r
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This is a volume in
the Arno Press collection
MONOGRAPHS
IN CLASSICAL STUDIES
I
THE POETIC DIALECT
OF SAPPHO AND ALCAEUS
I
I
···, i'
l
- .
... .
Advisory Editor
W.R. Connor
Editorial Board
E. Badian
P .E. Easterling
David Furley
Michael H. Jameson
W.R. Johnson
Bernard M. W. Knox
Jacqueline de Romilly
See last pages of this volume
for a complete list of titles.
ARNO PRESS
A New York Times Company
New York • 1981
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PREFACE
T
o
m Y
p
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r
e
n
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s
This book is a revision of a dissertation submitted for the
degree of Ph.D. in the University of Cambridge in January 1979.
II
It
has b;!en long in preparation, and there are many people to whan I
~~
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]I
ooe debts of gratitude.
IIi
I
II,
ONe
My especial thanks must go to the follooing.
rrost to my two supervisors, Mrs P.E. Easterling, whose deft
criticisms and encouragement guided my 100rk fqr many years, when I
Ill
was an Undergraduate and when a Research Student; and Dr J. Chadwick,
II
who carre to my assistance when the balance of my interests changed
and saJN the thesis to its final conclusion.
Mr R.G.G. Coleman, who
1:
first interested me in philology, read an earlier draft of the work,
r
and Dr H.J. Blurrenthal, whose advice I enjoy at Liverpool, read a
later one.
I am also grateful for carments fran Dr J.T. Killen and
Prof. A. M::>rpurgo Davies.
Finally, arrong individuals, I must mention
the editor of L.C.M., Dr J• Pinsent, whose' alrrost inezhaustible supply
of
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typ:xJraphical.
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of Liverpool-, which has generously provided me with the time and
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facilities to pursue my research.
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to Emnanuel College, Cambridge, where I spent nine very happy years:
!c
I.
j'
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by electing me into
<;~.
And lastly, I have an especial debt
Research Fellowship, the Fellows enabled me to
treat my subject in a irore expansive manner, and to do so in the rrost
II[
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Arrongst institutions, I would thank the British School
at Rcme, which kept me alive during a Bank dispute, and the University
~I
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None
of these should be held responsible for the errors, philological or
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golf-balls 1 made the production of the book so much easier.
I,
[;
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"G~
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congenial and civilised surroundings.
Abercromby Square,
Liverpool.
September 1980.
A.M.Booie.
T A B L E
OF
CONTENTS
INI'IDDUCTION •••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• 1
CHAPI'ER ONE: The Lesbian Metres •••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• 16
Greek and Indo-European Metre ••••••••.••..••••.• l6
Aeolic Metre and Epic
Me~re ••••.•••••.•••.••.••.
28
CHAPTER TWO: The Language of the Poems ••••••••••••••••••••••••• 47
Introduction • .•.•••••••.•.•••...••.•..•••••.•.•• 47
Linguistic Evidence for an Aeolic Tradition •.••. 49
Theories about the Language of Sappho
and Alcaeus •••••.•.•.••.•••.•.••• , ••••...•••• 60
The Linguistic Mixture of Lesbian Verse ..•.•.••. 68
1. The Digamma ......•........• 69
2. The Labio-velars ...•....... 87
3. Consonants ...•............. 91
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4. Vowels ..................... 93
5. Syllabic Liquids •.......... 98
6. Nu ephelcystic ....••....•. 101
7. Prefixes & Suffixes ....... l03
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8. Pronouns •..•.•........•... 105
9. Prepositions .............. 107
10. Declension ...........•.... 109
11. The Augment ............... 123
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12. Conjugation·............... 124
13. Words ..•................... 131
14. Metrically conditioned
forms ...•....•......•.. 132
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lii[l.
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15. Conclusion •............... 136
Appendix on Spelling .......•.......... 137
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CHAPTER THREE: THE
LEXICXA~ •••••••.••.•.••••••••••..•.••.••.•• l39
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The Problems of Lexical Study •...•..•.••••••• l39
Earlier Studies of the Lesbian Lexicon •.••••• l47
The Lexicon of Sappho and Alcaeus ••.••••••.•• l53
BIBLIOGRAPHY ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• 179
SELECr INDICES •••• ' •••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• 194
1. Subjects •••.•••.••••....•...•.••••••••.... 194
2. Greek ••.••••••••.•.••...••••••••••.••.••• • 196
3. Mycenean . .••••.•..•..••.......•.••••••.••• 203
4. Sanskrit •...•.•.•••••.••••••..•..••.•••.•. 203
Ces grands poetes n'ont eu besoin de s'imiter l'un
l'autre; ils ont trouve en eux-memes et dans l'air
du
siecle une inspiration suffisante qu'ils ont
chacun appropriee et figuree
a leur
maniere, en y
mettant le cachet de leur talent et de leur egoisme.
Tous ces types sont eclos .•. sous un meme souffle,
sous un meme courant atmospherique general qui
tenait
a l'etat
du
monde ace moment.
SAINI'E-BEUVE
INTRODUCTION
It is natural that the ancient Greeks should have placed so much
emphasis on the irrportance of Homer for their literature and culture:
the brilliance of the Homeric poems threw into the shadCMs the other
creations of the early period.
It is perhaps less =rprehensible why
this view should still have so much influence upon the scholarship
surrounding the early lyric poets.
Though few would deny that there
had been in existence in the pre-literate period songs composed in
rretres other than the dactylic hexameter, there is still a strong
tendency to view the epic tradition as the source of all the irrportant
elements in 1yric poetry, such as its poetic diction, archaic forms,
mythology and so on.
/;
The picture is one of an irrpoverished popular
lyric poetry, that is given new life and brought to perfection bnly
with the aid of epic, which had achieved its great flCMering in the
I!
eighth century: where lyric and epic poetry share a particular feature,
be it a compound epithet, archaic rrorpheme or whatever, the presumption
is that its origin is to be sought in epic.
This view is well illustrated by the work on the language of the
. 1
Lesbian poets.
In the studies of scholars such as Bechtel, Lobel, Buck,
Gallavotti, Mastrelli, Page, Hanm and Kazik-Zawadzka, epic is made
responsible for those forms which do not appear to belong to the spoken
language of the time, and also for any phrase etc. shared by the two types
of poetry.
2
It is thus generally argued (rrore or less explicitly),
1
Cf. the full survey of scholars.'Lip on Sappho in Saake l3ff.
2
0n Homeric expressions in Sappho and Alcaeus, see further
Harvey, RcJme, Treu, von
~veber.
Gersteinhauer,
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that Lesbian poetry was written in a language which was basically the
I
spoken dialect, with additions from Ionic epic.
I
which I shall be principally concerned to challenge.
