Hesychius, Cypriot, and Lesbian?

According to LSJ s.v. ἀπο-λούω, Hesychius glossed ἀπολουσέμεναι· κολ[λ]οβώσειν (Cypr.). That would involve a (1) Lesbian infinitive in -(ε)μεναι for (2) a thematic verb (3) in Cypriot. Therein are three surprises (see Buck, Greek Dialects, sections 154.2 and 155.2-3). Cf. the glossing of athematic σπελλάμεναι by Hesychius as στειλάμεναι. 

[The latter is otherwise only in the grammatical tradition, as in Herodian:
παρ’ Αἰολεῦσι δὲ τῶν ἀμεταβόλων γίνεται, ἀγείρω ἀγέρρω, ἐγείνατο ἐγέννατο, στειλάμεναι στελλάμεναι, εἷμα ἕμμα καὶ τοῦ σ τοσοῦτον τοσσοῦτον.]

The entry in Hesychius simply reads (as per TLG): (6466) ἀπολουσέμεν· κολοβώσειν Φ 455 v. l. Il.21.455 reads, στεῦτο δ’ ὅ γ’ ἀμφοτέρων ἀπολεψέμεν οὔατα χαλκῷ, preceded by a diple. There may well be less sense in 'to wash off ears with a sword' than in ἀπολεψέμεν 'to lop off...' or to 'peel off...'. There is no -αι after -μεν and no reference to Cypriots.

That said, Schmidt ed.min. tells me that the codex has -μεναι· κολλοβῶσιν. His entry ends '(Κύπριοι)'.

Here, though, is an example of a -σεμεν infinitive as a future, not as a sigmatic aorist (thematic aorists are different again in this regard).

Why we should be grateful for Hesychius...

In addition to ἐλύμνιαι, Hesychius contains the following gloss:
λυκίσκος· ἡ μὴ ἔχουσα ἀξονίσκον τροχιλία, τρῆμα δὲ μόνον h ἢ ἄνοδος δώματος (LSJ δόματος) gn.

(Sketch to follow)

The noun in question occurs only in one manuscript of Mark the Deacon's Life of Porphyrius 98 (so Jerusalem Ms. H: others οἰκίσκος and D.A. Russell's extract, no. 100, in An Anthology of Greek Prose, pp. 279-281):

Κατελθοῦσα δὲ διά τινος λυκίσκου εἰς τὸν αὐτῆς οἶκον, ἤγαγεν τὸν ψίαθον καὶ τύλην ἀχύρων· καθαπλώσασα τὸν ψίαθον ὑπέβαλεν τὴν τύλην, καὶ προσπεσοῦσα τοῖς ποσὶ
τοῦ μακαρίου, παρεκάλει αὐτὸν γεύσασθαι τῶν μετρίων αὐτῆς βρωμάτων καὶ μὴ ἀναξιοπαθῆσαι ἐπὶ τῇ πτωχείᾳ αὐτῆς· ἦν γὰρ καὶ πρὸς ἑσπέραν.

More compounds and dialectal comparanda

ὑ-φορβός (Hom.), συ- (Od.) and thematised συ-ο- (prose); Εὔ-φορβος in Il.16.808, 850, 17.59, and 81.

ξεν- and -απάτης E.Tr.866, fr.667 but -απάτᾱς Pi.O.10.34.
ξειν- and -απάτᾱς Ibyc., but -απάτης E.Med.1392 (-ου).

ξενο-δᾰίκτᾱς Pi.Parth.Fr.13.30, but ξεινο-δαΐκτᾱς Ε.Hrcl.391.

Contrast -ᾱγόρᾱς (e.g. Cypriot Ἑλλ-, Ἐσθλ-, and Ἐσλ-) and -ά̄γορος (on a late archaic Cypriot gem Ἐσλᾱγόρο ἐμι). For the pair, see Masson-Heubeck, Kadmos 1 (1962): 151-152. In all, A.A. Thompson, 'Personal names from Ancient Cyprus with the element Ἑλλ(ο-)', Studies in Greek Linguistics 8. Thessalonica, 1987: 123-131.

