re: #38 meteor

Hum, hum (clears throat)

Sorry to out-pedant you, but that would be *modern* Greek. We don’t know for sure how the “b” letter was pronounced in ancient Greek, but there are a few indications from literature: Aristophanes, for example, when writing down the sound of sheep, spells it “bê, bê”, which in modern Greek would read as “vee, vee”. Given how sheep actually sound, it was more probably pronounced “baa, baa”…
The phonetic evolution from “b” to “v” (and in reverse) is very common in the history of languages. See how “v” in Spanish is pronounced “b” as in “cuervos” (French “corbeau”).

Of course it doesn’t make the “Moron labe” crowd any less idiotic, or more knowledgeable about the realities of ancient Sparta…

End of pedantic digression, back to my regularly scheduled lurking… ;)