6. Isis Africa’s most influential cultural export to the Greco-Roman world was the worship of the goddess Isis. The worship of Isis became very popular with both Greeks and Romans and spread throughout the ancient Mediterranean world. Isis was assimilated to various Greek and Roman divinities and… Read more
Bibliography Asheri, D., A. Lloyd, and A. Corcella. 2007. A Commentary on Herodotus Books I–IV. New York. Austin, M. 2008. “The Greeks in Libya” in Greek Colonisation: An Account of Greek Colonies and Other Settlements Overseas, Volume Two, ed. G. R. Tsetskhladze,… Read more
1. The Problem Homeric Greek nēpios, at first glance, does not present obvious semantic problems. LSJ [1] give as a first meaning “infant, child,” citing νήπιον, οὔ πω εἰδόθ’ ὁμοιΐου πολέμοιο [2] nēpios, who knew… Read more
2. ΗΠΙΟΣ The word ēpios, used in Homer of persons, feelings, and medicines, is glossed by LSJ as “gentle…kind…soothing…assuaging.” This interpretation is supported by its association with the word aganos (“gentle”) in the phrase: μή τις ἔτι πρόφρων ἀγανὸς καὶ ἤπιος ἔστωσκηπτοῦχος βασιλεύς No… Read more
3. Children Nēpia Tekna In the last chapter, I tried to show that while the idea of fatherhood is a frequent contextual associate of ēpios, the basic meaning of this word is something like “connecting.” Thus it implies a social relationship between the ēpios person… Read more
4. Adults In Chapter Three, I proposed that the word nēpios expresses the very limitations that can be overcome, in certain symbolic frameworks, through initiation rituals—namely, childhood, ignorance, and what Eliade calls “the profane condition.” The subject of that chapter was children; in the Homeric language… Read more
Conclusion My object in this study has been to explore the meaning of the word nēpios within the Homeric poems. The possibility of an etymological connection between nēpios and ēpios led me to consider the contexts of ēpios also. At the least, these two words are… Read more
Bibliography Beekes, R.S.P. 1969. The Development of th e Proto-Indo-European Laryngeals in Greek. The Hague. Benveniste, E. 1969. Le vocabulaire des institutions indo-européennes (2 vols.). Paris. Boisacq, E. 1950. Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue grecque (4th ed.). Read more
Foreword Cedric H. Whitman When Milman Parry died in 1935, his great demonstration that the Homeric poems were the culminating product of a long, highly developed oral tradition had already raised many questions to which scholars today are still trying to discover answers. Perhaps the most… Read more
