GreekIslandGirl wrote:supporttheunderdog wrote:I quite happily accept that whoever construced the Homeric epics they were Greek through and through but as you will be aware there is a very serious debate on the origin of the works ascribed to Homer and the historicity of Homer himself - as one wag put it (and they say the smout Shakespear) the poems were not written by Homer but by someone else of the same name. We know they were edited by Peristratus in say 540 bc or so,to make a canoniical version of them.
Whoever wrote them, they are however magnificent pieces of Greek Culture and a core part of west European Art: They are however most probably the results of early recording in writing of poems handed down through Oral tradition which took place in about 8th Century BC.
Fine. The discussion was not on the biography of Homer. The discussion centred on the the 4000 year association between Cyprus and the rest of the Greek world as exemplified by the quote that Commandaria, the drink made in Cyprus, was exalted by a said Homer (for the sake of argument, we'll use the term "Homer" to refer to the collective "unknowns" since you want to deny anything Greek has any certainty whatsovever, unlike the 'Great Pritish' history - this collective "Homer" who also had a son-in-law born and living in Cyprus).
- So you accept Cyprus has been *hellenised for 4000 years.
( * to understand this nomenclature, please start your course in Greek.)
Your logic is remarkable: I like Sushi but does that mean that mean there was British influence in Japan when sushi was developed? There is at least 1200 year gap between tyour date for he development of sweet wines in Cyprus and the remarks of the writer (in 800 bc): the only safe inferences that can be drawn are that (a) in 800bc the writer and the wine were in close proximity and (b) he liked a drop of commanderia (in moderation one hopes, but one can never tell with these arty farty poet types ) but one cannot infer that because someone from a particular hellenic Civilistaion which existed in 800BC like a wine that had been made for 12oo years that there was contact, leta alone influence, 12oo years before.
I ndeed there probbaly was o hellenic world in 2000BC so how the f*ck could the Cypriots associate with it? therwas a minoan civilisation (which in 2000 BC was NOT hellenic, and only became so in say 1600BC following conquest by Greek speakers from the Aegean region, ) there were the ugartic civiisations of the levant and there was Egypt. In Cyprus one had the non Hellenic kingdom of Alishya. The proto Greek language was probabaly only just arriving in the Aegean region. Greek Civilisation probbaly only took off through contact between the Achaeans and the Minoans from about 1800 BC to create the earliest known Greek civilisations now called Mycenaean - archeology suggest the Mycenaeans tookover the Minoan civiliation in about 1400BC (possibly a bit before) but it was only from that time there was any sign of contact between the emerging hellenic civilisation and Cyprus. probably through trade. Clear signs of hellenism in Cyprus beyond limited trading contacts only seem to emerge in say 1200BC, which as 800 years after the time you suggest.
That or your concept of Helleism (which must depend on the existance of Greek as the language) is without meaning.
