Greek Names Live Again

New Zealand Listener, Volume 4, Issue 81, 10 January 1941, Page 5

Greek Names Live Again

ines. Y: Do you notice the number of old names this war between Greece and Italy is bringing up? They don’t seem to have changed much; Epirus, for instance. I seem to remember it from my Roman history. : Henry: You ought to, Sidney; Pyrrhus, King of Epirus, came_over to help the people of Tarentum against the Romans. He gave us our expression @ Pyrrhic victory. Tarentum is the modern Taranto, Sidney: The names don’t change much, Henry. Henry: As a matter of fact the modern Greek language is very like the ancient Greek. An Englishman who knows ancient Greek can. make himself understood fairly well in modern Greek. Have you ever heard of Edith Searle Grossman, a New Zealand writer? Sidney: Vaguely. She wrote novels, didn’t she? Henry: Yes. Mrs, Grossman was a very accome plished woman, and among other things she was a great lover of Greece. Thirty years ago or so she went to Athens, and while she was there she actually wrote for Greek newspapers in Greek. Sidney: Yet most people are so entirely ignorant of Greek that there is a common expression: " It’s Greek to me," meaning I can’t understand a word of it. ‘ Henry: That’s another quotation; from Shakespeare’s "Julius Caesar." But I fancy the saying would have come into use without that--* Who Wrote That?" 2YA, December 15,