Erῑtha's scam

Linear B tablets are famously ... boring. They were written by accountants, after all. Everyone introducing these tablets to a wider audience is on the lookout for content that might be expanded into something that won't render A-level Greek students physically unconscious.

At least, so I hope: that Linear B even can be presented to our ep'hēboi. Some part of Miller's Ancient Greek Dialects should be taught to students if they are to move from Attic/Ionic to Homer, or beyond to - say - Sappho.

As to what in Linear B would be of any interest, these might deal with legal disputes (because there's a social element) or with the coastal garrison (because F@ YEAH, WAR). Others show up because of their place in the history of the decipherment. Some are here just because they list the Olympians and/or other gods from M-et-Me D'Aulaire. As I was reading Miller I recognised some old friends.

Tablet PY Eo 04, DMG 121.1 ff deals with land-tenure: Ai-ti-jo-qo *Aithioqos ("Burntface") owned some arable tracts [likely divided, from - we'll get to this], and leased one to E-ko-to *Hektor a θεhοῖο-δόhελος, an 'abd al-ilahi if you will. The type of lease is ὄνᾱτον, which means Hektor doesn't just sit there but is allowed to grow crops on it. In Latin this lease is usufruct.

That tablet, for Miller, introduces the more-interesting PY Ep 704, DMG 135.5 f, where the tenure is disputed. E-ri-ta is a hιέρεια priestess. E-ri-ta is like Aithioqos an owner of ἐτώνιον land in her own right, so presumably has lessors to work that as ὄνᾱτον. She claims further her "god" owns more (which of course means she'll get to use that land too). The god assuredly has δόhελ's - I think female servants in Pylos tended to weave linen, so these farmboys will be more Hektors. ("E-ri-ta" is usually transcribed "Erῑtha", on analogy from Homer's erῑthos, which itself means "day-labourer".) Problem for Erῑtha: an authority disputes that second plot, the δᾶμος. They agree that Erῑtha's minions have ὄνᾱτον rights there but only so much as they are shared, with the deme's rights.

I understand that some ink has been spilled over this already. Might Pylos' deme have evolved into a bipartite manor...?

Maybe not if Erῑtha could help it. I suspect the holy lady of running a fast-one on the people: since time immemorial.... Either way, we learn why the court keeps scribes - precisely to make that time, memorial. Back to Aithioqos, I'd advise him not to trust temple-slaves to work his land for long.