I
It is these assumptions
3 -
to be found in the other early Greek poets, both as regards IIDrphology
and as regards the lexicon: in Lesbian verse as in the other poets, old
and new rrorphemes co-exist, and the survey of the vocabulary of the
I
Lesbians will show that they employ the same sets of lexemes
The aim of the major part of this thesis, therefore, will be to
provide a full critical review of the language of the Lesbian poets.
It will concern itself witp two major questions: firstly, the nature
of the relationship between the Lesbian poetic language and that of the
surrounding particular meanings as do their colleagues in other dialects.
In effect, therefore, I am positing a general poetic language or Kaine
for early Greek poetry, in which the Lesbian poets shared as much as
the other lyricists.
Horreric poems, and secondly, the relationship between the poetic
Much of the argumentation 'of the thesis will rest upon the
language and the spoken vernacular of the island around 600.
submission that there existed a tradition of Aeolic song to which
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In dealing with the first question, I shall challenge the generally
held theory that the archaic or
1
anomalous 1 features that are found in
Sappho and Alcaeus are all to be refe=ed back to epic, and shall
argue instead that some of them at least could be explained in teDllS
I
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of a native, Aeolic poetic tradition.
I shall try to shCM that these
Sappho and Alcaeus were heirs.
The main evidence for this will be
found in the study of the metres and rrorphology, which will fonn the
subjects of the first two chapters.
In what follCMs here, I shall
review the other important categories of evidence in favour of an Aeolic
tradition.
foDllS may be divided into two categories: those which must be due to
Ionic influence and those which could be native archaic foDllS.
The existence of some fonn of pre-literate poetry in Gr~ce is
In the
case of the first, I shall consider L~e possibility that it may not
have been Ionic epic which influenced the Lesbians, but rat,her the
spoken Ionic dialect, whose influence on the Lesbian vernacular is
clear at this early date.
strongly suggested first of all by the internal evidence - linguistic,
archaeological and metricai - of the Homeric poems.
was actually sung, the evidence is less concrete, at least in so far
as the lyric poems which we possess do not obviously repose on the sarre
kind of formulaic tradition as does the epic.
As for the second que~tion, the relationship between poetic and
As for poetry that
1
On the other hand, the
evidence fran other sources is not insubstantial.
2
vernacular Lesbian, my concern will be to scrutinise the the~ry that
the dialect of the poems was· not a literary one, but rather the spoken
language of the day.
In answer to this theory, I shall argue that the
language of the poets shCMs the sarre sort of characteristics that are
Firstly, one may mention the a priori argument that song is an
~agy and Bergren argue that lyric does repose on some such tradition.
2For a general discussion of the origins and development of Greek lyric,
see Adrados,
OLG.
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skill and training, so the ability to sing in lyric rretres and to
There is no need to
invoke the especially 'musical' nature of the Greeks to argue that they
accompany oneself on a musical instrument was perhaps sorrething passed
too enjoyed the pleasures of song in the period before our records begin.
on within a particular group.
1
In the historical period, songs appear as an indispensible part of Greek
Coming nearer to the question of a specifically Aeolic tradition,
religious cults and festivals, and there is little or no reason to beljeve
that this was a phenomenon which grew up after the Dark Age.
it is of interest to consider the mythical/historical traditions
The festivals
at which choral singing tO?k place were important ones concerned with
surrounding the Aeolic peoples.
the fertility of the fields and of the people, rites of passage and so on,
archaeology points to there having been a migration from the mainland
which are to be found in most cultures: they must have had a long tradition
of Greece to the Asia Minor coast sometime around the end of the Bronze
behind them.
The evidence from dialect, myth and
Age and at the start of the Dark Age.
More concrete evidence is provided by the Homeric poems
Linguistically, the lesbian
themselves; they rrention such types of song as the larrent (Il. 24.720,
dialect is most plausibly explained as the product of the influence of
etc.), the paean (1.473), the bridal song (18.493), choruses (16.182) and
Ionic upon a 'proto-Thessalian'
dialect: Lesbian 'differs from East
,
the work-songs of Circe and Calypso at their spinning-wheels. 1
Thessalian in just those points where it might have been influencyd by
more, Dover (in
PA)
Further-
Ionic - a highly sus~icious fact in itself, and doubly damning when it
has sha.vn that many of the poems of Archilochils
conform to certain standard types of 'primitive song', which are to be
is sha.vn that these are themselves recent growths in Ionic' (Chadwick,
found, in many differing cultures.
GD 114) .
Again, the fact that the hymn plays
This influence from Ionic must have taken place after the
such an important role in early lyric suggests that these poets were
proto-Thessalian speakers came into contact with Ionic on the Asia
continuing to 'use types of composition that had long formed part of
Minor coast after the Aeolic and Ionic migrations.
Greek song.
It is true that hymns appear in Homer, but epic is hardly
likely to have been the sole repository of Greek hymnody.
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We can know nothing, of course, of the quality, prevalence or
authorship of the songs in Greece during the Dark Age.
The tenth and
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The ancient sources speak frequently of this Aeolic migration,
which they place in the generations after the Trojan War.
2
This move-
rrent may be reflected in the tale of how Orestes left the Peloponnese
to go north, and how he and his descendents took the future Asiatic
ninth centuries appear to have been a fairly grim period in many parts
Aeolians first to Thessaly, then briefly to Thrace and finally, not
of Greece,
1
A graphic picture of the tenth and ninth centuries is given by
but one might expect poetry to have continued in more
prosperous and populated areas.
~or
Just as epic poetry requires a special
literary echoes of these songs, corrpare for instance the lesbian
Milling Song
(PMG
869) and the 'Chelidonisma'
chanson de toile', Sa. 102 and Bowra,
GLP
(PMG
S48), Sappho's
132ff. On the role of choruses,
Snodgrass in ARGS.
2
The ancient evidence is collected, in French translation, by Berard.
It is discussed by Huxley 26ff., and, with perhaps too great a trust in
its historicity, by Hanmond 703ff.
see most recently Calame.
II
- 6 without a struggle, to Lesbos and Aeolis.
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If we do not demand complete
of the legends which are located in this area would suggest that, if
~.·~en myth and reality , such a story could well reflect
correspond ence b e~we
poets had been involved in their creation, they had been active there
the Mycenean colonisation of Boeotia and Thessaly and the subsequent
for sane time.
migration to Asia Minor after the break-up of the Mycenean kingdcxns ·
· a specifically Lesbian aspect to this story, which mad.·e
There ..· J.s
The ancient sources also provide the names of a number of poets
Penthilus, son of orestes, the eponymous ancestor of the noble Lesbian
connected with early Boeotian. and Thessalian tradition.
family, the Penthilidae.
