The Thebes tablets, with inscriptions in
Mycenaean Greek
Mycenaean Greek is the most ancient attested form of the Greek language, on the Greek mainland and Crete in Mycenaean Greece (16th to 12th centuries BC), before the hypothesised Dorian invasion, often cited as the '' terminus ad quem'' for th ...
using
Linear B, were discovered in
Thebes, Greece
Thebes (; ell, Θήβα, ''Thíva'' ; grc, Θῆβαι, ''Thêbai'' .) is a city in Boeotia, Central Greece. It played an important role in Greek myths, as the site of the stories of Cadmus, Oedipus, Dionysus, Heracles and others. Archaeol ...
. They belong to the
Late Helladic IIIB context, contemporary with finds at
Pylos. A first group of 21 fragments was found in the 1963–64 campaign; A further 19 tablets were found in 1970 and 1972. Using Near Eastern cylinder seals associated with the finds, the editors of the published corpus of the whole archive now date the destruction of the ''Kadmeion'', the Mycenaean palace complex at Thebes, and thus the writing of the tablets, some of which were still damp when they were unintentionally fired, to shortly after 1225 BC. Chadwick identified three recognizable Hellenic divinities,
Hera,
Hermes
Hermes (; grc-gre, wikt:Ἑρμῆς, Ἑρμῆς) is an Olympian deity in ancient Greek religion and Greek mythology, mythology. Hermes is considered the herald of the gods. He is also considered the protector of human heralds, travelle ...
and
Potnia
Potnia is an Ancient Greek word for "Mistress, Lady" and a title of a goddess. The word was inherited by Classical Greek from Mycenean Greek with the same meaning and it was applied to several goddesses. A similar word is the title Despoina, ...
"Mistress", among the recipients of wool. He made out a case for ''ko-ma-we-te-ja'', also attested at Pylos, as the name of a goddess.
Quite early, before the more recent discoveries,
Frederick Ahl made the provocative suggestion concerning the "Phoenician" or "palm-leaf" (''phoinix'') letters: "
Cadmus did bring writing to Thebes, but this writing was not the Phoenician alphabet, but Linear B".
Discovery
A substantial additional portion, some 250 tablets, amounting roughly to 5% of the entire Mycenaean corpus from all sites, was discovered in Pelopidou Street and the "Arsenal" by Vassilis L. Aravantinos, the current archaeological superintendent of Thebes, from 1993 to 1995, in a rescue excavation. In 1996, a few more tablets were identified in a museum among finds from the 1963–1964 dig in Thebes.
The number of "tablets" given by the editors is actually misleading. For example, as Tom Palaima and Sarah James have independently demonstrated, the "123 tablets" of the Fq series actually are many fragments of texts that originally made up between 15 and 18 tablets.
Publication
The Belgian and Italian professors and philologists
Louis Godart and
Anna Sacconi were charged with the publication of these tablets. During the following years, their preliminary glimpses of the contents suggested that the new tablets could reveal a new view of
Mycenaean religion
The religious element is difficult to identify in Mycenaean Greece (c. 1600–1100 BC), especially as regards archaeological sites, where it remains very problematic to pick out a place of worship with certainty. John Chadwick points out that at ...
when the tablets were published in 2001, the effect of their overall content was perceived disappointing by some scholars
Findings
Many of the Thebes tablets can be read as containing information on divinities and religious rites; others mention quantities of various commodities. By the sites mentioned, the boundaries of the region controlled by the Theban palace can be estimated: the Theban palace controlled the island of
Euboea
Evia (, ; el, Εύβοια ; grc, Εὔβοια ) or Euboia (, ) is the second-largest Greek island in area and population, after Crete. It is separated from Boeotia in mainland Greece by the narrow Euripus Strait (only at its narrowest poin ...
and had a harbour in
Aulis. The tablets contain a number of important terms previously unattested in Linear B, such as ''ra-ke-da-mi-ni-jo'' /Lakedaimnijos/ "a man from Lacedaemonia (
Sparta
Sparta ( Doric Greek: Σπάρτα, ''Spártā''; Attic Greek: Σπάρτη, ''Spártē'') was a prominent city-state in Laconia, in ancient Greece. In antiquity, the city-state was known as Lacedaemon (, ), while the name Sparta referre ...
)", or ''ma-ka'' /Mā Gā/ "Mother
Gaia" (a goddess still revered in Thebes in the 5th century BC, as reported, for example, in
Aeschylus
Aeschylus (, ; grc-gre, Αἰσχύλος ; c. 525/524 – c. 456/455 BC) was an ancient Greek tragedian, and is often described as the father of tragedy. Academic knowledge of the genre begins with his work, and understanding of earlier Greek ...
' ''
Seven Against Thebes
The Seven against Thebes were seven champions in Greek mythology who made war on Thebes. They were chosen by Adrastus, the king of Argos, to be the captains of an Argive army whose purpose was to restore Oedipus' son Polynices to the Theban ...
''). Also ''ku-na-ki-si'' /gunaiksi/ "for women" exhibits the peculiar oblique stem of grc, γυνή "woman".
