Talk:Nausicaa

Comments
Was the ancient Nausicaa known for caring after animals and such, or is this story an invention of Hayao Miyazaki? - idiotoff 06:40, 21 April 2006 (UTC)

It is true that Hayao Miyazaki was inspired by the Nausicaa of Greek legend, yet it was a description he read in an anthology of Greek characters that he fell in love with(The name and author of the book escapes me). It inspired him to create the personality of the main character of Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind. I'm also reminded of a Japanese tale that told of a young girl who enjoyed playing with and studying insects that also helped to shape Nausicaa in Hayao Miyazaki's mind (I have forgot the name of this legend as well). -I'll edit if I can track done some for information-

Miyazaki was inspired by Nausicaa's kindness and care for Odysseus, but that's about it as far as I know. This might be reflected in her relationship with the Pejite prince in the manga/anime, but frankly Miyazaki created a more complex character out of a minor mythological figure. Brutannica 04:53, 24 February 2007 (UTC)

"I have been fascinated by her ever since I first read about her in Bernad Evslin's Japanese translation of a small dictionary of Greek Mythology. Later, when I actually read The Odyssey, I was disappointed not to find the same splendour in her there as I had found in Evslin's book. So, as far as I am concerned, Nausicaa is still the girl Evslin described at length in his paperback. I can tell that he was particularly found of Nausicaa, as he devoted three pages to her in his small dictionary, but gave only one to both Zeus and Achilles.

...

Nausicaa reminded me of a Japanese heroine - I think I read about her in The Tales of the Past and Present. She was called the "princess that loved insects." She was regarded as an eccentric because even after reaching marriageable age, she still loved to play in the fields and would be enchanted the transformations of a pupa into a butterfly. Her eyebrows were dark and her teeth white - unlike the other girls of her era, she did not follow the custom of shaving off her eyebrows and blackening her teeth. According to Tales, she looked very strange! " 151.197.179.177 08:50, 25 April 2007 (UTC)


 * Thank you for the excellent answer. While I was reading it I remembered that I read it already long ago but couldn't remember the details or the source of Myazaki's quote (it's a pity you didn't include it either). Thanks. idiotoff 21:05, 18 May 2007 (UTC)

Pronounciation?
I think it would be a good idea to mention how the classical character's name is pronouced. The Miyazaki character's name is generally pronounced "Naw-sic-a", but I've heard "Now-shka" for the classical character. This article would be the ideal place to put in a definitive reference. Tevildo 09:29, 26 August 2007 (UTC)
 * The classical character is most likely never pronounced as "Now-shka" as that is just a byproduct of the way it is pronounced in Japanese and is thus probably exclusive to Miyazaki's version (or Japanese people talking about the classical character I suppose).165.106.223.130 16:01, 15 November 2007 (UTC)
 * The pronounciation is either [nau̯sik'a] (ancient) or [nafsik'a] (modern), for those unfamiliar with the I.P.A. that is now-see-kAh or nuff-see-kAh, in both cases stressed on the final syllable. Unless you want to do a risng and falling tone on the last syllable :). Causantin (talk) 08:25, 11 November 2008 (UTC)
 * That would be the pronunciation in Greek; however, names from Ancient Greek literature when used in English are typically revised according to English pronunciation conventions. I guess Nausicaä would be pronounced "naw-si (or zi-) KAY-a", since the diaeresis generally indicates that two adjacent vowels are given separate syllables, but I don't know for certain. 213.249.135.36 (talk) 17:11, 28 March 2010 (UTC)

