The fragment of the Syriac translation of Aristotle’s Poetics preserved by Jacob (Severus) Bar Shakko (d. 1241) comprises Poet. VI 1449b24–1450a10. In spite of its small size, it serves as an important witness both to the Greek text of the Poetics, and to the reception of this work in the Christian Orient and, later on, in the Muslim world. The fragment derives from a translation, which most likely appeared in West Syriac circles in the 7th/8th centuries AD and later served as the basis for the Arabic translation of the Poetics made by Abū Bishr Mattā ibn Yūnus in the 10 th century. The present article includes a new edition of the Syriac text preserved by Bar Shakko, which is based on the collation of six manuscripts and is accompanied by an English translation. The article also provides a detailed analysis of the Syriac fragment as compared to the transmitted Greek text of the Poetics, on the one hand, and to the Arabic translation of it by Abū Bishr, on the other. This comparison allows an assumption that the Syriac version is most likely based on a Greek manuscript, which may have contained glosses and scholia. A Greek and Syriac glossary is attached at the end of the article
The present article offers a reassessment of Hom. ἄφρων [adj.] ‘unreasonable, senseless, foolish’, which is traditionally accounted for as an ablauting compound (of the type πατήρ: ἀπά- τωρ) based on the simplex φρένες [f. pl. tant.] ‘midriff, diaphragm’ (+Il.). This archaic ablauting pattern (viz. °φρων vs. simplex φρήν*) is totally unparalleled for body parts; besides, the Ancients’ interpretation of φρένες as ‘diaphragm’ is flawed. Φρονέω ‘to have (good) understanding or intelligence’ is a back-formation coined after ἀφρονέω ‘to act senselessly, to be foolish’. From zero-graded ἀφραίνω (via a synchronic reanalysis of -αίνω as a deverbative suffix of the type °φαίνω), an adverb *ἀφρα-δόν ‘senselessly, foolishly’ was eventually coined, which was the starting point of a whole new group. From this group was reanalyzed a “new” synchronic root √φραδ- ‘to heed, to consider’, reflected by Hom. φράζω. The lack of comparative evidence for this sprawling word family leads the author to assume that Hom. ἄφρων [adj.] ‘senseless, fool, heedless’ is in fact the reflex of a PIE etymon *ń̥ -gʷʱr(h1)-on- ‘without sense of smell, not able of scenting’, from PIE *gʷʱreh 1- ‘to smell’ (cf. Ved. jí-ghr-a- < *gʷʱí-gʷʱr(h 1)-V-). This verbal compound of the type νήφων [*-on-adj.] ‘sober’ (< PIE *ń̥-h 1gʷʱ-on- ‘not having drunk’) would have been eventually reanalyzed as a privative bahuvrīhi (viz. ‘lacking φρένες’).
This article examines the Greek noun σαγγάνδης ‘messenger’ which is attested in two lexica, dated to the Roman or early Byzantine periods: the Cambridge Rhetorical Lexicon by an anonymous author and Difficult Words in the Attic Orators by Claudius Casilo. In both works, σαγγάνδης appears together with three words of likely Iranian provenance: ὀροσάγγης ‘benefactor of the Persian king; bodyguard’, παρασάγγης ‘parasang; messenger’ and ἄγγαρος ‘messenger, courier; workman, labourer’. The word σαγγάνδης is analysed in comparison with ἀσγάνδης/ἀστάνδης ‘messenger’ occurring for the first time in Plutarch’s works and closely linked to the Achaemenid administration. According to the hypothesis put forward in the present paper, both σαγγάνδης and ἀσγάνδης (with its secondary variant ἀστάνδης) are connected to Manichaean Middle Persian/Parthian ižgand ‘messenger’, Sogdian (a)žγand/(ɔ) žγand/ž(i)γant ‘id.’, Jewish Aramaic ʾîzgaddā ‘id.’, Syriac izgandā/izgaddā ‘id.’, Mandaic ašganda ‘helper, assistant, servant; the Messenger’, and go back to Old Persian *zganda- or to early Middle Persian/early Parthian *žgand- (or *zgand-) with the original meaning ‘mounted messenger’. The reconstructed noun is derived from the Proto-Iranian root *zga(n)d- ‘to go on, gallop, mount’, attested in Avestan (Younger Avestan zgaδ(/θ)- ‘to go on horseback, gallop’) and in some Middle and Modern Iranian languages. The original form of the loanword in Greek was probably *σγάνδης which then underwent certain transformations
