question about the word painting in Herodotus

I too ask a similar question, the ancient Greek and Latin do not have a word for virgin, the Greek word “Parthenos” means “Unmarried youth (Male and female) irrelevant as to their sexual status and only denotes ‘VIRGIN’ by implication.

The young 13 years old unmarried Mary, was a ‘Parthenos,’ a young unmarried woman, who told the Messenger of God that she had never had sexual contact with a man, thereby implying that she was still, at that point in time, a virgin.


‘Parthenos,’ was often used in reference to non-virgins who had never been married. Homer uses it in reference to unmarried girls who were no longer virgins, and Homer was the standard textbook for learning Greek all throughout antiquity, so any writer of Greek, including the authors of the Septuagint and Matthew, who translated Isaiah’s words, that (An unmarried woman would be with child etc) while being well aware of this words versatile and indefinite meaning; were in no way implying that Mary was a virgin when they were forced to use the Greek term ‘Parthenos’ in translating Isiah 7: 14.

The same goes for the Lati “VIRGO.”

Well i guess that mistranslation into 'virgin' was just another part of the attempt by at least one person or one group of early Latin speaking and writing followers of Jesus (would it have been Jerome?) to further advertise the miraculous aspects of his nature (alongside for example all the miracles which are related in the earliest Gospel text of Mark and the other Synoptics) and thus increase the popularity of his 'repent because the end of days are imminent' message even if by that time that message had been diluted somewhat.

I can understand that at least, but surely no one cared when Herodotus was first translated into Latin (i would guess in the Renaissance) whether the word painting was used or not. They might if they were Renaissance fans of painting who were seeking to point to its antiquity but apart from a couple of references to its use on Egyptian Coffins and mummies, not to mention some battlements in the Levant somewhere, painting hardly figures in Herodotus which given the length of his account tells us something perhaps of what he at least, and maybe the societies of his time, felt about its importance. Anyway thanks for your reply.

It was possiblyJerome, who translated the Greek “Parthenos” to the Latin, “Virgo” which also means unmarried youth, irrelevant as to their sexual status. The Latin VIRGO was only translated to “Virgin” with the translation of the Latin Vulgate into English.

Jesus who was born of the flesh from the union of Mary and her half-brother Joseph who were both sired by Heli, aka Alexander Helios III, by different mothers, did not become the chosen son of the lord until he was about thirty, when he was baptised by his mother’s first cousin John the Baptist, the son of Elizabeth the sister to Hanna/Anna the mother of Mary.

This happened when the spirit of God who said to Moses in the wilderness; "I will send them a prophet like you from among their own people; I will put MY WORDS in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I COMMAND, and whosoever will not heed MY WORDS, which he shall speak in MY NAME, I will punish, etc.” descended upon Jesus in the form of a dove as the heavenly voice was heard to say; “You are my son. ‘THIS DAY’ I have begotten thee.” Or as said in Hebrews 5: 5; ‘You are my son, TODAY I have become your Father.

Could it be that the closest word in modern English to the meaning of the ancient Greek is the word 'painting'?