[Sca-cooks] Romans + Mint

Terry Decker t.d.decker at worldnet.att.net
Wed Jun 6 14:37:10 PDT 2007


> Terry Decker wrote:
>> The earliest references to mint of which I am aware are in Mycenaean and,
>> according to one source, appear to be in common use in the earliest
>> writings.  This would place the knowledge of mint in Pelloponnesus 
>> between
>> 1600 and 1200 BCE.  Since Mycenaean is a direct ancestor of Hellenic 
>> Greek,
>> it is probably the "earlier source" suggested.
>>
>> Bear
>>
> Where did you find that?
> Suey

Tablets MY Ge 602-608, recovered in 1954 from the House of the Sphinxes, 
list some of the common spices including mint.  I encountered the 
information in the English abstract of a Polish journal a few years ago. 
There is also at least one journal article on the contents of the tablets in 
JSTOR.  Unfortunately I don't read Polish and I don't have access to JSTOR 
articles.

Gernot Katzer makes reference to the Mycenaean uasge at:
http://www.uni-graz.at/~katzer/engl/Ment_pip.html

And the word shows up in a Linear B glossary at:
http://www.geocities.com/kurogr/linearb.pdf

You can also come across references to a gruel of meal, water and mint used 
in the Eleusinian mysteries, but I don't have any specific references that 
tie that to the Mycenaean form of the mysteries.

Bear 




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