A question about Lissa's name...

Well, I'm not so sure whether I put it in the right section or not... Whatever.

I was wondering in which syllable the name "Vasilissa" is stressed. I'm from greece, but I don't read the translated versions, I bought the english copies. In greek, Vasilissa (stress on the first i) means "Queen".

In the greek copies her name is translated with a small v however, which means she's the queen. I'm sure it's a mistake, but where is it stressed?

And another question: Do you think it is a coincidence? It might mean that she will be the queen in the future. Same references are made in harry potter books...

I can't be, can it?! RM gave one of the characters a name that most of us would just take it as a name she made up, but she must've hidden the meaning in the name! This is just unbelievable! She's a genius doing this. We now have proof that Lissa Dragomir will most probably be the next Queen of all Moroi and dhampirs.

I have some doubts regarding this, because she mentioned that there were some women named Vasilissa in the past. But I don't think it's a coincidence either... *confused

I thought Vasilisa was an Eastern European name?

http://www.behindthename.com/name/vasilisa

It is. It just meens queen in greek. Russian and greek have some things in common. The name Basil you can see in the page you posted exists in greek as well.

Okay two things; First I can't believe you're from Greece!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! and two I think that it does mean that Lissa will be queen of all dhampir and Moroi

Well, the sypnosis of LS that has been floating around for a few months now (Richelle said not all of it is true) does mention that Lissa is in the running for Queen...So you just never know.

This was interesting to find out! Thanks for enlighten us. I never thought that Vasilissa could have that meaning. But I don't think it's a coincidence at all. I mean, RM knows her history and all the old legends. She has said that she has drawn from the folklore of Eastern Europe in creating this world of vampires. Of course she would know about the meaning of the name and gone for it just because of its meaning.

And as you pointed out: there are similarities between many of the countries in Europe, especially whe it comes to names, folklore, music...

I'm from Sweden and when I read the name I also stress the first syllable. How do you pronounce it in the US or UK?

Chri$ty wrote:

It is. It just meens queen in greek. Russian and greek have some things in common. The name Basil you can see in the page you posted exists in greek as well.

Like starting off the Eastern Orthodoxian Branches for Christianity and Judaism, for one thing?
Or for another, housing some of the last remnants of Troy's existence other than its ruins, for another(or at least having some sort of connection or another with Troy's remains, Greece's ancient societies actually brought out Troy's end and thus got thrashed by the Romans in return, the Russians wounded up having married the last remaining Byzantine Imperial blood-lines, which may have been rooted in the times of the Julii, who are descended from Aeneas of Troy?)
I can go on, but essentially you're right about that much, at least.

Tonystark616 wrote:

Chri$ty wrote:

It is. It just meens queen in greek. Russian and greek have some things in common. The name Basil you can see in the page you posted exists in greek as well.

Like starting off the Eastern Orthodoxian Branches for Christianity and Judaism, for one thing?
Or for another, housing some of the last remnants of Troy's existence other than its ruins, for another(or at least having some sort of connection or another with Troy's remains, Greece's ancient societies actually brought out Troy's end and thus got thrashed by the Romans in return, the Russians wounded up having married the last remaining Byzantine Imperial blood-lines, which may have been rooted in the times of the Julii, who are descended from Aeneas of Troy?)
I can go on, but essentially you're right about that much, at least.

You are aware of the fact that much of what you're saying is myth, right?
The Byzantine Empire stretched on for some hundreds years after the Roman empire had fallen into ruins, preserving a lot of the knowledge (maths, astronomy etc, etc) for posterity. Then came the Arabs, united by the new faith, Islam and they also took great care preserving a lot of the knowledge and adding considerably of their own excellent scientific knowledge.
And it's not so much starting off the orthodox branches, it's more like a split that grew during the couple of hundred years when the Christian Rome existed. There's so much politics involved in this, the Pope of course wanting supreme power and the centre of authority be situated in Western Europe, while the Patriarch claimed they had the "true" faith and the centre of power should remain in Eastern Europe, in the New Rome: Constantinople.

