Talk:Knossos

Cyrus H. Gordon’s “Evidence for the Minoan Language” is accepted in some academic circles as a credible hypothesis for the identification of Linear A tablets found at Hagia Triada, Crete.

Gordon certainly had a controversial career, but it does not diminish in any regard his accomplishments as a cipher in WWII, his translation of the entire Ugaritic corpus, his mastery of Semitic as a family of languages, and his appreciation for subtleties lost on most historians today.

Accordingly, it becomes all the more crucial to draw the direct line between Knossos, and the Hebrew Knesset. The logical likelihood that the two words are related would be, by my estimation, too great for any rational, open-minded, and learned linguist in this field to ignore.

Like Shabbat resolving to Shabbos, we can readily see the evolution from Knesset to Knossos, long before the Mycenaeans assimilated it from its Phoenician-speakers, like the city of Sur to Tyros (hence, Tyrannos from Surranos ;))

Alternatively, it may have been a convention to refer to Knossos as Knossot, in plural, long before it became singular in meaning.

Tamarru (talk) 21:17, 30 October 2024 (UTC)Reply