Contrast Βου-κεφάλας [κεφαλή] and *-κέφαλος, seen in Latin (Gaius Plinius Secundus, Naturalis Historia 4.18.8); cf. -a and -an in 6.77.8 and 8.154.2) and, perh., in the gen.sg. Βουκεφάλου (contrast Βουκεφάλᾱ, and, perhaps, Βουκεφαλᾶ): Arethas, the Alexander Romance: Recensio γ (lib. 3) 33R line 106, Recensio Byzantina poetica (cod. Marcianus 408) 891, 3616, 6108), and headings in Recensio E (cod. Eton College 163) 18 and Recensio φ 21; (cf. 'Macedonian' κεβλή).

Hyphenation in LSJ

John Chadwick wrote in the 'Case for Replacing LSJ' (BICS 11 (1994): 2):
"One of the worst features of the 9th edition was certainly not the decision of the editors at all, but of the publisher. Every user must curse many times a day the idea of saving a little space by grouping words in long paragraphs. It would matter less that each lemma does not appear at the same point in the column, if at least it were given in full in bold type. Alas, the lemma is often reduced to three letters, two or even one letter, which not even bold type can render easily visible to the searching eye. In a lecture given in Oxford in 1948 R. W. Chapman, the Secretary to the Delegates of the Clarendon Press, under whom the project was launched, had the effrontery to claim credit for this astonishing lack of perceptivity. But this passage of his lecture was wisely omitted from the published text. What other damage he may have inflicted, I do not know."

This Chapman can also be found in the app.crit. to the OCT of Plato's Laws...


The run of words ὑπάλ-ειμμα, -ει-πτος, -ειπτρον, -ειπτρίς, -είφω, -ειψις (p. 1851) frames the problem neatly. Such hyphenation follows the formation of the words (ὑπ-, ἀλειπ-) nor their syllabification (ὑ-πα-λειμ-μα, etc.).

Such printing also obscures the accentuation in the ὑπάλ-, when followed by -ειπτρίς and -είφω, gives inexplicable, unnecessary, and impossible doubling of the accent on a single word (no enclitics are involved).

If that is possible, why should ὑπαλγέω, ὑπαλεαίνω, and ὑπαλεύομαι (all hyphenless) not be grouped under ὑπαλ- also, except on the criterion of a shared root and thus meaning? Cf. the ὑο- words which share a root, but have a range of meanings depending on the second element. Better still would be to divide at ὑπ-αλγέω, -αλεαίνω, -αλειμμα, etc.

The syllabification is a puzzling facet, since no less/other than H. Stuart Jones wrote 'Appendix V: Division of Greek Words', p. 75 in Horace Hart (M.A. Printer to the University of Oxford), Rules for Compositors and Readers at the University Press, 19th edn. (5th for publication): London and Oxford, 1905.

Based on papyri of Bacchylides, Thucydides, and Hypereides, he gives three exceptions to the rule that a syllable ends in a vowel:
(1) the consonant is doubled: Συρακούσ-σας, πολ-λῷ,  'and so' Βάκ-χος, Σαπ-φώ, Ἀτ-θίς;
(2) the first consonant is a liquid or nasal (or, according to some, a <σ>): ἄμ-φακες, ἐγ-χέσπαλον, τέρ-πον, πάν-τες, ἄλ-σος; ἄν-θρωπος, ἐρ-χθέντος, ἀν-δρῶν; but βά-κτρον, κάτο-πτρον, ἐχ-θρός; θέλ-κτρον, Λαμ-πτραί.
(3) Compounds. 'For modern printing the preference must be to divide the compounds παρ-όντος, ἐφ-ῃρημένος, but ἀπέ-βη may stand as well as ἀπ-έβη.'

