The Nebraskan and the Nereid

Gerry Quinn · 17 Apr 2011, 17:33 · from 2011-April.txt.gz

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From: gerryq at indigo.ie (Gerry Quinn)
Date: Sun, 17 Apr 2011 18:33:19 +0100
Subject: (urth) The Nebraskan and the Nereid
References: <1302999008.1802.16.camel@august><35AFC7E28F5E43209C81C07F92484FAE@jill><892310.57001.qm at smtp815.mail.ukl.yahoo.com><D2CC48D8D91A4450BFCDAC28A8A6F005@jill>
	<4DAAF5B0.1060701 at web.de>
	<276004.58855.qm at smtp820.mail.ird.yahoo.com>
Message-ID: <BA8ABAE168F34D73897626FCC914DEEA@jill>


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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