March 06, 2006
Brief notes on classical Armenian literature 1
What it said.
1. If I ever start a literary culture from scratch, I want it to be at least this good.
2. Seventeen hundred years of divergence in theology can make even the holiest idea sound wacky.
3. A bad king transformed into a boar??? Ireland is that way.
4. No, that area did not need Islam in order to have holy wars.
5. I have learned new ethnic slurs of extremely limited modern applicability.
6. I never knew the Holy Spirit gave virgin nuns smashmouth powers.
7. You're not supposed to fight to a draw in a heroic epic!
8. Or lose horribly either! WTF?
9. Sometimes narrators can be so unreliable, they come out the other side.
10. I hate to say it, Mesrop, but your alphabet looks like a bar code.
Posted by coyu at March 6, 2006 06:01 AMCarlos, sweet merciful Garp, what are you reading, and where can I get a copy? This sounds ever so much more fun than "Proper Islamic Governance for Good and Order," [It's really neat, save that translations done before Charles I lost his head, not so much.] Especially the smashmouth nuns.
Also, please don't tell me you've somehow taught yourself Armenian.
Cheers
L
Posted by: Luke at March 6, 2006 08:21 AMOn #7, isn't there at least one draw in the Iliad? Glaucus and somebody? Lemme check... Diomedes and Glaucus, yeah. (Not exactly a draw; during the fight they realized they had a familial/friendly connection, quit fighting, and exchanged armor. I'd call that close enough.)
Posted by: Jim Parish at March 6, 2006 11:26 AMThere's at least one draw in the Albanian national epic. Must get around to posting on that sometime.
Sad agreement on the alphabet. I will have to learn that.
Wacky theology? Say more, tell how.
Doug M.
Hmm, Doug's reference to the _Albanian_ national epic in a thread devoted to _Armenian_ literature brought back to mind the confusion I went through when I first read Gibbon's Decline and Fall about 15 years ago. While working my way through the vagaries of 3rd-century Rome's dealings with various characters bearing names like Artabanus and Tiridates, I kept getting jostled by what seemed to be geographically impossible references to "Iberia" and "Albania". Had to take a trip to the library in order to learn that these were atually the names of Caucasian states.