As for Judaism, it stretches far longer back than Christianity. Thousands of years...

According to babynames.com (yes i went there to find it) Vasilisa means Regal, Royal and the Origin is russian. According to another site you pronounce it like Vah-see-lee-sah but thats for Russian I think. And when I saw a video of Richelle doing a reading for SB it sounded like Vah-sih-ly-sah. I'm not good at coming up with the spelling of the pronunciations. I guess kinda like Vah-si-lyssa. The lisa is pronounced like lyssa from Alyssa. At least thats the way richelle said it.

thats cool but maybe people really don't actually know where the name came from

dbelikova wrote:

Tonystark616 wrote:

Chri$ty wrote:

It is. It just meens queen in greek. Russian and greek have some things in common. The name Basil you can see in the page you posted exists in greek as well.

Like starting off the Eastern Orthodoxian Branches for Christianity and Judaism, for one thing?
Or for another, housing some of the last remnants of Troy's existence other than its ruins, for another(or at least having some sort of connection or another with Troy's remains, Greece's ancient societies actually brought out Troy's end and thus got thrashed by the Romans in return, the Russians wounded up having married the last remaining Byzantine Imperial blood-lines, which may have been rooted in the times of the Julii, who are descended from Aeneas of Troy?)
I can go on, but essentially you're right about that much, at least.

You are aware of the fact that much of what you're saying is myth, right?
The Byzantine Empire stretched on for some hundreds years after the Roman empire had fallen into ruins, preserving a lot of the knowledge (maths, astronomy etc, etc) for posterity. Then came the Arabs, united by the new faith, Islam and they also took great care preserving a lot of the knowledge and adding considerably of their own excellent scientific knowledge.
And it's not so much starting off the orthodox branches, it's more like a split that grew during the couple of hundred years when the Christian Rome existed. There's so much politics involved in this, the Pope of course wanting supreme power and the centre of authority be situated in Western Europe, while the Patriarch claimed they had the "true" faith and the centre of power should remain in Eastern Europe, in the New Rome: Constantinople.

As for Judaism, it stretches far longer back than Christianity. Thousands of years...

Actually, Not all of it is rooted in myth, especially when we take into account that not only did Troy once existed, but that apparently there are families in Italy who may have been descended from the site where Troy once stood.
I know the Byzantines stood after the Roman Empire fell, for one thing.
I already recalled Judaism living longer than Chistianity, as well.

Alright, i will give you credit that the Turkish empire's earlier days tried to preserve everything scientific about the Byzantines, i will grant you that, but then during the Era of World War One, their descendants in general deteriorated into ungrateful people, as they even slaughtered latter-day greeks for deeds they didn't even do wrong at all, for the most part.
Its as if Greeks nowadays appeared to be cursed, to my dismay.

Tonystark616 wrote:

Actually, Not all of it is rooted in myth, especially when we take into account that not only did Troy once existed, but that apparently there are families in Italy who may have been descended from the site where Troy once stood.
I know the Byzantines stood after the Roman Empire fell, for one thing.
I already recalled Judaism living longer than Chistianity, as well.

Alright, i will give you credit that the Turkish empire's earlier days tried to preserve everything scientific about the Byzantines, i will grant you that, but then during the Era of World War One, their descendants in general deteriorated into ungrateful people, as they even slaughtered latter-day greeks for deeds they didn't even do wrong at all, for the most part.
Its as if Greeks nowadays appeared to be cursed, to my dismay.

Yes, but we will also have to remember that by then the Turks had for hundreds of years been Muslims. And even if the Muslims treated the Christians and the Jewish well from the beginning, the Crusaders changed all that. By enforcing themselves upon the Muslims, killing thousands and treating them like they were the living scum of the earth that had to be stopped at all costs, that tolerance was for ever to be wiped away.