Vassilis L. Aravantinos,
Louis Godart and
Anna Sacconi read the tablets to indicate cult activity dedicated to
Demeter,
Zeus
Zeus or , , ; grc, Δῐός, ''Diós'', label= genitive Boeotian Aeolic and Laconian grc-dor, Δεύς, Deús ; grc, Δέος, ''Déos'', label= genitive el, Δίας, ''Días'' () is the sky and thunder god in ancient Greek reli ...
protector of crops, and to
Kore
Kore may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
*Kore (comics), a comic-book series by Josh Blaylock and Tim Seeley
*Kore (producer), French-Algerian music producer, also part of duo Kore & Skalp
*Kore (sculpture), a type of ancient Greek sculpture dep ...
, and they speculate that the roots of the
Eleusinian Mysteries
The Eleusinian Mysteries ( el, Ἐλευσίνια Μυστήρια, Eleusínia Mystḗria) were initiations held every year for the cult of Demeter and Persephone based at the Panhellenic Sanctuary of Elefsina in ancient Greece. They are th ...
can be traced back to Mycenaean Thebes.
Thomas G. Palaima, however, has criticized their suggestions as "subject to very dubious interpretations" and "highly suspect on linguistic and exegetical grounds". Other arguments against the identification of cult activity in the texts have been advanced by Sarah James and Yves Duhoux.
Palaima attaches importance to one tablet (Uo 121) as evidence of linking sacrificial animals with foodstuffs at the end of LHIIIB. The same phenomenon, part of ritual Mycenaean feasting, occurs in the contemporary
Pylos tablets.
Vienna symposium
The Thebes tablets were discussed at a linguist symposium held in Vienna December 5–6, 2002, the results of which have been published.
[S. Deger-Jalkotzy and O. Panagl, ''Die Neuen Linear B-Texte aus Theben'' (Vienna: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften 2006)]
Online abstract
Günter Neumann (pp. 125–138) argues that the animals in the Thebes tablets are not sacred or "divine" but animals that would naturally be part of everyday life for both Mycenaean and later Greeks. He gathers historical evidence, including references to the animals being fed grains.
Michael Meier-Brügger (pp. 111–118) argues that ''de-qo-no'' as "master of banqueting" has no clear linguistic origin but could be ''deipnon'' "main dinner", as in Homer; that ''di-wi-ja-me-ro'' may not refer to "the part for the goddess Diwia" but instead a "two-day period" (as also argued earlier by Melena and in the same volume by Killen). Meier-Brügger also argues that ''si-to'' is not a previously unattested god Sito (Grain) but ''siton'' "grain".
José Luis Garcia Ramón (pp. 37–69) argues that, linguistically, ''a-ko-ro-da-mo'' may not be ''agorodamos'' "mystic assembler of the people". He proposes the Greek male name Akrodamos. He believes that ''o-po-re-i'', according to Mycenaean usage of gods' names and epithets, could not mean "Zeus of the Fall Harvest". Instead, he posits that ''o-po-re-i'' is a personal name, parallel to another in the Thebes tablets, ''me-to-re-i''; the names mean respectively "on the mountain" and "beyond the mountain".
John T. Killen (pp. 79–110) specifically concludes (p. 103) that "the fact that ma-ka, o-po-re-i, and ko-wa never all occur together, and that it requires a special hypothesis to explain this fact, combined with what I believe are the continuing difficulties with explaining o-po-re-i as a theonym /Opo:rehi/, make me reluctant for the present to accept the ma-ka = Ma:i Ga:i
.e., Mother Earthequation".
References
Sources
*V. L. Aravantinos, L. Godart, A. Sacconi, ''Thèbes: Fouilles de la Cadmée I: Les tablettes en Linéaire B de la Odos Pelopidou: Édition et commentaire.'' Pisa and Rome: Istituti editoriali e poligrafici internazionali, 2001.
*V. L. Aravantinos, L. Godart, A. Sacconi, A. Sacconi, ''Thèbes: Fouilles de la Cadmée III: Corpus des documents d'archives en linéaire B de Thèbes (1-433). ''Pisa and Rome: Istituti editoriali e poligrafici internazionali, 2002.
*V. L. Aravantinos, M. del Freo, L. Godart, ''Thèbes: Fouilles de la Cadmée IV: Les textes de Thèbes (1-433): Translitération et tableaux des scribes. ''Pisa and Rome: Istituti editoriali e poligrafici internazionali, 2005.
Bryn Mawr Classics Review 20 review of all three volumes, 2005.
*Duhoux, Yves, "Dieux ou humains? Qui sont "ma-ka", "o-po-re-i" et "ko-wa" dans les tablettes linéaire B de Thèbes," ''Minos'' p. 37-38 (2002-2003
006
Alec Trevelyan (006) is a fictional character and the main antagonist in the 1995 James Bond film '' GoldenEye'', the first film to feature actor Pierce Brosnan as Bond. Trevelyan is portrayed by actor Sean Bean. The likeness of Bean as Ale ...
, pp. 173-254.
*S.A. James, "The Thebes Tablets and the Fq series: A Contextual Analysis," ''Minos'' 37-38 (2002-2003
006
Alec Trevelyan (006) is a fictional character and the main antagonist in the 1995 James Bond film '' GoldenEye'', the first film to feature actor Pierce Brosnan as Bond. Trevelyan is portrayed by actor Sean Bean. The likeness of Bean as Ale ...
, pp. 397–418.
*S. Deger-Jalkotzy and O. Panagl, Die Neuen Linear B-Texte aus Theben (Vienna: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften 2006).
{{DEFAULTSORT:Thebes Tablets
Mycenaean Greek inscriptions
Archaeological artifacts
Ancient Thebes (Boeotia)