A different issue surfaces in αἰνό-δακρυς, ὁ, = foreg., IG12(7).115 (Amorgos) [2nd/1st c. BCE]. Note the absence of an indication of inflection (-υος cf. πολύ-δακρυς) and a date for the inscription. The foreg(oing) is αἰνο-γόνος child of praise, which is a very different meaning. Was there ever an entry for *αἰνο-δάκρυος with which 'foreg.' would have been appropriate? Cf., e.g., πολυ-δάκρυος, but note that there '= sq.' directs the reader to πολύ-δακρυς for the meaning.

L. Palmer on the impact of Linear B and the need for further research therein

"Its [that is, The Greek Language's] completion was put off for over twenty years by the decipherment of the Linear B script, which gave us direct knowledge of Greek some five centuries earlier than Homer. Michael Ventris's brilliant discovery provided for two decades the material for a new and highly productive academic industry. Now that there are signs that the seam has been worked out and that, in default of new and rich finds, Linear B studies have virtually reached the end of the road, the time is ripe to incorporate the results into a general work on the Greek language [that is, the 1980 volume of that title]."
The Greek Language. Faber and Faber. London and Boston, 1980: Preface, xi

Discuss.

Cremation in Homer and elsewhere

The hymn 15 in Rigveda X (one of the youngest parts of the collection) refers, in verse or stanza 14 to the emerging rite of cremation: ancestors "both cremated (agnidagdhá-) and uncremated (án-agnidagdha-) sic".

Here is the verse or stanza in question from MacDonell's Vedic Reader for Students, p. 185:

agni- is the stem of agn-i-s 'fire', as in igni-s, -dagdha- is the p(ast) p(articiple) of the root dah (Vedic Grammar for Students, p. 488 and perh. p. 163 143.6, p. 181 156.α, and p. 184 160.2 [62, 69 c] with pp. 182-183 158.a.a). án- is the alpha-privative familiar from Greek (Latin in-, English un-).Cf. agní-ṣvāttá in X.15.11.


Cremation is the only post-mortem rite in Homer, for fools and kings, in contrast to Mycenaean shaft graves, tholos tombs, and (in part) the Dipylon cemetery.

Privies at Pergamon

The noun ἀφεδρών 'privy' was only known from a passage shared by the Mark and Matthew until a long inscription (OGIS 483: a crude index of 'some' 'relevant' entries in LSJ) from Pergamon was published at the start of the twentieth century.

Some dual and non-dual anchors

Pindar, Olympian 6.100-102, counsels ἀγαθαὶ δὲ πέλοντ’ ἐν χειμερίᾳ | νυκτὶ θοᾶς ἐκ ναὸς ἀπεσκίμ|φθαι δύ’ ἄγκυραι, without using the dual, unlike Demosthenes (56.44), who instructs μηδ’ ἐπὶ δυοῖν ἀγκύραιν ὁρμεῖν αὐτοὺς ἐᾶτε. Plutarch, Life of Solon 19.2, takes a different course: οἰόμενος ἐπὶ δυσὶ βουλαῖς ὥσπερ ἀγκύραις ὁρμοῦσαν (sc. πόλιν).

See an earlier post for the dual in Sappho and Alcaeus.

Lessons from short fragments of Corinna

660.1-2 PMG illustrates the digamma in Boeotian, but also both <η> for <αι> (4x) and <ω> for Attic-Ionic's secondary <ου>:
πῆδα ϝὸν θέλωσα φίλης | ἀγκάλησ’ ἑλέσθη (De-Boeotianised: παῖδα ὃν θέλουσα φίλαις ἀγκάλαις ἑλέσθαι)
'... while she was wishing to take her son with her loving arms...'.

The fragment was quoted for ὅς with a digamma.


661 PMG: τού τε νῶε (De-Boeotianised: σύ τε νῶε).
Note <ου> for Attic-Ionic <υ> and the by-form of νῶ 'we or us two, the pair of us' (cf. Lat. nō-s)

I have since found that Palmer (1980: 118) quotes 654.iii.12-21 PMG as an illustrative passage. 654.i.12-37 PMG would serve as another slightly longer extract to illustrate Corinna's Boeotian.

