Computer Assisted Annotation of Themes and Motifs in Ancient Greek Epigrams: First Steps
Authors: Federico Boschetti, Riccardo Del Gratta, Marion Lamé (CNR-ILC, 2014)
Topic: Latin Resources

Abstract
This paper aims at illustrating some tools to assist the manual annotation of themes and motifs in literary and epi-graphic epigrams for the PRIN 2010/2011 Memorata Poetis Project.

Introduction
The Memorata Poetis Project is a national funded project (PRIN 2010/2011), led by Professor Paolo Mastandrea, “Ca’ Foscari” University of Venice, in continuity with the Musisque Deoque Project (Mastandrea and Spinazzè, 2011). It aims at the study of the intertextuality between epigraphic and literary epigrams in Greek, Latin, Arabic and Ital-ian languages. Some of those epigrams are trans-lated in more languages. Currently the access to the website (http://memoratapoetis.it) is restricted to the project workgroups but the access will be public before the end of the project, i.e. February 2016. To understand the specific goal of this work in progress, a broader presentation of the project is necessary. Epigrams are short poems and follow specific schemes, contents and structures. Those short poems are transmitted both by epigraphs and by manuscripts, with interesting relations between the different traditions: an epigram can have been copied from stone to parchment, losing its original function and contextualization or, on the contrary, a literary epigram can have been adapted to a new epigraphic situation. As inscription, epigrams are a communication device inserted in a cultural con-struct. They are part of an information system and this implies, in addition to texts and their linguis-tics aspects: writings, contexts and iconotextual relationships. This holistic and systemic construc-tion creates meanings: in Antiquity and in Middle-Ages, for instance, epigrams, as inscriptions, were often epitaphs. Intertextuality also takes into account this rela-tion between images of the context and the epi-grams. For instance, “fountain” is a redundant motive in epigrams. An epigram that refers to divinities of water could be inscribed on a foun-tain. Such epigraphic situation participates to the global meaning. It helps to study the original audience and the transmission of epigrams. The reuse of themes and motifs illustrates how au-thors work and may influence other authors. From epigraphs to modern edition of epigrams, intertex-tuality draws the movement of languages and con-cepts across the history of epigrams. Here is an example of a poetic English translation of a Theocritus’ epigram: XV. [For a Tripod Erected by Damoteles to Bacchus] The precentor Damoteles, Bacchus, exalts / Your tripod, and, sweetest of deities, you. / He was champion of men, if his boyhood had faults; / And he ever loved honour and seemliness too. (transl. by Calverly, 1892, https: //archive.org/details/Theocritus/ TranslatedIntoEnglishVerseByC.s. Calverley) Effectively, European cultures enjoyed epigrams since the Antiquity, copied them, translated them, and epigrams became a genre that philology studies ardently. This intercultural process transforms epigrams and, at the same time, tries to keep their essence identifiable in those themes and motifs. Naturally, those themes and motifs, such as “braveness”, “pain”, “love” or more concretely “rose”, “shield”, “bee” are reflecting the concepts in use in several different languages. The Memorata Poetis Project tries to capture metrical, lexical and semantic relations among the document of this heterogeneous multilingual corpus. The study of intertextuality is important to understand the transmission of knowledge from author to author, from epoch to epoch, or from civilization to civilization. Even if the mechanisms of the transmission are not explicit, traces can be found through allusions, or thematic similarities. If the same themes are expressed through the same motif(s), probably there is a relation between the civilizations, which express this concept in a literary form, independently by the language in which it is expressed. For instance, the concept of the shortness of life and the necessity to enjoy this short time is expressed both in Greek and Latin literature: Anthologia Graeca 11, 56 PØne kaÈ eÎfraÐnou. tÐ gr aÖrion « tÐ tä mèllon, / oÎdeÈc gin¸skei. (transl.: Drink and be happy. Nobody knows how will be tomorrow or the future.) Catullus, carmina, 5 Viuamus, mea Lesbia, atque amemus / ... / Nobis cum semel occidit breuis lux, / Nox est perpetua una dormienda. (transl.: Let us live and love, my Lesbia [...] when our short light has set, we have to sleep a never ending night.) Whereas other units are working on Greek, Latin, and Italian texts, the ILC-CNR unit of the project currently has in charge the semantic annotation of a small part of the Greek and of all the Arabic texts and it is developing computational tools to assist the manual annotation, in order to suggest the most suitable tags that identify themes and motifs. The semantic annotation of literary and historical texts in collaborative environments is a relevant topic in the age of the Semantic Web. At least two approaches are possible: a top-down approach, in which an ontology or a predefined taxonomy is used for the annotation, and a bottomup approach, in which the text can be annotated with unstructured tags that will be organized in a second stage of the work. By combining these approaches, it is possible to collect more evidence to establish agreement on the annotated texts.

Conclusion
In conclusion, we have presented a work in progress related to the lexico-semantic instru-ments under development at the ILC-CNR to as-sist the annotators that collaborate to the Memo-rata Poetis Project.