(urth) The Nebraskan and the Nereid

Gerry Quinn gerryq at indigo.ie
Sun Apr 17 10:33:19 PDT 2011


She gave her name as Thoe, who is the Nereis of waves or voyage.  (I can't 
find any significance in 'Papamarkos', which seems to be an ordinary Greek 
name.)

Also, why would she sign her own initial beside the corpse of the girl, 
unless she had indeed killed her?

So I still prefer the 'psyche' theory.

- Gerry Quinn


From: "Mo Holkar" <lists at ukg.co.uk>
> At 15:14 17/04/2011, Klaus wrote:
>>I do have a further question, though, which is: why did the Nereid scratch 
>>the letter psi into the sand by the body? (Or is it intended to be read as 
>>a trident shape denoting allegiance to Poseidon? But that seems a bit 
>>clunky when earlier we've seen Poseidon explicitly symbolized by a letter 
>>pi.)
>>>
>>>I think it represents 'psyche' which means soul or butterfly.  Various 
>>>interpretations related to this exist on the web, and I don't know their 
>>>authenticity (I don't think anyone really knows what the ancient Greeks 
>>>believed), but certainly the symbology of inscribing it by one who has 
>>>died seems very plausible
>>>
>>>- Gerry Quinn
>>
>>I think her name is Psamathe. See: 
>><http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psamathe>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psamathe
>>
>>Klaus
>
>
> That sounds like a great theory -- she supposedly had special 
> responsibility for sandy beaches, it seems:
> http://www.theoi.com/Pontios/NereisPsamathe.html
>
> best,
>
> Mo
>
>
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