τανηλεγέος θανότοιο#

In defence of τανηλεγής (as < tanw-, not a reanalysis of τ᾽ ἀνηλεγής), Ο. Szemerényi, Syncope in Greek and Indo-European and the Nature of the Indo-European Accent (Naples: Istituto Universitario Orientale di Napoli, 1964), 159, cited τανήλοφος 'long-necked' (Hesychius) whose age is unfortunately unknown. The latter adjective is in LSJ, but is not found by the TLG and is not a lemma in any edition of Hesychius to which I have access.

UPDATE (09/08/2016): LSJ also has an entry for δανήλοφα: '= μακροτράχηλα or ὑψηλοτράχηλα, Id. (i.e. ταν-).', in which 'Id.' refers to H(e)s(y)ch(ius) in the preceding entry.

The full entry in Hesychius reads as follows:
δανήλοφα· μακροτράχηλα, ἐκτεταμένους ἔχοντα τοὺς λόφους.
ἢ ὑψηλοτράχηλα, μετεώρους ἔχοντα τοὺς λόφους. ἢ πίονας<.>

On the subject of Homer and Hesychius, note the following entry in the latter:
ναύποδα· μακρόποδα <ι 464, etc.>. Od.9.464 has τὰ μῆλα ταναύποδα and LSJ comments '(false division of ταναύποδα)'.

Note also Hesychius' entry for σπελλάμεναι· στειλάμεναι. LSJ, reasonably, indicates that the former is Aeolic (σπ-, -ελλ-, -μεναι).

Hyginus et al.

A.N. Jannaris in section 148b and note 1 of his Historical Greek Grammar lists 'ὑγίεια, ὑγία or ὑγεῖα' and cites as evidence 'in inscriptions the proper names are invariably spelt Ὑγεῖα Ὑγεῖνος (twenty-four different names; never Ὑγιει- ; cp. the Index to CIA iii p. 746). Moeris cites the first as Attic, the second as Hellenic.

We can go a stage further (without the precision possible at this point), with thanks to the LGPN, but its presentation has its limitations.

All spellings of the feminine personal name are lemmatized s.v. Ὑγίεια (60x) and all of the masculine personal name, by contrast, s.v. Ὑγῖνος (154x). Of the reported spellings of the latter, there are many -γεῖ-, some -γιεῖ-, a few -γῖ-, and many Latin spellings Hyginus. Few are Hellenistic, many are Imperial Roman, and a few are Byzantine.

Of the former, -γεία- and -γία- (often as Latin Hygia) prevail. The majority are Roman Imperial, with one each for Hellenistic and Byzantine individuals.

GVI 646.4 (Sparta, II Jh. n. Chr., but BC in IG V, 1, 726) gives a metrically guaranteed example of Ὑγίεια. Ionic in dialect, but note Ἀλεξά̄νωρ.

Very early Boeotian inscriptions

Buck, no. 38.2 (= Schwyzer 440.12 = Wachter, R., Non-Attic Greek Vase Inscriptions, Oxford 2001: n. 45 on BOI 10f + n. 74) is cited from Arch.Eph. 1900.107. The materials behind LSAG (94, no. 2, pl. 7, no. 2) seem to be all that is available online.

For ϝισϝ-, see IPArk 15 and IG V, 2, 321A21.

The LSAG materials for Buck, no. 38.1 (cited from the same periodical) are also available. Δε̄μοθέρε̄ς is described as a 'Euboic name on a bronze lebes from Thebes' at 88.23. Schwyzer notes simply: 'Δε̄μο.: ε̄ alienam originem prodit.'.

Plautus in LSJ

On the continuing thread of Greek words and meanings cited from Latin texts, all instances of 'Plaut.' in LSJ can be gathered automatically.

