Mario Iodice

SUMMARY: In Mycenaen texts records of women often mention only their work or ethnic provenance, or else their personal names. This article lists a selection of feminine personal names, which are mainly compounds and hypocoristic, are related to physical or character traits or suggest a relation with sacredness, with colours, flowers, jobs, or have metaphorical and antiphrastic meanings. The social and cultural perception of women and their role in the Bronze Age can be investigated by means of the analysis of personal names.

Several lexemes, which are hapax legomena, appear in the Mycenaean tablets, series TH Av, excavated at Thebes, Pelopidou street, between 1993 and 1996. These lexemes are personal and ethnical names, toponyms, names of trades and crafts. Here TH Av 106 is studied: it contains 12 lexemes, 7 of them are hapax legomena and are personal names.

Alcuni lessemi indicanti nomi di animali e di funzionari addetti alla loro cura, attestati nelle nuove tavolette micenee di Tebe scoperte tra il 1993 e il 1995, vengono studiati in relazione all’ambito religioso. Alcuni ricorrono per la prima volta nei documenti micenei, altri sono già attestati ma, inseriti nel contesto tebano, sembrano acquisire nuove valenze: si tratta di semplici animali o di animali divinizzati o, piuttosto, di animali sacri? Dall’analisi delle singole occorrenze si cerca di ricavare una risposta a tale quesito.