Linear B · art · language · evidence

The hidden beauty
of language.

A continuous reading of the encounter between a prehistoric Greek script, living poetry and the hand of the artist.

Handwritten Linear B transcription study by Nikos Samartzidis — Transcription studyWorking document

01 / Artist statement

From Greek sound
to painted presence.

The artist remembers the first signs, the distance from Greece, and the reverse journey that brought modern poetry into Linear B.

Nikos Samartzidis · February 2003

“Hommage a Michael Ventris” or: “the hidden beauty of language…”

When I first saw the Linear B inscriptions as a high school student, and, later, as a visitor to the Archaeological Museum of Heraklion, on the island of Crete, I could not foresee that these small symbols, inscribed on clay, would carry me off one day on a journey in space and time, an inner journey to my roots, my language and my consciousness…

I first had to pass through a stage of admiration for Chinese calligraphy, and to emigrate… Gradually, these symbols started dancing in front of me, demanding my attention and compensating me by transporting me mentally to Greece, to a Greece celebrated by its poets…

It seems that these symbols preferred to take the indirect path, by choosing a young British architect, Michael Ventris, to be the one to restore their “Greek sound” by deciphering them, something that happened in 1952-53 with the official publication of Ventris and J. Chadwick’s discoveries in the “Journal of Hellenic Studies” (1953) and a lecture by Ventris in London the same year. This extraordinary achievement pushed the historical proof of the Greek language in the Aegean area further back, to a few centuries before Homer…

A reading of the texts, a unique experience, suddenly brought to mind a poet’s words: “So I very slowly took to setting words like gems to cover this country I love. Lest someone see its beauty. Or suspect that may be it does not exist…” (Odysseas Elytis: “The little seafarer” / “To anoint the repast, II”, Translation: Jeffrey Carson and Nikos Sarris).

This immediately inspired the next thought: What would the reverse be like? I do not know if it exists already, but this is my attempt here, with a cautious hand since I am no philologist, and by artistic license alone. There are no literary texts in Linear B. So here are some attempts to transcribe:

Modern Greek poetry in a voyage through time, connecting with the past…
Words dressed in their glittering jewelry…
Challenging words for hopeful lovers of an ancient language…
Hunting for the hidden treasure…

Vitim Kruglikov (+) · Professor of Philosophy, Moscow · May 2003

Revival of the protohellenic syllabic script “Linear B”

Nikos Samartzidis’ calligraphic painting converses – through the collective memory – with the idea of “energy centers” or Jaspers’ “axis-time”. It is in such primarily axial times that energy centers were born and created magical magnets of spiraling human evolution. Some are still vibrating full of energy today; some were transformed into human history after leaving behind traces which, in their present expressions, become luminous, dictating motion to the painter’s hand…

This immediate experience is captured by the artist, transubstantiated through the poetry of Kavafy, Seferis and Elytis and, using the color of the poetic treasure, chisels ecstatically the symbols of the Cretan-Mycenaean Linear B through a triumphant denial of the visible and of time…

Passing our fingertips over these inexplicable symbols that resemble dancing figures, by caressing their relief carvings, you might be caught off guard and suddenly embrace with your gaze the whole surface of the painting, while names such as “Petalides”, “Desert Land”, “Logos”, “Kytissos” or “Leaves of Light” reverberate metaphysically in your ears…

A convincing testimony in painting of intense feelings before the Mediterranean colors and light that is reflected in the connection between the Ancient Greek and today’s living script and sounds…

02 / Transcription

A poem crosses
three surfaces.

Greek text, phonetic syllables and the handwritten Linear B study remain visible together.

Handwritten transcription into Linear B signs — Handwritten process document

Greek original

…”Απ την Τανάγρα με αργυρή λύρα
χρυσή στο χέρι ήλθε γλυκόφωνη, ξανθή,
η ομορφονιά Κορίννα…”

Γεώργιος Τερτσέτης: “Κορίννα και Πίνδαρος”

Transcription into syllables

a-po te ta-na-ka-ra me a-ru-ku-re ru-ra
ku-ru-se to ke-ri e-re-te ku-ru-ko-qo-ne
ka-sa-ne-te e o-mo-qo-ni-a ko-ri-na
ke-o-ri-ki-o te-re-ze-te ko-ri-na-ka-i pi-da-ro

English translation

“…From Tanagra,
with a silver-gold lyra in the hand,
came sweetvoiced, blond,
the young beauty Corinna…”

George Tertsetis: “Corinna and Pindarus”

03 / Selected texts

Three voices behind the works.

The poetry is not a caption. It is material carried into the painted surface.

Poetry

Plywood

«…Κι έπιασα σιγα-σιγά να πλέκω λόγια σαν διαμαντικά να την καλύψω τη χώρα που αγαπούσα. Μην και κανείς ιδεί το κάλλος. Ή κι υποψιαστεί πως ίσως δεν υπάρχει…»

Οδ. Ελύτης: «Ο μικρός Ναυτίλος» / «ΜΥΡΙΣΑΙ ΤΟ ΑΡΙΣΤΟΝ, ΙΙ»

Ithaca

Canvas

«…Η Ιθάκη σ’ έδωσε τ’ ωραίο ταξείδι.
Χωρίς αυτήν δεν θάβγαινες στον δρόμο.
Άλλα δεν έχει να σε δώσει πια…»

Κ. Καβάφης: «Ιθάκη»

SAPPHO

Canvas

«…αυτάρ οραίαι στεφανηπλόκευν ποικίλεται μεν γαία πολυστέφανος…»

«…όταν στεφάνια πλέκουνε τριγύρω μου οι ωραίες κοπέλλες,

Κι η γη που τα στεφάνια θρέφει βρίθει από άνθη…»

Μετάφραση: Οδυσσέας Ελύτης

04 / Sources

Sources

Selected research behind the artist’s long engagement with Linear B.

Historical collectionBrowse all 64 text samples

Bibliography

01
Harald Haarmann: Universalgeschichte der Schrift, Campus Verlag / Parkland, 1998.
02
John Chadwick: The Decipherment of Linear B, Cambridge University Press / Canto, 2000.
03
John Chadwick: Linear B and Related Scripts, University of California Press, 1997.
04
J. T. Hooker: Linear B: An Introduction, Bristol Classical Press, 1980.
05
Constantinus Siamakis: ALPHABETUM, Thessalonicae, MCMLXXVIII.
06
Andrew Robinson: The Man who decipherd LINEAR B, the story of Michael Ventris, Thames & Hudson, 2002.
07
Ernst Doblhofer: Die Entzifferung alter Schriften und Sprachen, Reclam, Leipzig, 2003.
08
Gareth Owens: ΔΑΙΔΑΛΙΚΑ — Γραφές και Γλώσσες της Μινωικής και Μυκηναϊκής Κρήτης, Ηράκλειο, 1996.
09
J. Chadwick, L. Godart, J. T. Killen, J. P. Olivier, A. Sacconi and I. A. Sakellarakis: Corpus of Mycenaean Inscriptions from Knossos, Cambridge University Press / Edizioni dell’Ateneo, Roma, 1986.
10
Martin S. Ruiperez – Jose L. Melena: Los Griegos micenicos (Οι Μυκηναίοι Έλληνες), Ινστιτούτο του βιβλίου, Αθήνα, 1996.
11
Thomas G. Palaima: The Scribes of Pylos, Edizioni dell’Ateneo, Roma, 1988.

Bibliographic punctuation has been regularized for presentation. The historical transcription remains available in the original bibliography.

Correspondence

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The hidden beautyof language.