The Cena Trimalchionis as a proportion of the extant works of Petronius

The image below shows the Bude edn. of Petronius.

The uppermost white band is the Introduction, the unmarked space below is the Satyricon (text and French translation) before the Cena, which is represented by the next white band down. The next unmarked space is the remainder of the Satyricon

The final white band represents the fragments, beneath which, hardly visible, are the indices personarum and metrorum.

S-stem adjectives (and personal names) across dialects

The name Damoteles (Attic-Ionic Demoteles) appears with an accusative, not in -η (< -εα < -e(s)a), but in -ην at Megalopolis (Arcadia: IG V, 2 439, line 79) and in -ειν  at Orchomenos (Boeotia: IG VII 3171, lines 9-10). As an adjective, such an accusative is found in Aeolis (Hecatonnesi - Moschonesi: IG XII, 2 645 line 44).

Notes on Rhodian inscriptions

Buck, no. 100 (= DGE 272: Anne Jeffery's notes), set up by one of historical two bearers of the name Idameneus (both 6th c. BCE Rhodians). is used for the aspirate and for eta (ποίησα, not (ἐ)ποίε̄σα). Colvin, no. 48, notes that there is an Idomeneus in Homer and that a female i-do-me-ne-ja is known from the Linear B tablets. LGPN knows twenty four bearers of the Ἰδο- spelling.

DGE 274 (Anne Jeffery's notes): an amphora of one (the only) Kosmias with a delivery directive.


A kulixs of one Philto [LPGN I s.v. 3] (= CEG 460 (!): Anne Jeffery's notes).

Another kulixs (8th c. BC, of one Korakos, another rare name) and Anne Jeffery's notes.
An aryballos of one Astyochidas (Anne Jeffery's notes).

The last two provide indications that Rhodian script was red (See Buck 1955: 348 and LSAG 1990: 347: pace Kirchhoff, whose map presents the island as blue): ΚΥΚΛΙΧΣ for blue κυκλιξ and -Ο-ΨΙΔΑ for -ο-χιδᾱ.

Notes on inscriptions: Nikandre's Central Ionic

ID 2 (= LSAG 303, 2; Buck, no. 6; Colvin, no. 23), a specimen of 7th-c. BC Central Ionic. The Anne Jeffery Archive offers a very full range of materials. The text of the inscription is presented in the Beazley Archive and details of the monument by the Museum of Classical Archaeology, Cambridge (whose cast is depicted below).

→Νικάνδρη μ’ ἀνέθε̄κεν ℎ(ε)κηβόλο̄ι ἰοχεαίρηι | ϟο̄́ρη Δεινο-
←δίκη̆ο̄ το̑ Ναℎσίο̄ ἔℎ3σοχος ἀλ(λ)ή̆ο̄ν | Δεινομένεος δὲ κασιγνε̄́τη
→Φℎράℎσο̄  δ’ ἄλοχος μ[ήν?].

ℎ(ε)κηβόλ- (cf. Il.1.14 of Apollo) was originally ϝεκᾰ-βόλ- (cf. ἕκων and σάφα: see the Mantiklos dedication to Apollo). The metrical lengthening to allow its use in a hexameter (by eliminatyed a run of three light syllables) must predate the Attic-Ionic change of */a:/ to /æ:/ (see below) and then to /ε:/. That is, the long vowel arose early enough to be treated as an original or inherited /a:/. The epithet (ϝ)ἑκα(ϝ)εργος (Il.1.147, etc.) required no such lengthening because there was no run of three light syllables.

Of course, ἰοχέαιρα an epithet of Artemis is passim in Homer. Apart from two instances (Il.20.71 after Ἄρτεμις, Il.21.480 νείκεσεν), it is always, as here, the last word in its line. In Il.9.538 and Od.6.102, 11.198 , as here, Artemis is not named.