The "war against the Muslims" had only just begun and the animosity between the two, so closely related religions with a common ancestry, was to prevail and still is evident in many ways even today in our modern society. Unfortunately...

As for the Italian families, I just don't know. There are so many uncertainties about early Greek and Roman history. We don't even know much about the different kinds of people living on the Italian peninsula before the Latin speaking Romans began defeating them all. The archeological findings can't tell us very much, it will all just have to be theory, that goes for much of the early Greek history as well. The written sources are of so much later date and even in those cases they date from a much later period than the events they re-tell. But I admit, I'm in the blue here.

dbelikova wrote:

Tonystark616 wrote:

Actually, Not all of it is rooted in myth, especially when we take into account that not only did Troy once existed, but that apparently there are families in Italy who may have been descended from the site where Troy once stood.
I know the Byzantines stood after the Roman Empire fell, for one thing.
I already recalled Judaism living longer than Chistianity, as well.

Alright, i will give you credit that the Turkish empire's earlier days tried to preserve everything scientific about the Byzantines, i will grant you that, but then during the Era of World War One, their descendants in general deteriorated into ungrateful people, as they even slaughtered latter-day greeks for deeds they didn't even do wrong at all, for the most part.
Its as if Greeks nowadays appeared to be cursed, to my dismay.

Yes, but we will also have to remember that by then the Turks had for hundreds of years been Muslims. And even if the Muslims treated the Christians and the Jewish well from the beginning, the Crusaders changed all that. By enforcing themselves upon the Muslims, killing thousands and treating them like they were the living scum of the earth that had to be stopped at all costs, that tolerance was for ever to be wiped away.

The "war against the Muslims" had only just begun and the animosity between the two, so closely related religions with a common ancestry, was to prevail and still is evident in many ways even today in our modern society. Unfortunately...

As for the Italian families, I just don't know. There are so many uncertainties about early Greek and Roman history. We don't even know much about the different kinds of people living on the Italian peninsula before the Latin speaking Romans began defeating them all. The archeological findings can't tell us very much, it will all just have to be theory, that goes for much of the early Greek history as well. The written sources are of so much later date and even in those cases they date from a much later period than the events they re-tell. But I admit, I'm in the blue here.

Most of the Crusaders were Roman Catholic, not Eastern Orthodox Christians like the Medieval-Modern-Day Greeks and Russians were, which makes it all that much worse on my mind.
It meant they took it out on the wrong Christian Group, in other words, and the Eastern Orthodox Christians are meant to be the most sanest, religiously speaking(They're still in the top 3, if i checked right!) too.


You have got to be kidding me, this is exactly all the more reasons why i still have some patience with Rose and Company, partially because Rose is of Middle-Eastern Roots, and most of the time almost no epic series is bothering to represent the Middle East in a more positive light through one of their cast members in a story-line.
(Reasons involving attempting to save the Moroi Society of today from itself, notwithstanding, that is!)

If i heard right, the Spartans(after Helen's time, whose reputation was wreaked beyond reason!) and Original Macedonians were said to be descended from Hercules, himself, right?

I know it's such a shame they took it out on the "wrong" Christian "group".
I've always thought the Roman Catholic Church has a lot of skeletons lurking in its closet, being responsible for so many wrong-doings throughout history. I don't know that much about the Eastern branches of Christianity, but I've always thought them more appealing.
I think it's great we have a hero in this series who is a professed Orthodox and that the Orthdox religion and beliefs are portrayed in such a positive way .

First of all, I want to say that I'm pretty surprised to see that you know so many things about Troy etc...

Second the name Vasilissa IS Russian. It's just that, in greek it's not a name. It just means "Queen".

I think I read somewhere that the stress is on the last i, like VasilIssa. In greek it is "VasIlissa". It's kinda weird, since in the translated copy they translate her name and make it seem like her name is actually "Queen"

Regarding the history topic thet you brought up, I think the connction is from the byzantine era, when Russians and greeks had relationship, since the word vasilisa is Greek. "King" is translated as "Vasilias".

