The word ‘parchment’ is a hyperlink into the past.
It’s a variant of the word Pergamum.
I learnt the other day that the word ‘parchment’ comes from Pergamum.
(Pergamum is a city in today’s Turkey.)
So I decided to find out more about the city.
An Ancient Capital
The first surprise was: I found that it was the seat of government and capital of the Attalid Dynasty.
It was a Greek-speaking kingdom which formed much of Asia Minor.
Rome took over it in around 134BC, but before that, it was quite a kingdom.
Library
King Eumenes II (197–159 BC) built a library in Pergamum.
It could begin to rival the famous one in Alexandria.
The library of Alexdrania was known in the ancient world for being the most lavish and complete. It had almost every book known to ancient learning.
At one point, Egypt stopped exporting papyrus to Pergamum, so that they can’t write stuff with it. Papyrus was the paper needed for writing.
Medicine
Many of the coins found in Pergamum had serpents on them.
This was influenced by Asclepius. He was a doctor. Many of the inscriptions in fact say ‘Asclepius Soter’.
It means ‘Asclepius Saviour’, because he healed people.
There was a saying:
“These two, Asclepius and Plato, did Apollo beget; one that he may heal bodies, the other to heal souls.”
— Olympiodorus, In Alcibiades 2.165–167
It is evidence that Pergamum was a centre for providing medical services.
White Stone
From a series of lectures on the Letter of Revelations written by Saint John, I learnt something about the white stones.
“To the one who is victorious, […] I will also give that person a white stone with a new name written on it, known only to the one who receives it.”
There are two contexts in which white stones were found.
1. Temples
That was because temples back then had a mixture of light and dark stones.
So it’s sayingthe Christian readers who persevered would receive a white stone, it’s saying, if you persevere, you would be recognised by God.
2. Court
White and dark stones were also used in the court. Judges would pronounce judgment only after dropping a light or dark stone into a hat. Dark obviously meant the defendant was guilty. White meant not guilty.
(Probably not these pebbles.)
It is essentially saying to the reader, if you persevere in faith, ‘you will not be declared guilty in my presence’.
Learning
I also write about ancient languages in my pages:
- I’m learning Ancient Greek in 2024–Four (4) real benefits of learning an ancient language
- What’s your best one liner? The art of being succint- lessons from Ancient Greece
Here I’ve shared with you another advantage of learning (ancient) languages. You can use them to understand the world.
The words we use are like living relics left to us from the past, which we’ve got for free (well, most of us have one for free anyway).
Or put differently, they are like hyperlinks to the past.
Besides Pergamum (and my hyperlinks above), what ancient hyperlinks would you click into and explore?