The present article aims to elucidate an interesting narrative that forms a portion of Aelian’s paradoxographic work Περὶ ζῴων ἰδιότητος (On the Characteristics of Animals, Lat. De natura animalium). The passage under discussion describes some horned animals of oriental origin that were involved in the annual fighting contests during a one-day competition held on the initiative of a “great king of India” — probably Chandragupta (4th–3rd c. BC), the founder of the Maurya dynasty. Aelian’s chapter (NA 15, 15) was perhaps taken from Megasthenes’s Ἰνδικά (Description of India). The passage includes two hapax legomena referring to two species of animals: †μέσοι† and †ὕαιναι†. The first of these should be identified with the Ladakh urial (Ovis orientalis vignei Blyth); cf. Prasun məṣé ‘ram, urial’ (< Vedic mēṣá- m. ‘ram’). Aelian’s exact description of the horned animals called †ὕαιναι† clearly demonstrates that the alleged “striped hyena” (Gk. ὕαινα) must represent the chinkara, i. e., the Indian gazelle (Gazella bennettii Sykes). The Indo-Aryan term for ‘chinkara’ (Ved. hariṇá- m ‘Indian gazelle’, hariṇī́- f. ‘female gazelle’; cf. Pa. and Pk. hariṇa- m., hariṇī- f.) suggests that the corrupted form in Aelian’s passage should be emended as ὑάριναι [hyárinai]. This seems a near-optimal adaptation of the Pali or Prakrit appellative háriṇā pl. ‘chinkaras’
Ἐπικράτεια and ἐπαρχία are two terms used by the ancient sources to describe the Carthaginian presence in Western Sicily. Due to a lack of information about the character and details of this presence, it is crucial to precisely understand the terminology employed by our sources and all its nuances. The article challenges the widely accepted opinion that the nouns ἐπικράτεια and ἐπαρχία can be treated as synonyms. To verify whether this assumption is correct or not, a careful analysis of how the ancient authors (Polybius, Diodorus Siculus and Plutarch) used both nouns, as well as other related forms, is conducted. To make up for the limited number of occurrences of ἐπικράτεια in the analysed corpus, the relevant part of the examination also includes the use of this noun in Strabo’s Geography. The analysis allows us to highlight a significant change in the meaning of the two terms between the 2 nd century (Polybius) and the mid-1st century BC (Diodorus). This change reflects a development in the Greek political and administrative vocabulary, which was adjusting to a new reality of the Mediterranean world being organised into Roman provinces. The conducted analysis also allows us to better understand the complexity of the Carthaginian position in Western Sicily
The article examines an unpublished inscription conserved in the Nerantzia Castle of Kos (Greece). It consists of four elegiac couplets that Coan scholar Stamatios K. Pantelidis (Παντελίδης) composed some time before 1879. It was supposed to be located in the facade of the school founded the year indicated in the inscription. Seemingly, after the earthquake which devastated Kos in the year 1933, it was relocated in the warehouse of the Nerantzia Castle in northern Kos along with many other inscriptions. On the one hand, it provides the possibility of knowing how stonegravers work, to what extent Greeks knew their very own language in its ancient form and the way they dealt when it came to use (then and now) unusual forms of the language. On the other hand, the inscription is relevant to the cultural history of Greece in the last years of Ottoman rule and in the years after it, as Kos was part of the Ottoman Empire until 1912, date in which it passed under Italian rule until 1947, when the isle was incorporated into the Hellenic Republic. Therefore the purpose is to clarify the historical and real circumstances of the inscription, as well as to analyze the compositional process of this dedicatory epigram from the metrical point of view (it contains many deviations from to the classical precepts), style and classical tradition. The inscription has not been previously studied due to its peculiar characteristics. Indeed, it is an epigram written in modern times but in an archaizing Greek (i. e. roughly respecting the rules of classical grammar), so it is not studied by neohellenists given the ancient character of its language, nor by classicists because it was composed in recent times