However, Huxley
(GEP
Though, of
88) suggests that this
course, no weight can be attached to the dates given for these poets by
genealogy was a creation' of the late seventh century to justify the
rule of the then beleaguered Penthilidae.
the ancient writers, it is w:>rth noting that they regularly place them
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That the Aeolic settlers came from or were connected with the
northern part of the mainland is significant for this discussion, since
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around the end of the Mycenean era and the beginning of the first
millenium.
1
·The names include Linus, Pierus of Pieria, Oeagrus, Olen,
Arnphion, Anthes of Antedon, Thamyris of Thrace and Orpheus.
Obviously,
many of these are semi-divine or mythical figures, but the very fact
what were later to be Boeotia and Thessaly seem to have been important
that so many poets are connected with this 'Aeolic' area is at le<ilst
in the creation or at any rate development of a large number of myths
and legends. 2
noteworthy.
I.
Myths connected with this area include those of Oedipus,
Cadmus and his family, the seven and their Epigoni, Zethus and Amphion
If one may interpret the mythical and legendary traditions in this
(the latter, significantly, a singer), the Minyans, Athamas, the Argonauts and so on.
Furthermore, the Greek expedition to Troy set out
from the Boeotian harbour of Aulis, and Peleus and Achilles fonn part
3
·
s t ory.
of the 'northern' element of the TroJan
such a wealth of
I
historical fashion, they do suggest that the idea that the Aeolic area
possessed a poetic tradition is not unreasonable, though naturally it
would be unwise to go any further than that.
That bards or carposers of
religious songs sl]ould have gone with the colonists is not an improbable
mythical tales and legends might, with some justification, be taken as
a pointer to the existence of bards and poets·
~or the history of this period, cf. Page 149ff.
The number and variety
Nilsson 49 also sees
I
Penthilus as a late creation.
notion.
One should also mention the story of haw, after his death, the
head (and in other, perhaps later, versions, the lyre) of Orpheus was
carried singing dawn the Hebrus and over the sea to Lesbos, where the
1yre was kept in the temple of Apollo, and the head became an oracle,
2Cf.· Nilsson 100ff . , and , f or a J. ustification of his theory, Dietrich 310ff ·
3West,
GP
190 suggests the story of the Achaean attack on Troy was a
memory of Thessalian attacks before the colonisation of the Troad.
I
which Apollo had eventually to silence because of its popularity. 2
Too
much weight cannot be placed on this tale, ·however, since we do not know
1
cf. for the.details, Pavese 230ff.
He takes the testirrony too literally.
2
cf. Guthrie 35ff. and Deonna (with references); also Phanocles fr. l.llff.
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when the story beca:rre current.
:!f
about the oracle: the first reference to it oc=s at the tine of Cyrus,
Lesbian poets before Sappho and Alcaeus - Terpander.
and it subsequently appears on fifth-century vases.
won the first musical competition held at the Spartan Carneia, in 676,
:u
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Furthennore, little is knCMn in detail
The reference to
A much more definitive date can be given for the most farrous of all
1
He is said to have
the lyre may well be no more than a later addition reflecting the fame
according to Hellanicus and Sosibius (ap. Athen. 14.635).
of Lesbian poetry, but since, as Deonna has demonstrated, heads that
said to have invented the barbitos and the scolion, and to have canposed
prophesy or have a connection with magic are found in widely scattered
hexameter proo:imia, which were sung rather than recited; he also imposed
parts of the world, this ,Part of the story might be old.
a fixed pattern on the norre.
He is also
His reputation was such that he was invited
to Sparta at a tine of sickness (Aelian, v. H. 12. 50) , and is supposed to
It is not until about 700 that the tradition provides any na:rres
for poets specifically connected with Lesbos.
This in itself need not
be especially significant, since, .in pre-literate societies, there seems
have been the reason for the proverb ]..IE1:a M:aj3wv wL66v· rrapoL].J.La
A.e:yoJJ£\111 tnt 1:Wv 1:a 6e:u1:e:pa. qJE:poJJE'VWV, echoes of which may be found in
Sa. 106: ·
to have been less concern to preserve the names of individual poets,
as Dover shows (PA 210f.).
The 'earliest' poet of Lesbos of whom we
know anything is Lesches, of Pyrrha or Mytilene.
A local tradition,
A generation later, there is the poet Arion, whose historical
preserved by Hellanicus and Phaenius of Eresus (ap. Clem. Alex. Strom. l.
existence need not be doubted, despite the fabulous tale of his rescue by
131), dates h:iln a little earlier than Terpander - say ca. 700, if we
the dolphin.
put h:iln a 'generation' before the latter.
choruses (xul<A.Lxot XOpoL),
He is said to have corrpeted
2
He is supposed to have introduced the dithyramb and satyr
and
given na:rres to his dithyrambs, which
3
against Arctinus of Miletus, the author of the Aethiopis, who was said
suggests that he dealt with narrative, heroic subjects.
to have been a pupil of Homer and to have flourished in the ninth
can be placed at the turn of the seventh and sixth centuries, since he
Olyrq;>iad (744/1).
is principally connected with the court of Periander of Corinth (ca.
Griffin (39 n.9), however, prefers the more likely
His floruit
view of Lesky (104) , that the Cyclic poems were canposed in the late
625-585).
seventh century.
to win the canpetition at the Carneia, around the end of the seventh
Lesches is credited with the canposition of the Ilias
Parva,
which continued the story of the Trojan War from the end of the
riiad.
The surviving fragments of this stand finnly in the Ionic epic
We also hear of Periclitus, said to have been the last Lesbian
century (Ps.-Plut. Mus. ll33C-D), and also of Cepion, said to have been
a pupil of Terpander.
4
tradition, except for one line given in Clement in a more Aeolic variant:
1
cf. Wilarrowitz,
.
1
the origin of this variant is not clear, so no conclus~ons can be drawn.
2
For the ancient sources on Arion, cf. Crus ius in
1 It certainly does not support Pavese's extreme v~ew that the fragments
of his historicity, cf. Pickard-cambridge 99f. and Bowra, AD.
of early hexameter and elegiac poetry from non-Ionic areas have Ionic
dress only because they were transmitted through Ionic sources.
For
Lesches, see further Huxley, GEP 144ff.; Allen, Homeri Opera 5.127ff.·
TP
85ff., vanGroningen and Hooker 59ff.
RE
2 .1. 836ff.
In favour
3
Cf. Lesky 32ff., Webster 67f.
~ilamowitz,
TP
90 n.l is unnecessarily sceptical of Cepion's existence,
because 'Cepion' is the name of a nome: there is also a norre 'Terpandreius' .
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Frau the ancient evidence, therefore, it is clear that there existed
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a number of f=us poets connected with Lesbos in the seventh century,
to whose poetry Sappho and Alcaeus were heirs.
