Further helpful Boeotians

In an inscription from Athens, we meet one Peilestrotidas (cf. Agora XVII 500), who illustrates (1) the labial treatment of a labiovelar even before front vowels (cf. τῆλε, etc.), (2) -ρο- not -ρα- as the reflex of a syllabic r, and (3) the spelling <ει> for an original long e vowel. Cf. *Τηλεστρατίδης (-ίδᾱς).


We know that he is a Boeotian, despite only appearing at Athens, because his name is followed by an ethnic, Θειβῆος, whose spelling (as with Πει-) is consistent with Boeotian pronunciation (cf. the spelling Θηβαῖος outside Boeotia; Boeotian has κή for καί).

Note that the editions confirm that we have two distinct instances of this name and ethnic, one first published 09.09.1865 (Athenis, nunc EM 9238), another found in a Roman wall 03.05.1949. 'We may have the monuments of father and son or grandson' (Agora, l.c.).

Note, by contrast, the use of the suffix -ίδᾱς, not -ιος, as a deriverative of a (father's) name.


A comparable case of the labial treatment of a labiovelar is illustrated by Θιόφειστος in IG 3172 (c) 90-91 and 92. Cf. Θεόθεστος from Hellenistic Rhodes.

His father's name is given in the genitive: Θιοδώρω (contra Buck, 168a). The context mentions Εὐξενίδας Φιλώνδαο, a neat example of the genitive of the father's name (in -ᾱο as in Homer), itself an -ώνδᾱς formation (see Buck, 168a), typical of Boeotian (Buck, 164.8: also in Thessalian, Phocian, Megarian, and Euboean).

IG II^2 8888 reports a Τηλέμα|χος Θη[βαῖος] (LGPN *Πηλέμαχος).