The Greek grammarian and lexicographer, Hesychius of Alexandria (5 th–6th c. CE) included a Pamphylian gloss: βουρικυπάρισσος ἡ ἄμπελος. Περγαῖοι in his dictionary of rare and dialectal words. Based on a microphilological and lexical analysis, I suggest that the Greek text should be read as follows: βουρίꞏ κυπάρισσος ἢ ἄμπελος. Περγαῖοι (“bourí: cypress or grapevine. Citizens of Perge”). The Pamphylian gloss in question represents two different borrowings of terms originating in the Near East. The first item βουρίꞏ κυπάρισσος (‘cypress’) seems to have been borrowed from Akkadian burāšu(m) ‘a kind of conifer tree; juniper or cypress’ with a Lycian intermediary (Akk. burāšu → Luw. *burašiš > Lyc. *burehi > *burhi → Pamph. βουρί), whereas the second one βουρίꞏ […] ἄμπελος (‘grapevine’) reflects a separate loanword from an Anatolian source, cf. Hitt. and Luw. muriš c. ‘a grapevine, a vine, a cluster or bunch of grapes or other fruit’. The Pamphylian dialect of Ancient Greek represents an extraordinary idiom, which was used in the neighbourhood of numerous Anatolian languages such as Lycian, Milyan, Sidetic, Pisidian and Cilician. It is therefore not surprising that the Pamphylian Greeks borrowed a number of cultural terms for plants from an Anatolian Indo-European source, as well as from Akkadian or other West Semitic languages via Luwian and Lycian. Additionally, other possible Anatolian borrowings into Ancient Greek (e. g. Gk. dial. βωληνή ‘a type of grapevine’, μῶλαξ ‘id.’ vs. Hittite maḫlaš c. ‘grapevine, Vitis vinifera L.’) are mentioned and reviewed
It is a well-known fact that tmesis (independent use of the preverb from its verb) as a linguistic phenomenon was progressively eliminated from Ancient Greek, so that only residual usage is attested in the language of the Classical age. However, one verb, ἀναδραμεῖν, retained tmetic usage with the particle τε intervening between the preverb and the verb, ἀνά τε ἔδραμε, until late Antiquity (Appian, Eunapius). It is significant that this construction (on par with the non tmetic form ἀνέδραμε) was used in prose, which suggests that it was part of actual linguistic usus. The article examines the reasons behind the unique longevity of this tmesis. Following an overview of the occurrences of ἀνά τε ἔδραμεν in Herodotus, Appian and Eunapius, and the comparison of the use of the tmetic and non tmetic forms, the elements of the construction are discussed. It is shown that the survival of ἀνά τε ἔδραμεν must have been influenced by the semantic development of the verb (the root no longer denotes actual running, but springing to one’s feet or rapid growth), as well as the capacity of the preverb ἀνα- to appear independently of its verb (the deontic ἄνα). Finally, a possible shift in meaning of τε (as invariable part of the expression) is discussed. While it is impossible to pinpoint one single factor that determined the singular longevity of the tmesis ἀνά τε ἔδραμε in Greek, a combination of factors seems to have contributed to its survival
This piece is a fresh take on the crux philologorum in Sappho fr. 96,8, an extended moon simile, where Aeolic σελάννα, a commonplace of Sapphic poetry, easily restituted ex coniectura by W. Schubart in his editio princeps of PBerol. 9722 in 1902, was ousted by an unmetrical, if poetic, μήνα. The author offers an overview of the past and most recent scholarly effort along with an attempt (albeit a speculative one) to approach the issue of the irrational ratio corruptelae from the part of the resonant adjective βροδοδάκτυλος, an altogether uncommon epithet of the moon, paying close attention to the fact that the intruding word is disyllabic. The dactylic feel of the weighty adjective βροδοδάκτυλος is deemed at some point to have prevailed in a scribe’s dictation interne to the result that ἠώς could have landed in the text proper, or could have found its way there gradually from an intrusive marginal gloss left by a learned scribe unable to keep the Homeric clausula ῥοδοδάκτυλος ἠώς to himself. At some point another, no less learned scribe, attentive to the context of the simile, picked up μήνα, not σελήνη, as his remedy of choice, sticking to the number of syllables in the now resident ἠώς