Turning to the evidence
frau archaeology, one finds that, sketchy as it is, it also supports the
outlines given by myth and legend, which were considered above.
At the
end of the Mycenean era, Thessaly leaks to have been a suitable refuge
for people frau the south.
r
{
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-11occupation as early perhaps as lCCO, and the abundant grey ware
indicates Aeolic rather than Ionic settlenent.
By ca. 850, Smyma had
imposing walls, which were made into sane of the rrost impressive in
Greece about one hundred years later.
If we are looking for a 'centre'
of Aeolic poetry and culture, then Smyma is the rrost likely.
At the end
of the eighth century, the tavn was captured by the Ionians. 1
The palace at Iolcus was destroyed, but at
An ancient tradition held that Smyma was founded fran Cyrre, eight-
a later date tha,n those farther to the south, and its surrounding
=
teen years after the latter's
Protogeometric pottery is found on top of Mycenean at Iolcus, which
to check such a tradition, but Cyme does seem to have been an early
suggests continuous occupation.
1
settlenent.
foundation.
2
settlenent, like rrost of the sites in Thessaly, shows no destruction:
It is not nON possible
Huxley argued for a date of foundation around lCCO, because
(a) of the legend that the colonisers of Phocaea were opposed by the
The manner in which the Aeolians rroved to the eastem coast-line
tyrant of Cyme, and (b) the Protogeometric pottery on Phocaea i?uggests
and islands of the Aegean is obscured by the fact that here alone in
a date around that tirre.
Greece no painted Gecrnetric pottery was made: in Lesbos and Larisa on
that it tends to date things too high, and there are only very scattered
the Troad, for instance, the rronochrome grey ware characteristic of
remains of Protogeanetric on Phocaea before ca. 700.
Anatolia continues frau the Bronze Age until well into the Archaic
beccrne clearer when the finds of Cyme are published.
period, and :ln Smyma it predcrninates until early Gecmetric tirres.
2
As
HCMever, the literary evidence is dangerous, in
The picture may
3
Like Smyma, Cyme
seems to have been especially prosperous by the second half of the
a result, the normal rule of tht.mtb that 'the distribution of Geometric
eighth century.
pottery is cormnensurate with Greek settlenent and comnerce' (Coldstream 18)
Rhodian design; and there is also a. story of the marriage between the
cannot be applied, and the precise ·date of Greek arrivals in different
daughter of king AgamertU'lon of Cyme and king Midas of Phrygia.
parts of Aeolis cannot be' determined: isolated finds of Protogeometric
need imply no more than casual trade.
1
From this period, we find East Greek Late Geometric of
The date
Cf. Coldstream 262; Boardman 29 . .For the Ionic capture, Hdt. 1.149-50;
for the date, Coldstream 268, 270 n.90.
2 '
Cf. Vit. Hom. Herod. 545£. (Allen 5.217) and, for a Thessaliap link, ibid.
The place for which there exists the best evidence for early Aeolic
occupation is oid Smyma.
There we have Protogeometric suggesting Greek
1
cf. Snodgrass 30, Huxley 38.
2
cf. Snodgrass 90.
18ff. (the Cymeans) xn!:o]Jfvo~OL 6E: -d}v n6A.~v Euupva.v 1:{]£-ro -ro CSvo]JO.
BnoEu~ .... o 58 BnoEu~ nv TWv .nv Ku~v }(,T~aav-rwv E\! -rot~ npWTQ~~ 8EaoaAWv.
3
Cf. Huxley 25, 29, 36; Boardman 30 ..
}
- 12 -
of this marriage is not certain, but looks to have been ca. 700.
1
The pre-history of the island of Lesbos itself is obscured by the
li!·i•!·
I
fact that 'there is no doubt of the continuity of life, but the ceramic
I
that the date of the a_n;ival of the Greeks is unknCMD.
point graphically:
I,
Cook puts the
1'1
.I!
I
non-Greeks to make Greek shapes.
settlement there is not likely to have been before 2300 B.C. or later
.i
maintained contact
The tw-o main Bronze Age tCMDs of Thermi
and Hiera declined at the end of that era, but we know of five Dark Age
II
very much is Antissa.
after the migrations: 2
Though earlier settlement is possible, therefore, 800 looks to be the
tCMDs with, in the first four cases, Anatolian narres: Mytilene, Eresus,
2
even
In fact, three of the most individual forms have counterparts in
ninth-century Thessaly: a pedestalled krater with two horizontal
and two vertical handles, an ovoid lekythos, and an o.inochoe with
ridges be'low the lip and between neck and shoulder; also w:>rthy of
note is the frequency of the high-handled kantharos, apparently
the favourite drinking-vessel in both regions.
(263)
'otherwise there is hardly anything which need be earlier than the
Antissa, Methyrnna and Pyrrha.
He suggests that parallels might be
sought with Thessalian shapes, which would indicate that the Lesbians
Even so, his later date may be too high, since
eighth century' (Boardman 33).
Coldstream
explains the nature of this pottery as being due to the Lesbians' use of
the Protogeorretric that has been found is in small quanti ties, and
It
Late Geometric pottery fran abcut 730 and by 700 has walls like Smyrna. 1
legendary and linguistic evidence abcut the Aeolians.
'to be quite honest, we can only say that the Greek
than lCOO B.C.' (778f.).
and also Corinthian and Cycladic
irrportant, since it allows us to tie the archaeological with the
This rreans
IW
~~~
Like Cyme, Antissa is irrporting Rhodian
The pottery of Geometric shape and Greek and Anatolian designs is
evidence on which this depends is, from the earlier Mycenaean III period
onwards, in the form of unpainted pottery' (Snodgrass 132) .
-13-
earliest date at which we can confidently place Aeolian Greeks on Lesbos.
Of these, the only one about which we know
Two apsidal buildings, which appear to have been
Apart from Sreynla, Cyrre and Lesbos, we also have evidence for main-
temples, have been excavated there, of which the first was in use until
abcut 700 and looks to have been built either at the end of the ninth
land Aeolis and sane of the neighbouring islands, but this only becanes
century or a little after 800.
lirpressive ca. 750.
The grey ware shows typical Gecrretric
At this time, Troy was refounded by the Aeolians:
\
shapes, with incised ornament of East Greek and Anatolian character.
'fran the start, most of the pottery is Aeolic grey ware, often incised
Despite a Late Bronze Age level just below the first temple, Coldstream
with the sarre kind of Georretric ornament as at Antissa' (Coldstream 263) .
does not think there was continuous occupation through the Dark Age.
1
3
oate and identification of Midas are difficult, since this seems to have
been a canmon name for Phrygian kings: was this the Midas of the Golden
Touch of Greek legend?
