Monday 24 November 2014

Reversible personal names ?

C.D. Buck, Comparative Grammar of Greek and Latin, p. 361:

'Names of successive generations often show one name word in common in different combinations, as son and father in G. Κλεομέδων Κλεαρέτου, Δωρόθεος Θεοδώρου, etc. ...

Of the Greek name words some are used only in the first part of names, some only in the second, but many in either. Examples are numerous of parallel names with the same two name words in reverse order, as Ἄρχ-ιππος, Ἵππ-αρχος; Φιλό-δημος, Δημό-φιλος.'

The histories of Diodorus Siculus (and Polybius) feature one individual known both as Ἀγάθαρχος (20.55.5; 21.3.1; cf. Polybius 7.2.4 and, for the name itself, D.S.13.13.2) and as Ἀρχάγαθος (20.11.1, 33 passim, 38, 55, 57-61 passim, 68; 21.16 passim).

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