But in any case, the IPA spelling suggested in the article doesn't seem correct, particularly the last two sounds. It's as if it were spelled Nausikea or Nausikia, which can't be right. Omc (talk) 15:06, 25 June 2011 (UTC)
 * I agree, this sounds wrong. The original pronunciation in Homeric Greek, as far as I can tell, would be (roughly) [nau̯siˈka(ʔ)aː] (i. e., approximately now-see-KAH-ah), in Classical Ancient Greek [nau̯siˈkaː] (i. e., now-see-KAH) and in Modern Greek [nafsiˈka] (i. e., nuff-see-KAH) – the accent is a bit tricky, but in Homeric Greek the (penultimate) ka syllable would have a higher pitch and the final syllable probably a falling tone, in Classical Ancient Greek there would be a rising-falling intonation on the final syllable, and Modern Greek (where the length distinction has long disappeared) has only a stress on the final syllable. The Classical Latin spelling is NAVSICAA (or Nausicäa in updated, New Latin spelling), and the ancient pronunciation would be [nau̯siˈkaʔa] or so. According to Traditional English pronunciation of Latin, this should give . --Florian Blaschke (talk) 15:18, 22 November 2011 (UTC)
 * The correct English pronunciation is (see ). It follows the normal stress pattern for the pronunciation of classical words in English. The ending in  is a case of dissimilation because * is not pronounceable. If there is an alternative pronunciation such as, please provide a source. --mach &#x1f648;&#x1f649;&#x1f64a; 14:19, 23 January 2016 (UTC)

Burner of ships?
This claim (that the name means burner of ships in Greek) is unsourced, and I can't find anything to support it. Delete? Jer ome (talk) 05:52, 23 February 2010 (UTC)
 * As far as my knowledge of Ancient Greek goes, the explanation seems to be correct (check ναῦς and καίω). Therefore it would make more sense to try to find a source. Perhaps a dictionary of Ancient Greek, or a scholarly reference of mythological characters. --Florian Blaschke (talk) 14:48, 22 November 2011 (UTC)
 * Apparently Nausicaa can also be translated as "excelling seafarer" or "excelling in ships". This translation definitely seems more plausible to me than "burner of ships" in this context: Nausicaa is the princess of the Phaeacians, who possessed remarkable ships. As described by David Bryson's comment, the confusion seems to be caused by the spelling of "ka", which he argues is wrongly assumed to be «kawy-» or «kayw-» (to burn), and should be «kas-» (surpassing) instead.
 * The only reference in the literature I could find is the following paragraph from Leonard R. Palmer's book, The Greek Language: "We may compare Kas-tor: Kasti-aneira. The root kas- 'excel' would also undergo the aspiration of the s intervocalically, and this insight suggested an answer to the puzzle presented by the name Nausikaa, the Paeacian girl whose brother was called Kluto-neos, a name combining the themes 'renowned' and 'ship'. The girl's name is simply the feminine form of Nausi-kahos 'excelling in ships'." --84.88.50.28 (talk) 12:44, 14 March 2012 (UTC)

Spelling of Greek - Ναυσικά or Ναυσικάα ?
I'm no expert in classical Greek, but it seems unlikely that the Greek spelling is Ναυσικά if the standard English spelling is Nausicaa. The German and French Wikipedia articles use the Ναυσικάα spelling (http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nausikaa_%28Mythologie%29 and http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nausicaa). Can someone check this? Omc (talk) 14:59, 25 June 2011 (UTC)
 * I think it's a dialectal difference: Ναυσικάα is Homeric Greek, Ναυσικᾶ is classical Greek and Ναυσικά seems to be Modern Greek. --Florian Blaschke (talk) 14:52, 22 November 2011 (UTC)

Later Influence section
Yoshiman6464 has recently removed the "Later Influence" section of this article, justifying the decision by claiming that the section be too large relative to the length of the rest of the article. I do not think that this is a valid reason for removing it, for I believe the appearances of this character in more recent literature, entertainment, etc. quite relevant. I am new enough to Wikipedia, so I do not know what I could really do to begin some type of negotiation about this, or something of the sort; but I would find it reasonable if a discussion began disputing whether or not the "Later Influence" section ought to be inserted into the article again.

"Nausicaae" listed at Redirects for discussion
An editor has identified a potential problem with the redirect Nausicaae and has thus listed it for discussion. This discussion will occur at Redirects for discussion/Log/2022 November 3 until a consensus is reached, and readers of this page are welcome to contribute to the discussion. Regards, SONIC 678 16:44, 3 November 2022 (UTC)

Etymology of Nausicaa
It doesn't make much sense that the name Nausícaa means "She who burns ships", I don't think it's a girl's name. Looking in various dictionaries of and classical Greek it seems that "Nao" means Temple and "sic" "sica" means hiss or whisper. They would give "whisper in the temple" or something similar. What do you think about this? Ebanobre (talk) 19:44, 8 February 2023 (UTC)