Snodgrass 349f. and Coldstream 265 discuss the
problem and settle for a date ca. 700; Jeffery,
2
cf. Huxley 37 .
3
cf. Coldstream 263; Snodgrass 408.
AG
I
Rhodian Late Geometric pottery is found at Pitane, Myrina and Larisa fran
ca. 730.
Surface finds suggest Aeolic settlement elsewhere on the Troad
at the en~ of the century, and the sarre is true for the islands: on
1
cf. Coldstream 262, 304.
238 goes down to 600-575.
2
For Thessalian and Lesbian pottery, see also Snodgrass 6lff. and 90.
- 14 -
Lerrn1os, the 'Tyrsenoi' are there fran the eighth century, 'but at all
times the painted decoration of the pottery is strongly influenced by
.i
l
Greek Aeolian fashion'
(Boardman 85f.); on Sarnothrace, the Aeolians
preserved in a local tradition
:o~:ted
trinity' [of Zeus-Hera-Dionysus] (60).
with the cult of the Lesbian
The discrepancy between the tv.D
accounts could, however, equally well be explained, either by the fact
.
arrive ca. 700, and the sane is true of Tenedos, where they were led by
that Sappho was sinply not following the epic story at this point, or
by the fact that she is referring rather loosely to the events, which,
Pisander of Laconia, according to Pindar (Ne. ll.33).
as Page says, are not the central concern of the poem.
li
R'l
I
I
Fran all this, one can conclude that the Aeolians were settled in
Smyrna and perhaps Cyrre by about 1000, and in Lesbos somewhat later.
The imitation
of Hesiod in Ale. 347 would suggest that he too was known to the Lesbians.
We
can go little further than this, but it is at least clear that by the
Their main expansion, however, seems to.have been in the mid-eighth
seventh century Lesbos seems to have been the scene of considerable
century.
poetic activity and to have had a reputation for this throughout Greece.
We would have, therefore, sane three or four hundred years of
Aeolic settlement before the time of Sappho and Alcaeus, with a major
Both narrative epic and lyric poetry are to be found.
centre in Smyrna, where the Aeolic tradition of poetry could have
this tradition can be traced back at least to Terpander of the named
flourished and mixed with the neighbouring Ionic to give the epic blend
poets, and that there is legendary evidence to suggest that the J::)Oetic
we now know.
tradition reposed on rrore than sinple drinking-songs.
Smyrna is, after all, one of the traditional birth-places
2
We have seen that
, I
SUch evidence
alone cannot, of course, be in any way conclusive, but it has been
of Haner.
adduced as a
Finally, .returning to the seventh century, one may conjecture a
little about the poetic climate on Lesbos.
Wlether Lesches be datErl
around 700 or 600, it is still significant that a Lesbian poet should
furthe~
piece in the. argumentation.
In the following
chapter, I shall attempt to support the contention of a long established
tradition of _Aeolic lyric with the evidence which may be gained fran the
carparative study of Lesbian and other IE metres.
This· would suggest, even if it does not prove absolutely,
that sanething like our Iliad was known in Lesbos at this time.
(
III
have been composing Ionic epic on Trojan subjects at the time we are
concerned with.
1
The
I,
frequency with which Trojan tales appear in the poems of Sappho and
Alcaeus also points in this direction, but it should not be forgotten
that Lesbos had connections with religious cults on the Troad.
1
On
the strength of the differences between the versions of the stay of the
Achaeans in Lesbos after the sack orTroy in Sa. 17 and the Odyssey (3.
~or a different, but not entirely persuasive view of the relationship
between the Alcaeus fragment and Hesiod, see Hooker 80f.
2
cf. Arch.
121
a.trr0G E:EdPxwv TTPO!;; o.iJAbv M:oj3wv
TJ,o.Li)ovo..
130ff. ) , Page argued that ' it is at least clear that a circumstantial
account of these transactions, different from that of the Odyssey, was
l Cf. Page 281.
I
··11
'I
- 17 -
between these peoples at this tine: it thus seems reasonable to argue that
the Greek metres as we know them rest on a tradition that goes back beyond
the start of the Dark Age.
THE LESBIAN METRES
CHAPTER ONE
In this chapter, therefore, I shall briefly
review the evidence from comparative ITEtrics, with special errphasis on
Every great poet must inevitably
innovate upon the example of his
predecessors in the exact structure
of his peculiar versification.
the Lesbian/Aeolic strain, and then discuss what light this thrCMs on the
relationship between Lesbian. lyric and Homeric epic.
In the course of the
discussion, I shall give particular prominence to features which could
SHELLEY
have
COilE
from a native Aeolic tradition.
I do this, not in a spirit of
special pleading, but rrerely in an atterrpt to counterbalance the tendency,
Greek and Indo-European Metre
Sorre of the strongest ~vidence in favour of the existence of a
tradition of Lesbian poetry is t6 be found in the study of the pre-history
of Greek rretre in general and the rretres of Lesbian poetry in particular.
From such a study, a good case can be rrade for the idea that the rretres
I
which has only recently begun to diminish, to refer everything back to
Ionic epic.
Epic influence is not to be denied, but it needs to be stressed
that this is not always a necessary explanation.
The idea that Greek metre went back to a source that was ccnrnon to
of Sappho and Alcaeus were not their own creation or that of their near
European metres in general was first developed by Usener.
An actual
predecessors, but belong (in part at least) to a long established
'Urvers' was constructed, but it was too vague and the tine all<Med for
tradition of verse.
Carparative study of Greek and other IE rretrical
systems suggests that the Greek metres have a long history behind them,
going back perhaps to a cormon IE tradition, though this may be too
sirrple a way of accounting for the similarities.
Comparative metrics
I
.the development of Greek metre from it was too short.
embracing account was given by Meillet in 1923.
1
A less all-
He concentrated on the
rrany similarities between Greek and Vedic ITEtres: both were quantitative,
with a rhythm based upon the altemation of long and short syllables, and
has concemed itself mainly with Greek, Vedic, Slavic, Irish and Avestan
the pitch accent shared by the languages of the two traditions exercised
metres, and has derronstrated that the metrical system with the closest
relationship to Greek is the Vedic.
1
no influence on the metres; the prosody was also similar and both
The similarities between·. them do
not appear to have been the result of direct influence from Indic to
Greek poetry during the Dark Age, since there is no evidence for contact
1cf. West,
IEM
for a survey of the possible rrembers of the IE group.
specifically, for Vedic, see Meillet,
OMG,
M:>re
Watkins 194ff., Nagy! Peabody
I
types errployed caesurae in fixed parts of the line.
