Posted on 10/18/2005 11:08:43 AM PDT by blam
And I doubt the average Greek polis would have had compulsory military service until age 50 if the typical lifespan was 28.
"Human lifespan probably hasn't changed in hundreds of thousands of years."
Oh, yeah? What about those Old Testament dudes? Let me refer you to a couple of Young Earth Creationists. They'll set you straight. [grin]
Feminine Pulchritude Index: a scale from 0 to 10, with 0 being Medusa and 10 being Helen of Troy. 5 is average by definition.
I have always thought proto-celts or some other northern/east asian peoples. I have also wondered just what the heck happened to the bronze age Greeks? Did not Greece go thru it's own a dark age 1500BC - 800BC? Wonder why?
And so, the answer to my unasked question is, "Three posts."
Dan
Probably the usual reasons - invasions coupled with famines.
Interestingly, Lithuanian has a number of striking similarities to both Ionian Greek and Sanskrit.
Of the European languages, Lithuanian may be the closest to proto-Indoeuropean.
Most likely there was a Helen of Troy, since there is good reason to think that the basic facts about the Trojan War described in the Iliad and the Odyssey are historical. You could fiddle with the minor figures, but figures like Agamemnon, Menelaos, and Helen are unlikely to have been sheer inventions.
The Achaeans were newcomers to Greece at the time of the war, who conquered and ruled over the Greeks who had lived their earlier. The usual theory is that they came down from the north. Achilles and Odysseus are both described as red-haired or blond, and so is Menelaos. Fair hair may have been fairly common among the kings and nobles of that time.
I don't see any reason to believe that this particular woman was Helen, though, and not some other noble or royal lady. It's sheer speculation, a good way to get on TV and sell books.
I remember some study that suggested that the number of men dying prematurely from job-related accidents (war, shipping, mining, quarrying, etc.) was always close to the number of women dying in childbirth.
Another brick in the Wymyn's Studies wall...
The face that sunk a thousand ships ...
Story created by some man stuck at sea for way too long, thinking about his sweetheart back at home or the girl in the last port.
I have heard that the present day Greeks are largely the descendents of Germans and Slavs who came in during the barbarian migrations.
The face that sunk a thousand ships.
Unlucky at first posting, lucky at love.
I just finished Ilium and Olympos. Simmons is crazy (I mean that in a good way).
I agree, the outline of the story is most likely true and the story's main character most likely real, with a good deal of literary license of course.
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