Modern Greek identity is heavily based on the idea of the continuity of Greek culture and the Greek language. Most specialists in Modern Greek regard Ancient Greek and Modern Greek as different stages of the same language despite multiple differences and innovations at all levels. During the 19 th century, a number of European classical philologists tried to find Ancient Greek features in Modern Greek dialects. As a result, they have singled out Tsakonian as the sole dialect which descends directly from Ancient Doric Laconian but not from Hellenistic Koiné as the rest of the modern dialects. Nevertheless, it is important to point out that Tsakonian is not the only Modern Greek variety with some unique peculiarities inherited from Ancient Greek. This contribution analyzes the phenomena of the Ancient Greek origin in vocabulary, phonetics, morphology and syntax in Modern Greek dialects. The research is focused on those archaisms which exist in the dialects but are absent from Standard Modern Greek. The data was mostly collected by the author of this paper and his colleagues between 2000 and 2023. The analysis demonstrates that the majority of unique peculiarities of the Ancient Greek origin are found in Pontic and Tsakonian, although most varieties of Modern Greek have some archaisms. However, the quantity of archaisms is not a consistent indicator of the antiquity of the dialect since the history of Modern Greek dialects is still terra incognita and there is no good explanation why some dialects keep their archaisms better than the others.
This second part concludes the publication of previously unpublished texts, a project initiated in the preceding issue of this journal, featuring 30 new schedographical texts. Once again, the objective is to provide new valuable material for the comprehensive study of Byzantine culture and the teaching and learning practice of Ancient Greek during the East Roman Empire. Schedography, a distinct form of educational text practiced in the Byzantine Empire from the 10th century until its end and even beyond (continuing in use until the 19th century), reached its peak in the 13th century. This unique kind of pedagogical texts has gained scholarly attention in contemporary academia. However, despite this interest, it remains a complex field of study due to its unique characteristics. These texts, specifically crafted to be read aloud in educational settings, pose challenges for modern readers as they markedly deviate from contemporary silent reading practices. Furthermore, their lack of clear original context, coupled with their educational intent rather than aesthetic value, complicates the process of interpretation and understanding. Schedography stands as a literary and educational enigma that continues to be a focal point of research in the 21st century. Critically edited collections, such as the one presented in this study (published in two parts), are indispensable for further rigorous scholarly analysis
The purpose of this paper is to analyse the distribution of the ancient Greek negatives οὐ and μή in rhetorical questions, particularly in those which are equivalent to an assertive speech act. Traditionally, their use in this context has been described after the answer that usually follows the question without any further explanation: οὐ favours a positive answer, while μή favours a negative one. However, this rule does not always hold true. A theoretical framework that may explain their distribution is nonveridicality. Nonveridicality is applied to those operators that do not presuppose their proposition to be true or false. In fact, the use of μή with the indicative mood in this type of rhetorical question can be explained as characteristic of a nonveridical operator. Thus, μή is used in confirmative questions to signal that the proposition goes against the speaker’s expectations without implying its falsity. In turn, οὐ would be the general negative, so it can appear both in questions with reversed polarity and in confirmative questions whose proposition conforms to the speaker’s expectations. It must be noted that the study includes the use of οὐ and μή combined with other particles such as ἆρα, ἦ, or οὖν, since they exhibit the same properties in those cases
- 1
- 2