M:>re specifically,
he noted the similarities between the Aeolic metres, with their strophic
form and fixed number of syllables, and the Vedic dodecasyllabic jagati
and its catalectic variant, the tristubh, the latter having the
SallE
35ff.; for Slavic, Jakobsen, CSM; for Irish, Watkins 212ff.; for Avestan,
~or a historical discussion of the different approaches to this question -
Peabody 3lff.
evolutionary, comparative, phonological and classical - cf. Peabody 14ff.
II
Ill
- 18 number of syllables as the Sapphic and Alcaic stanza's first two lines.
The so-called 'Aeolic base' at the start of many Aeolic metres parallels
the similar, though much greater freedom that is found at the start of
Vedic metres.
rI
- 19 The actual origin of the hexameter is still disputed, but there is
growing evidence that its origin should be sought within the system of
Greek metre itself, rather than in scme pre-Greek, Aegean verse form,
as was argued by Meillet
(OMG
57ff.) •
By far the rrost important critique
of this latter idea has been provided by Peabody.
Though Meillet's work received no very warm reception fran descriptive
metricians,
1
much rrore has since been done on the question of the IE
poetic tradition.
.
'
Even i f the results are still tentative as far as the
details are concerned, the basic theory that ·the various IE metrical
systems are related in scme way has much to recommend it.
Here is not the
place to go into this evidence, but West has usefully grouped the material
into four general categories.
2
In addition to the similarities in
metrical techniques, we find that the terminology applied to the poet is
He argues that the
epic language is not an 'artificial patois deliberately
c~eated
by epic
poets out of their natural language', so that it is not possible to argue
that the epic language was created to fit 'an exotic metrical form' (22).
In oral poetry, there is a continuity in both tretre and language:
Since the style of the epos is traditional, it is unlikely that
part of its phonemic patterning should be a foreign form applied
against the language~ It seems rrore probable that the meter of
the epos is a specialization of its general linguistic inheritance,
and that form and function in the epos are two aspects of one
traditional compositional process. (23)
the same, that stylistic features are shared and that there are a number
of poetic expressions, such as ' the broad earth' , which are used in IE
A number of different theories have been put forward recently about
the development of the hexameter from what are normally thought of as
poetries but not in non-IE ones.
'lyric' metres.
The rrost impressive evidence for the continuity of the Greek poetic
Nagy has argued that it is simply a pherecratic expanded
3
1
with three dactyls (pher d) .
He quotes such lines as Ale. 368.1
!'
tradition is to be found, of course, in the Homeric poems, .and it is here
that rrost of the work has been done.
More recently, however, the lyric
metres have been subjected to the same kind of analysis.
This work has
built on that of Meillet, and has suggested that, not only is there good
evidence for a lyric tradition, but that there is probably a closer
relationship between the hexameter and the lyric metres· in the manner of
as examples of the 'proto-hexameter' , from which the actual hexameter
evolved, with the regularisation of the first foot.
However, as Haslam
has sh=, only one of the two lines of this poem has a third-foot caesura
and both break Hermann's Bridge.
Similar problems are to be found in Ale.
296a and 367.
their generation than uSed to be thought.
1
It was ignored by Dale and view sceptically by Maas (3) .
Other scholars have preferred to see the hexameter as originally a
1
cf. Nagy 37ff., 49ff. and Wilamowitz,
GV
98.
The conventions used in
2The evidence is canpendiously collected in the ~orks of Schmitt; see also
describing metres in this book are basically those of Snell; see also
Durante and West, GP 179f.
Voigt's Conspectus Metrorum, 15ff.
- 201
compound metre, as did the ancients.
For West, it is a pherecratic plus
an expanded reizianum, 'welded together and regulariz.ed in rhythm
throughout' (IEM, 169 n.lO):
~x-uu-x/x-uu-uu--
l
f
I
his explanation does not fit the comparable Aeolic metres quite so well.
2
Lines like the gl d do not exhibit the same even distribution of long
syllables that are found in the hexameter and also the iambic trimeter.
Peabody proposes a much more complicated history for the metre.
He would
.I
- 21 If Peabody were right about the hexameter, one should note that
1
Furthermore, the longer Aeolic lines do not fall into two halves in the
place its creation in the period when Greek metre was not quantitative,
same way as the hexameter, as I shall show, and Peabody does not comnit
but still syllabic, l:i?<e the metres of Avestan poetry.
himself on whether the process he sees behind the hexameter can also
'Ihe hexameter is
then a 'contamination' of a line of eleven syllables with one of twelve,
explain Greek lyric metres.
a type of metre also to be met with in Indic: 'this division directly
of coalescence within a longer line?
parallels the form of the vait~llya verse, some types of the upajati
syllables are irrportant in .a number of IE metrical systeins.
verses, and other contaminate trimeter verses in the Vedic and Aves tan·
the truth here, however, it is still significant that Aeolic and Ionic
traditions' (46).
metres should have apparently different developrents, a point to which
'Ihis '23-count' verse was .then reduced to the form of
the hexameter as the result of contractions within the Greek language,
Are we to see the glyconic as the result
I presume not, since such octoWhatever
I shall return below.
which caused groups of two syllables to coalesce at a time when Greek
Gentili finds Peabody' s theory ' troppo cornplicat.a per essere vera'
verse was beccming quantitative; this coalescence thu5 gave rise to the
(30 n.64) and seeks to place the hexameter in a much wider context of
equivalence of tWo light and one heavy syllable.
Greek lyric cola.
'Ihe hexameter would,
He argues that certain cola-types are the basic
therefore, be carnposed of the same kind of ll- and 12-syllable lin!=s as
components of almost all early Greek poetry, whether epic or lyric,
the lyric metres.
literary or inscriptional.
'Ihe theory will also explain the positions of th!'!
caesurae: the masculine caesura is sirrply the result of word-end at the
2
These cola are, with the addition of the
ravvisarsi il p'-lllto di giuntura dei cola' (18).
I do not see, however,
that the few exanples he gives are sufficient to dispose of this idea so
end of.the first constituent verse, and the feminine caesura of 'syllable-
easily.
See now Rossi for a useful discussion of synapheia, distinguishing
exchange' between the first and second; the internal caesurae of the two
between different kinds: 'verbale' , 'ri trnico-prosodia' , 'ritrnica' .
original verses then provide the other two conmon caesurae (the so-called
1
cf. Peabody 62f.
'A' and 'C' caesurae). 2
2
1
cf. Arist. Metaph. 1093a26ff. (quoted by Gentili 18).
2
cf. Peabody 54ff. for the coalescence and 49ff. on 'syllable-exchange'
antiche forrnule dell' epos, sono reperibili sia nella lirica arcaica, sia
('dovetailing' - 'Verzahnung' - in Maas 44), which is, significantly, a
feature of Vedic and Greek lyric verse.
see especially the review by Nagler.
