the gates of Troy

[Alitney]

What were the names of the gates of Troy mentioned in the Illiad? I posted
this to humanities. classics but no answer as yet.

Hopefully someone here knows.

Thanks

[Neuendorffer]

Fred & Ethel :-)

Maybe nobody has answered because nobody really knows.

Art N.

[Symposium1]

I can't quote the Iliad, but check out the prologue to Troilus and Cressida.
The Riverside Shaks. probably has a footnoted reference to sources.

Peace and joy,

Ann

[Robert Stonehouse]

ali...@aol.com (Alitney) wrote:

>What were the names of the gates of Troy mentioned in the Illiad? I posted
>this to humanities. classics but no answer as yet.
>
>Hopefully someone here knows.

I thought I had seen a reply mentioning the Scaean gates? M.M.
Willcock (Macmillan edition) notes on Iliad 3.145 'Skaiai pylai: the
only named gates of Troy, facing the plain'.
ew...@bcs.org.uk

[Robert Stonehouse]

ew...@bcs.org.uk (Robert Stonehouse) wrote:

An idea: maybe the plural 'gates' is causing confusion. In English,
the word 'gate' originally means the opening in the wall that you go
through. So it is used in the singular.

In Greek, the word 'pyle:' means the thing that closes the opening,
and this particular word is used only where there is a pair of
gates, two that meet in the middle to close the opening. The
singular is not common, but when it appears it means one or the
other of the pair. When it is used to mean 'the entrance' as a
whole, it is always in the plural. (We have 'a pair of scissors',
but we never say 'a scissor' in the singular so far as I know.)

So we tend to say 'Scaean gates' because Homer's word is in the
plural, but it would be closer to Homer's meaning if we said 'Scaean
gate', and if Willcock had said 'the only named gate of Troy'.
ew...@bcs.org.uk