
Tutankhamun’s name etymology
Tutankhamun’s name breaks down as Tut-ankh-Amun which very likely means ‘Tut is the breath of life/life/soul of Amun’ apparently on account of his actions and steps to restore Amun and the other traditional deities/cults in force during his reign following the radical reforms of his predecessor and apparent father Akhenaten, who suppressed them to establish a sole god in Aten (hence the second component of his name), in ancient Egypt.
The alternative form Tutankhamen, where Amen is a variation of Amun, also breaks down and spells likewise. For that matter, his original name was Tutankhaten, related to Aten, but after he assumed kingship at a young age he switched it to Tutankhamun (probably in the third year of his reign) so as to distance himself from Akhenaten’s ways as well as further endorsing his own religious policies.
Likewise, his half sister and royal wife Ankhesenpaaten, a daughter of Akhenaten with Nefertiti, changed her name to Ankhesenamun towards the same purposes along the way of their marriage. Actually, Tutankhamun was among few Pharaohs that were venerated as deities during their lifetime, with temples of his cult built as far as Kawa and Faras down in Nubia, as most would enjoy this privilege posthumously.
Policies, reforms and foreign affairs
Amongst his policies and reforms, the royal court moved away from Amarna, a new city built by predecessor Akhenaten as his capital, to settle back in Memphis around the fourth year of Tutankhamun’s reign while Thebes soon recaptured the prestige of principal religious hub now that Amun was reinstated as supreme god of Egypt.
Tutankhamun further saw a restoration process underway over monuments damaged during the Amarna Period and braced up the orders of priests of the major cults of Amun and Ptah as well as inaugurating building projects that involved laying out of the sphinx avenue leading to the temple of Mut at Karnak and applying the finishing touches to the decorations on the entrance colonnade of Amenhotep III at the Luxor Temple.
On top of the above, he also successfully sought to restore diplomatic relations with foreign kingdoms, neglected by Amarna, and in particular the Hurrian-speaking Mitanni in the Levant although he didn’t quite succeed to evade warfare against the likes of the Nubians and Asiatics in the end despite his pains.
Due to the young of his age, Tutankhamun most likely ruled assisted by a retinue of advisers that featured Ay and General Horemheb, who eventually succeeded him in that order as the last two pharaohs of the Eighteenth Dynasty but also usurped many of his projects, especially the latter.
Tutankhamun’s death
The young pharaoh probably died through a combination of health issues and a broken leg compounded by malaria, though there has been much debate over that, and was buried in an unusually small burial place for his stature – maybe down to his premature death.
Tutankhamun’s tomb, burial treasures and discovery
However, combined with the fact that it came covered in debris during the construction of the nearby tombs of Ramesses V amd Ramesses VI later, that turned fortunate for Tutankhamun’s burial as it lay low and screened from the eyes of potential robbers and plunderers for thousands of years to retain its treasures, comprising over 5000 artefacts, almost intact until discovered by British Egyptologist Howard Carter in early November 1922.
Which, in turn, came to render Tutankhamun from a largely overlooked ruler in ancient times into probably the most famous pharaoh of them all in the modern world as fate would have it.
Hamburg City Hall (Hamburger Rathaus in German) lies on Rathausmarkt (City Hall Market) Square and near the Hamburg Hauptbahnhof (Hamburg Central Station) in the quarter of Alstadt in the center of Hamburg, northern Germany.
The edifice was designed by no less than seven architects headed by Martin Haller and required a good eleven years to construct between 1886 and 1897 so that it would eventually replace the old counterpart that was destroyed decades earlier during the great fire of 1842.
Neo-Renaissance in semblance, it features an arresting tower that stands 117m high and contains a good 436 steps all the way up reflecting the bloom of the Kingdom of Prussia following their military success against the French in the Franco-Prussian War (1870-1871) and the emergence of the German Empire (Deutsches Kaiserreich) in 1871.
English place names and by extension so-called ‘locational’ surnames ending in ‘-by’ are Norse (Scandinavian) in origin, such as Derby, Whitby, Sotheby, Corby, Sommersby, Rugby or Carnaby.
That suffix ‘-by’ at the end comes, as a matter of fact, from the Old Norse ‘býr,’ an alternate form of ‘bǿr,’ which means something like ‘town/village/settlement.’
For instance, Derby more likely means ‘Village of the Deer’ coming from the Old English Dēoraby and that in turn from Old Norse Djúrabý, the latter breaking down as ‘dýr-‘ (deer, animal) and ‘-bý(r)’ (town/settlement).
Personally, I speculate an intermediate Norse form of ‘Dýrbý’ since ‘Djúra’ feels more of Proto-Norse in this case.
Whitby, in its turn, means ‘White town/settlement’ and comes from Old Norse ‘Hvítr-‘ (white) and ‘-bý(r)’ again.
Moving on, the well-known name Sotheby comes from a combination of ‘Soþe-‘ (true, real) and ‘-bý(r)’, where ‘þ’ (thorn) a letter inherited from the Norse tongues.