For ccmrent on Peabody's work,
Gentili opposes the idea: 'gli
elementi pertinenti all'anceps interpositum emersi dai nuovi testi di
Stesicoro smentiscono, definitivarnente, .l'ipotesi che nella sinafia debba
se questi scherni metrici, nei quali si erano cristallizzate le pili
nelle iscrizioni, l'ipotesi pili corretta
fissazione di quel carnposito metro epico
e che essi siano anteriori alla
che e 1' esametro. Un patrirnonio
panellenico di figure ritrniche nelle qu.ali si espresse la pili antica
poesia cantata di tutto il rnondo greco indipendentemente dalle aree
dialettali. •. ' (27).
J]--
- 23 -
- 22 -
metrical shape is sometimes problematic: are
reizianum, those of the ancient metricians: enhoplium, hemiepes,
prosodiacum, alananicum etc.
He suggests that the hexarreter is not a
combination of just two cola, as in for instance West's scheme, but
rather the finally regularised result of a wide variety of canbinations
of these cola.
1
I
u~uu-uu-x
and
--u---u
really equivalent, when they differ so much in length and rhythm? 1
Though no fully convincing theory of the origin of the hexarreter
The metrical shapes of the cola are also found to be
,those of ccmron formula-types, so that the generation of the caesurae
has yet been propoundedt two things are emerging, firstly, that the
can also be explained.'
hexameter was not a foreign verse-form, but a native one, and secondly,
Gentili stmmarises his theory as follCMs:
that it was· originally a- corrpound metre; the latter seems unavoidable,
La sequenza dei cola in una sequenza di esametri si configura
autamaticarnente came una plausibile strofa di un carrne lirico
di ritrro xa.L"· EvOMLOV nella quale
assente l'elemento epitritico. t lecito dunque postulare sul piano diacronico il
passagio dalla libera forma lirica alla rigida forma kata stichon,
ottenuta grazie all' accostarnento dei cola in funzione amoritmica.
(28)
given the alnost universal oc=ence of a central caesura.
e
a compound of
'lyric~'
If it was
metrical units, then it will have been subject
to the same kind of linguistic and metrical pressures that affected them.
.Similarities between epic and lyric could thus spring from this state of
As Giannini goes on to shCM in his part of the article, this theory will
affairs rather thali. simple imitation.
also account for features such as
Lack of precise knowledge about
the origin of the hexameter obviously makes a confident comparison
3. 40
aC{}" 0cpe:A.E!; ayov6s
1:"
~lJ.EvaL Ciya~ 1:"
between it and the lyric metres impossible as far as their respective
aTTDAEctla.L
'Lo iato e la sillaba breve in tempo forte sono fenaneni collegati
historical develorments is concerned,
but nonetheless a canparison
con la funzione originaria di quelle che divennero poi le cesure dell'
between them as we find them at the start of the historical period
esametro' (43).
re:veals a significant amount of evidence for the question of Lesbian
verse's relationship with epic, to which I nCM return.
Again, this is a theory which does not solve all the problems.
I
am not entirely clear hCM Gentili envisages the way in which the many
different combinations of the cola ultimately carne to create a hamo-
It is convenient for
J
this
l'
study that the clearest evidence for the
theory that <Sreek metres go back ultimately to a general IE metrical
rhylt.mic line, nor. why it is that iambic and trochaic rhythms should
systet:n is to be gained from the study of the Aeolic metres.
have been alnost totally excluded, when they are as much a part of the
their name, these metres are far from being confined to Aeolic poets,
actual realisations of- the cola as are the· dactylic and spondaic.
and metres such as the glyconic--and pherecratic are a ccmnon feature of
The
Despite
claim that these cola are universally applicable is helped by the fact
popular poetry, as can be seen from the Rhodian Chelidonisma
(PMG
that the basic enholpium etc. admit of such different realisations that
pherecratics), the Elean women's invocation of Dionysus
871-
the justification for seeing them as equivalent forms of the same
1
cf. Dale' 159 for the problems of analysing terms like 'enhoplium'.
the origfu of the hexameter, see also Vigorita.
I
(PMG
848 -
On
r
l-
- 24 pherecratics), Telesilla's lines on Artemis
(PMG
glyconics) as well as nmnerous inscriptional texts.
As West says, 'the
combination of wide distribution with predominantly subliterary status
is consistent with great antiquity' •
1
- 25 Hymn to Pan
717- acephalous
1
I
(PMG
The gayatri with the trochaic close will also yield lines which correspond
to that of Sa. 94.1D (= 168B.lV)
Furthermore,
courses in the tw:J traditions: the catalectic version of the gayatri
We may consider first the ITOst ccmmon lines
equals the pherecratic in same of its·realisations- compare
In Vedic,
and Sa. 111:
the octosyllablic gayatri consists of a free opening followed by a coda·
or clausula which tends to be ITOre fixed.
x-uu-u-x
ae:Mwa.
Il'Odifications of the basic octosyllable seem to have taken similar
deiTOnstrated through its relation with vedic poetry, and it is on this
in the tw:J traditions, the 8-, ll- and 12-syllable verses.
a.
as well as the choriambic enhoplium and anaclastic ionic.
Greek's relation to other IE verse-fonns can be ITOst clearly
2
-u-u-u-x
N:lCBwv ~A.n~· 6£ C&.l
Mouw.e: JJ£v
that I shall concentrate.
936.2):
.
.
8.75.86
xx-uu-x
prasnatir iva usrah
The two ITOst corrrron closings
RV
are the iambic (u-ux) and the trochaic (-u-x):
xxxxu-ux
The acephalic version of this gives a Vedic equivalent of the Greek
and xxxx-u-x
There is a tendency, too, for the third and fourth syllables to be
telesillean and lecythium, the catalectic variant of this the equivalents
regularised either as u- or -u, giving with the iambic close
of the reizianum and ithyphallic, and so on.
xxu-u-ux
and
xx-uu-ux
The 11-syllable Vedic line is the tristubh, which has the same free
In Greek, similar processes seem to have given rise to similar metres,
opening that was found in the gayatrl; Meillet describes 'la structure
namely the iambic d:i.Ireter and the glyconic:
u-u-u-ux
la plus ordinaire de l'ensemble'
and xx-uu-ux
m:S su Mya durhanavan
RV
Actual realisations of this line include (RV 4.20.2a)
8. 2. 20a
~
-u-u-u-x
~est,
IEM
166f.
1
since Vedic metres are much ITOre fluid than the Greek, one is forced to
848 - reiziana, for instance), but 'glyconic' and
'pherecratic' , with their variants ( 'hipponacteum' etc. ) are ITOre useful
deal with specific realisations of these metres rather than with fairly
!
in the discussion of Aeolic metres, and will be used here.
