etymology

Curated Books

ὀπάων and ὀπάζω: A Study in the Epic Treatment of Heroic Relationships

“In the Iliad, the relationship of Mērionēs and Idomeneus plays a peripheral role as compared to the central relationship of Akhilleus and Patroklos. As we shall see, the behavior of Mērionēs and Idomeneus towards one another is a variation on the theme of the heroic relationship of Akhilleus and Patroklos. The Iliad also describes the relations of gods and men. The antagonism of Akhilleus and Apollo is set against the backdrop of gods… Read more

Curated Articles

Further Thoughts on Linear B po-re-na, po-re-si, and po-re-no-

1. Introduction §1. Opinions have varied and swayed regarding the interpretation of the Linear B term po-re-na. Whatever meaning is assigned, many would draw the forms po-re-si and po-re-no- into their interpretation of po-re-na, and vice versa. In this investigation I begin with the interpretation of po-re-na that appears most probable and reconsider po-re-si and po-re-no- on the basis of both internal and comparative evidence. 2. Po-re-na §2. Pylos tablet… Read more

Curated Articles

The Greek Adjective Ἄσμενος: Its Etymology and History

Translated by Ioanna Papadopoulou [This article was originally published in French as “L’adjectif grec ἄσμενος : étymologie et histoire du mot,” in Hommage à Jacqueline de Romilly. L’empreinte de son oeuvre, eds. Marc Fumaroli, Jacques Jouanna, Monique Trédé, and Michel Zink. Actes de colloque (Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres). Paris, 2014. The English translation is made available by permission of the author.] 1. Traditional thesis: ἄσμενος ‘happy, pleased’ cognate with… Read more

Curated Articles

Things said and not said in a ritual text: Iguvine Tables Ib 10-16 / VIb 48-53

[A printed version of this article appears in Miscellanea Indogermanica: Festschrift für José Luis García Ramón zum 65. Geburtstag (ed. I. Hajnal, D. Kölligan, and K. Zipser) 509–549. Innsbrucker Beiträge zur Sprachwissenschaft 154. Innsbruck, 2017. The online version of 2016.02.08 has been published with the kind permission of the editors. The page-breaks of the printed version will be indicated within braces: for example, “{509|510}” indicates where page 509 stops and page… Read more

Curated Articles

The Origins of Greek Poetic Language: Review (part II) of M. L. West’s Indo-European Poetry and Myth (Oxford 2007)

[This online 2010 edition is a revised, expanded version of a review first published in Classical Review 60 (2010) 333–338. The original page-numbers of the printed version are embedded within brackets in this electronic version: for example, {333|334} marks where p. 333 stops and p. 334 begins.] West’s book is most useful for researchers in the Classics and in the newer academic discipline of Indo-European studies. I have produced two… Read more

Curated Books

Indo-European Language and Society

Translated from the French by Elizabeth Palmer, this online edition has been revised and updated by Jeremy Lin, Jacqueline Lewandowski, and Vergil Parson. “This work belongs in a bountiful tradition. Less than a decade after Devoto’s Origini indeuropee, Benveniste, leaving aside most apparatus but ever so supremely in control of the data, has produced a classic. We may see it as a collection of monographs or as the systematic work… Read more

Curated Books

Homer’s Text and Language

As Homer remains an indispensable figure in the canons of world literature, interpreting the Homeric text is a challenging and high stakes enterprise. There are untold numbers of variations, imitations, alternate translations, and adaptations of the Iliad and Odyssey, making it difficult to establish what, exactly, the epics were. Gregory Nagy’s essays have one central aim: to show how the text and language of Homer derive from an oral poetic system.  In Homeric studies,… Read more

Curated Articles

A Structural Analysis of the Meleagros Myth

[[This paper, published here for the first time, is based on a report for a seminar directed by Gregory Nagy and held at the Johns Hopkins University in the fall semester of 1973.]] Claude Lévi-Strauss, in works like The Raw and the Cooked (1970), has shown that attempts to analyze the structure of a given myth using the themes of only one or even of a few versions is unlikely… Read more

Curated Books

Greek: An Updating of a Survey of Recent Work

“This work is eclectic. It is neither a bibliographical survey nor an exhaustive chronicle of progress. The main purpose is simply to explore various trends in research on the Greek language. Part I deals with generalities, while Part II concentrates on various different levels of linguistic analysis: phonology, morphology, syntax, etymology / vocabulary, and dialectology.” —From the Introduction… Read more