Monday 19 August 2013

More on names, their plurals, and on ethnics, etc.

The first (and only) fragment of Susarion, who is credited with being the first Greek comedian, presents all of his terms of identification, almost:
ἀκούετε λεῴ· Σουσαρίων λέγει τάδε,
υἱὸς Φιλίνου Μεγαρόθεν Τριποδίσκιος·
κακὸν γυναῖκες· ἀλλ’ ὅμως, ὦ δημόται,
οὐκ ἔστιν οἰκεῖν οἰκίαν ἄνευ κακοῦ.
καὶ γὰρ τὸ γῆμαι καὶ τὸ μὴ γῆμαι κακόν. 

Name, Susariaon: Patronymic, son of Philinos (but with υἱὸς explicit): village ethnic 
Τριποδίσκιος [a κωμήτης, says Steph.Byz.]: and city/regional ethnic equivalent Μεγαρόθεν (the testimonia give Μεγαρεύς).

Roman daughters took the feminine of their gentilicium as their personal name: daughter of a Cornelius would be a Cornelia, etc. So, what happened when there were several daughters in one immediate family?

legimus epistulas Corneliae matris Gracchorum: apparet filios non tam in gremio educatos quam in sermone matris. auditus est nobis Laeliae C. f. saepe sermo: ergo illam patris elegantia tinctam vidimus et filias eius Mucias ambas. quarum sermo mihi fu it notus, et neptes Licinias, quas nos quidem ambas, hanc vero Scipionis etiam tu, Brute, credo, aliquando audisti loquentem
Cicero, Brutus 211

Dawn appears as Ἠώς (not Ἕως) in Isoc.10.52 (a mythological context?), but as Ἕως in E. (Hipp.455, Ion 1158, Phaeth.5). A name hopping dialectal lines...


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