Nile, Nile, Nile... Courante tumultuesse!

(Paraphrasing the off-voice at the start of the film Astérix et Cléopatre)

Yep, added almost 4K words to the counter. Not all of them, my current batch is still on the Palm, as I prefer to have the context handy.

I had several (way too many!) problems depicting the arrival of the Delian League fleet to Kemet, remember? (search the archives for the exact posts). Well, I've solved several of them by a clever twist of the story and an intelligent handling of circumstances.

I cheated, OK.

After a chat with a local priest on a coastal little town, the Delian League has splitted in two, a head of 40 triereis (the two Samian squads) and the bulk of the fleet behind with the cargo ships. Our valiant Samians have strived and worked double time to reach the Canaanite fleet moving to attack the Rebellion by its rear. May the Force be with... Ops! Wrong track. [Changes track] Right. The Samians have finally arrived to Kanopos (Canopus), which gives ---at the time, we are travelling in a Time Warp, ok? Thus let's jump to the left, and then a step to the right... uh, well, OK---, it gives, I was saying, its name to that branch of the Hapi (Nile).

BTW, I learned that Nile comes through latin Nilus, greek Neilos, either from the semitic root nhr (*nah(a)r-, in arabic nahr) which means "river", or "current"; or from ancient babilonian nilum, flood. Both are possible, of course: nilum has no secrets, and nhr could be (personal, wild, just-for-fun, speculation from now on) *neheru in egyptian, which a greek would easily convert into *ne(h)eros. The pass from r to l is well documented in most languages, under certain circumstances; thus from *neheru <- *nehelos. Now, the "h" went probably mute, as greeks fancied rough spirit at the start of the word, but not in the middle, and this produced a natural lengthening of the second "e": (consider the hat, "^", as a macron) 'ê' -> 'i', which, on the other hand, is what's commonly happened to greek, from eta to "i".

Therefore, *neheru <- *ne(h)êlos <- *neilos.

Fun, isn't it? Yeah, well, I digress...

OK, the Samians will meet the Phoenicians first, and therefore ensue the presents Inaros gave Leocritos and Hegesagoras, which is archaeological evidence. Clever, uh? ;-)

Be well.

Kallisti!