Serioysly, noone here is from Russia???

No, the closest I ever get to Russia is my father is from the north of Finland, having grown up in the shadow of the very big neighbour in the east and also my grandfather having fought against the Soviet Union in WW2.

It's a fascinating country with a very interesting history. So different from most of the Western European countries, since it never had the chance to be part of the development towards a modern democracy in the late 1800s and early 1900s.

I can imagine that the Greek and Russian cultures borrowed heavily from one another during the reign of the Byzantine Empire. And then of course my own country and Russia have always been sworn enemies, competing and fighting throughout history over the control of The Baltic Sea.

dbelikova wrote:

I know it's such a shame they took it out on the "wrong" Christian "group".
I've always thought the Roman Catholic Church has a lot of skeletons lurking in its closet, being responsible for so many wrong-doings throughout history. I don't know that much about the Eastern branches of Christianity, but I've always thought them more appealing.
I think it's great we have a hero in this series who is a professed Orthodox and that the Orthdox religion and beliefs are portrayed in such a positive way .

Do you mean Lissa, who was not holier-than-thou in any way, shape or form?
Now if i can only say likewise about the general Moroi Royal Council in General(Who weren't religiously holier-than-thou, except for the racist imbecile among the council who want to wipe out Rose' species, but were racially and xenocially holier-than-thou, instead. >_>' )

I thought Rose' father was meant to be a muslim, actually.

Tonystark616 wrote:

dbelikova wrote:

I know it's such a shame they took it out on the "wrong" Christian "group".
I've always thought the Roman Catholic Church has a lot of skeletons lurking in its closet, being responsible for so many wrong-doings throughout history. I don't know that much about the Eastern branches of Christianity, but I've always thought them more appealing.
I think it's great we have a hero in this series who is a professed Orthodox and that the Orthdox religion and beliefs are portrayed in such a positive way .

Do you mean Lissa, who was not holier-than-thou in any way, shape or form?
Now if i can only say likewise about the general Moroi Royal Council in General(Who weren't religiously holier-than-thou, except for the racist imbecile among the council who want to wipe out Rose' species, but were racially and xenocially holier-than-thou, instead. >_>' )

I thought Rose' father was meant to be a muslim, actually.

No, I was actually thinking of Dimitri.
And his family.

And yes, Rosa's father is Muslim. Any thoughts on that?

This thread is enlightening. Interesting I haven't come into it before.

I don't think Rose's father being muslim is significant.
Technically speaking Rose would be muslim too.
Does Richelle specify in the book about Abe? Turkish decent doesn't 100% mean that Abe is.

L.Dragomir wrote:

This thread is enlightening. Interesting I haven't come into it before.

I don't think Rose's father being muslim is significant.
Technically speaking Rose would be muslim too.
Does Richelle specify in the book about Abe? Turkish decent doesn't 100% mean that Abe is.

I'm pretty sure Rose only ever says that her father is *probably* Muslim because she didn't know anything about him and assumed that because he's Turkish that he's Muslim. I don't think it ever comes out and actually says that he is.

I haven't got my books at the moment (lent them to a friend) but I got the distinct impression Abe is Muslim. I can't remember how it was put, but I might be wrong.

I don't think it signifies either. Only I'm glad he seems a quite OK character and I think it's a relief to have someone being Muslim and NOT automatically being the bad guy.

dbelikova wrote:

I haven't got my books at the moment (lent them to a friend) but I got the distinct impression Abe is Muslim. I can't remember how it was put, but I might be wrong.

I don't think it signifies either. Only I'm glad he seems a quite OK character and I think it's a relief to have someone being Muslim and NOT automatically being the bad guy.

I think so too.

not to seem well insulted or anything but my family is Roman Catholic