XPost: alt.usage.english   
   From: nospam@de-ster.demon.nl   
      
   Snidely  wrote:   
      
   > On Thursday, J. J. Lodder pointed out that ...   
   > > occam  wrote:   
   > >   
   > >> On 19/09/2024 06:59, Aidan Kehoe wrote:   
   > >>> Another one that stuck for me was "metic", "resident foreigner in a   
   > >>> Greek city state," apparently not related to meticulous.   
   > >>   
   > >> Try 'hermetic' as a related concept. A 'foreigner' in ancient Greek was   
   > >> someone from another city state, even if that was a city in Greece.   
   > >> 'Greece' did not become an entity until much later.   
   > >   
   > > Depends on what you want 'entity' to mean.   
   > > Those ancient Greeks certainly saw themselves as a cultural entity,   
   > > with a shared language and culture. This extended to 'Greater Greece'.   
   > > It was only the narrow sense of a political entity that was   
   > > inconceivable to them,   
   > >   
   > > Jan   
   >   
   > I have a better sense of how Egypt came to be a cultural entity than I   
   > do for Greece.  On the one hand, the political development of the   
   > winning Pharoahs is easy to read about; on the other, my histories of   
   > Greece generally begin with the last king of Athens and the rise of the   
   > early democracy, which seems to be well after there were several   
   > city-states that considered themselves to be Greek.   
      
   They had a common language and culture   
   well before Homer started writing it up.   
   The Mycenean Linear B script already contains archaic Greek.   
   (but unfortunately no literature)   
   Trade may be a better basis for a common culture than conquest,   
      
   Jan   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)