Although masculine ἔξοχος ἄλλων ends plenty of hexameters in Homer and in related poetry, its Ionic feminine form ἔξοχος ἀλλέων is only found here. AR.4.792 has what would be an earlier feminine form at the opening of a hexameter: ἔξοχον ἀλλά̄ων. Call.Art.189 is signficantly different.

κασιγνε̄́τη shows, in a single word, epsilon for the inherited long e vowel and eta for the (Central) Ionic outcome (/æ:/) of the inherited long a vowel. At length Νικάνδρη μ’ ἀνέθε̄κεν shows the same phenomenon. Later inscriptions use eta for vowels of both origins. Cf., albeit a supplement, [τὰ̄ν κασιγ]νήτᾱν in Sapph.5.9. (See ZPE 189 (2014) 11 for the corroboration provided by the 2014 discovery: ' τὰ̄ν κασιγ . [ '.

On the -ηο and -ηων a-stem genitive endings, Geoffrey Horrocks noted (1987: 281-282n. 35) [the original macra have been replaced with : as a marker of a long vowel]:

"No length distinctions are represented graphically, with E spelling /ε/, /ε:/ and /e:/ [ἀνέθε̄κεν = ἀνέθηκεν], O spelling /o/, /ɔ:/ and /o:/>[ℎ(ε)κηβόλο̄ι = ἑκηβόλωι; το̑ Ναℎσίο̄  = τοῦ Ναξίου], so there is no reason to think that H is being used exclusively to represent /æ:/; it was presumably also used to represent the shortened form of this sound that resulted from quantitative metathesis. In other words, the spelling -ΗΟ(Ν) almost | certainly represents a sequence of short vowell plus long vowel run together in pronunciation by synizesis exactly equivalent to the conventional -εω(ν) of Ionic literary texts. There can be no question of forms without quantitative metathesis surviving in the sixth century in spoken Ionic (cf. note 32), or, given the developmments that place in the epic tradition as evidenced by Homer, in literary Ionic.".

There is no example of spelling /e:/, but there are Δεινο|δίκη̆ο̄  and Δεινομένεος with the genuine diphthong seen in δεινός < *dwei-no-. Cf. gen.sg. Δ̣ϝε(ι)νία in IG IV 358 see (also Anne Jeffrey's materials and Buck, no. 91]

Note that Nikandre's father and brother have names with the same first element: δεινο-. Her name is unique, as is her father's, but her brother's name had a good innings. Her husband's name, Phraxos, is also unique.

Pronouns in post-Classical Greek

LSJ s.v. σύ notes 'in late Gr. σέν, Anatolian Studies p.76', which is SEG VI 370 (line 23), a fourth-century AD epitaph.

This inscription was discussed by W.M. Calder in 'The epigraphy of the Anatolian heresies' (pp. 59-91, with the delightfully quaint Pl. VII) in Anatolian Studies presented to Sir W. M. Ramsay, Manchester 1923, edd. W.H. Buckler and W.M. Calder.

See also GVI 1556 and MAMA VII 556 and X 77

Also of interest is the discord of a participle in the genitive with a noun in the dative (lines 4-5).

A weakness of the gloss method

E.A. Sophocles, s.v. σισόη  [p. 990i], gives 'a sort of queue' Sept. Lev. 19, 27, Greg. Naz.  III, 1081 A. Theod. I, 337 B'.

What sort of queue? Since LSJ s.v. gives 'roll of hair, LXX Le.19.27', which suits the context, this must be OED s.v. queue, n. 4, not 7, which is 'Chiefly Brit.

'(Egyptian)' in Sophocles, but 'Phaselite' in LSJ on the basis of Hesychius.

A Greek word known from the Greek of a Latin speaker

Marcus Aurelius has κοινονοημοσύνη (1.16[.2]), which is a hapax in the TLG. Several Latin authors use ἀκοινονόητος, which is not found in any Greek text in the TLG. LSJ translates aptly through the medium of French lacking in 'savoir-faire' (Lat. sensus communis).