The almost identical Sotherby, on the other hand, very likely comes from the Old Norse ‘Suðr’ (south, southern) and ‘-bý(r).’
There is a possibility that ‘Sothe-‘ above could come from a form such as ‘Suð-‘ with the sense of ‘south, southern’ again come to that.
Corby may likely spell ‘Kori’s town’ where Kori was a leader of Danes that occupied this region in nowadays Northamptonshire (East Midlands) in the eighth century.
The alphabet used at the time was the Old English Latin so Kori’s name most likely appeared as ‘Cori’ in writing.
And, as a final example, Sommersby (narme) or Somersby (village in Lincolnshire) have both a first component that means ‘summer’ from a root such as Norn (extinct Norse dialect) ‘sommer,’ Old Swedish ‘somar’ or Old Danish ‘somær’ into a sense of ‘summer town/village.’
The Temple of Saturn (Templum Saturni or Aedes Saturni, foreground) stood at the foot of the Capitoline Hill (Capitolium) on the western end of the Forum Romanum (Roman Forum) at the heart of ancient Rome.
In fact, nowadays ruins on display represent the third age of the temple as it was largely rebuilt following a fire in 360 AD, carrying a relative extant commemorating inscription on its frieze.
The wording on it has “Senatus Populusque Romanus incendio consumptum restitui (The Senate and People of Rome restored the consumed by fire).”
Construction of the original temple started during the reign of the seventh and last king of Rome Lucius Tarquinius Superbus but was inaugurated quite likely in 497 BC by consul Titus Larcius in the early years of the Roman Republic, thus effectively marking a watershed in Roman history.
Yet, the altar of Saturn that once stood before the temple is considered much older associated with the god’s legendary founding of the city on the Capitolium.
Incidentally, the temple further underwent a thorough revamp under senator Munatius Plancus centuries later in 42 BC, which ushered in its second age.
The building used to house the Aerarium, the state treasury, where the reserves in gold and silver of the Republic were stored as well as the state archives, the insignia and official scale for the weighing of metals.
Later, the Aerarium was shifted to another building whilst the archives were transferred to nearby Tabularium, still within the forum.
Nowadays, the pediment and eight columns of the front porch still stand reminiscent of the splendour of the old temple.
Studying the (Eucleidian) Hellenic alphabet again recently, it struck me for the very first time that the letter ‘Λ’ halfway through is actually named as ‘lab-da’ (λάμπ-ντα) compared to ‘lam-ða’ (λάμ-δα) in modern Greek.
The ground is that the prefix/first component ‘lab-‘ of the word is actually Lydian carrying the sense of ‘double,’ usually in symmetrical fashion – and ‘Λ’ does present two sort of ‘legs’ either side of its top in symmetrical form.
Which, in turn, spells that the Ionians on the eastern Aegean apparently didn’t have a name for the letter so incorporated it into their alphabets just as they found it.
Even though the respective Lydian letter (𐤩) isn’t quite as symmetrical(1) but still displays a brace of ‘legs’ either side of its own top. It is quite likely, at least with some words or names, to have carried the sound ‘d’ falling in line with letter ‘Δ’ nonetheless.
There has got to be said that the ‘symmetrical’ Λ actually emerges originally in the Phrygian alphabet whereas it doesn’t appear in its Lydian counterpart.
But the Lydians seem to have employed the Phrygian before they came up with their own individual script during the 7th century BC so the Ionians apparently borrowed the letter indirectly through them.
The reasoning, coming back, behind it all lies with the very intriguing word ‘ΛΑΒΡΥΣ’ (pronounced as ‘lab-rus’) meaning (symmetrical) ‘double axe,’ which is Lydian as attested by Pausanias and shares the same prefix.
Hellenes, again, apparently didn’t have a name for the symbol/weapon in their own tongues so adopted it from those it came from, the Lydians (the second component ‘-ΡΥΣ’ spelling ‘axe’ by implication).
‘ΛΑΒΡΥΣ’ may as well lie behind the name ‘ΛΑΒΥΡΙΝΘΟΣ” (labyr-inth), pronounced as ‘laburintos,’ in sense of the ‘Hall of the Double Axes’ which comprises a substantial part of the Palace of Knossos (Crete), built in a time of a major influx by peoples from Anatolia, that features the symbol around conspicuously.
And I speculate that the ancient word ‘ΛΑΒΙΣ’ (or ‘ΛΑΒΥΣ?’), spelling ‘tongs’ in English, is also of Lydian origin and the same root while the instrument presents two arms itself for that matter.
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Glossary (Lydian in Hellenic spelling)
ΛΑΒΡΥΣ /lab-rus/ double axe
ΛΑΒ- /lab/ (prefix) double
ΡΥΣ /rus/ axe
ΛΑΒΙΣ (or ΛΑΒΥΣ) /lab-is/ tongs
Breaking through History 