2what follows owes ITOst to Watkins l94ff. and west,
etc.
IEM
-u-U""'uu-u-x
(Watkins 208) to Sa. 1.1
Metricians such as Gentili describe such metres in a
(PMG
na indro. haribhir yatu_
which corresponas 'functionally and semantically as well as formally'
with which one can corrpare, for instance, the second line of the Epidaurian
different fashion
1
35) as roughly
xxxxx/uu-u-x
A c:x:>rrparable pattern is found with the trochaic close: Vedic exhibits
'pure' trochaic lines like
(OMG
fixed shapes as is the case in Greek, where the fossilising of metres is
further developed.
165ff. for exarrples
J
I
rl-
fll
. I
rI
I'
I.
r
li:
l
- 26 Tt0Lli.LA0apov' o.&x\.O.-t'Aqp66L l:U
1
.
il
II
-u-u-uu-u-x
We also find (Rv 3.7.3c)
pra nilap:;~~o atasasya dhases
u-u--uu-u-x
with which one can canpare Bacch. 2.1, for instance
u-u--uu-u-x
- 27 stanzas in the same way.
I
in both traditions.
1
The list of parallels need not be extended, but a reasonable
number was necessary to shc:M that the reserrblances are not merely superficial.
Watkins thus notes' that there exists an isorrorphic relationship
Two-, three- and four-line stanzas are carrron
Though it is likely that metrical systems based on the alternation
of light and heavy syllables will produce similar patterns in different
between the two a-syllable metres with iambic close in Vedic and Greek.,
traditions, the isarorphisms 9]Jserved and the correlations in the
and also between the two ll-syllable metres:
lengths of line suggest that the Greek. and Vedic metres are related in
xx-uu-ux
x-uu-u-x
(gl)
sane way.
(Sa •. 94D)
evidence for the view that the Greek. metres have a long history behind
them.
xx-u-uu-u-x
If the above structural corrparison be accepted, it gives us
They may even be as old as the language itself, but for our
(Sapphic Stanza)
1
purposes, all that is required ir;; the reasonable certainty that, by 600,
x-u-uu-u-ux
(Bacch. 2.1)
there had long existed lyric verse of a fairly continuous tradition.
Such isorrorphism is not likely to have been the result of chance alone.
It
must be said too, tl!at when one surveys the early Greek. metrical system
as a whole, the canplexity of the picture does not suggest that at the
Another important process in the generation of Indic and Greek
start of the literate period lyric poetry was a poetic kind struggling
metres is the extension of the basic a-syllable line by a further 4syllable segment.
1
to evolve an identity for itself with the aid of oral epic, having been
In Vedic, there is the jagati, made up of the
until this time a very impoverished tradition.
gayatri
2
There clearly is, in
plus 4-syllable close, which corresponds to such Greek. exarrples
the historical period, an opposition between epic and lyric, but there
as Ale. 355
appears to have been a time when these two systems were much nore
gl ia
1cf. Nagy 16af., Peabody 35ff., Voigt 15f., 20ff.
In Vedic as in Greek, the 4-syllable section may precede the a-syllable,
as in the first and third lines of the stanzas of Ale. 7Q
2cf. ·Peabody on Avestari: 'syllable exchange and the patterns of primary
and secondary coinbinations ••. suggest a carplexity in the organization
ia gl
Finally, one may note that not only do the Aeolic metres consist of
similar cola to the Vedic metres, but they also organise themselves into
1
Cf. West, IEM 169; Nagy 166ff., 279ff.
of utterance periodS that implies a developed compositional tradition
of cohsiderable sophistication' (34).
r
1I
- 28closely related.
1
01
a living tradition.
- 29 As has already been said in oonnection with the
work of Peabody, the fact that Lesbian has preserved isochrony, whilst
Ionic verse adopted the equivalence of uu and-, could mean s:i.nply
Aeolic Metre and Epic Metre
that we are dealing with two different sorts of metrical system, rather
Such a tine was, hc:wever, further in the past than this study is
ooncerned with.
Having established at least the possibility that the
metres enployed by Sappho and Alcaeus might stand at the end of an old
II
II
tradition of Aeolic lyric verse, I turn
nON
to the possible relationship
between this tradition and the Haneric epic.
I have argued that the early lyric tradition should not be seen as
II
under-developed, but Householder and Nagy have recently cla1l!led that the
! 1 1\
Jakobsen (AGP) and Ruiperez (cs)
have sought the origin of the equivalence in the Greek accentual system,
and particularly in the way the high tone of the accent may fall on
Allen
summarises the argument as follows:
i1
II
ill
abandon isochrony are not clear.
The reasonS why Lesbian did not
either the first or the seoond rrora of a long vowel or diphthong·
ij
11
than with two stages of developrrent.
oonservatism of the Lesbian metres points to a 'rroribund' (25) condition
for this tradition before the time of Sappho and Alcaeus.
It is true
!
'rren:
the possibility of a contrast such as q:iii(; 'light'
~
:i.nplies a structural division of long vowels and diphthon~s mto
two rrorae, as opposed to the one rrora of short vowels, wh~ch do.
not a&ni.t of such a oontrast. Since many heavy sy~lables oont~
long vowels or diphthongs, .and since these always lllp~Y a heavy
syllable, this 2:1 ratio would then have been general~sed fran
vowel-length to syllable-quantity. (VG ll2 n.l)
that, in carparison with Ionic and Doric metre,· the Lesbian is 'in sane
In a dialect like Lesbian, therefore, with a recessive accent, such a
respects rrore faithful to the original IE. inheritance, in that it has
contrast of accents as that found in ~~ is precluded, which would
preserved a certain freedan of quantities at the beginning of sane oola,
explain why Lesbian verse dces not have the equivalence •
resisted the tendency to regularize rhythms, and not adopted the equivalence
hand, there are, as Allen has pointed out, a number of difficulties with
of uu and -' (West,
GP
183).
On the other hand, conservatism need not
:i.nply that it was rroribund: Aeolic versification is of a different kind
from Ionic and Doric, and, even if it did not innovate as they did, the
great richness and diversity of metrical types in Lesbian poetry suggests
l.rbe opposition between epic and lyric might find a parallel in the 'longer'
and 'shorter' Jines in Vedic and Slavic poetry, where the fo:mer are used
for rrore elevated subjects and ornate diction than the latter (cf. in
general, Watkins 210 and Jakobsen,
CSM
428ff. on Serbocroatian laments and
447 on Russian 'byliny' and 'historical songs').
The expansion and
resegmentation of Greek lyric metres may have blurred this distinction,
but traces of it may perhaps be seen in the twelve to seventeen syllables
of hexameter epic and the basic eight, eleven or twelve syllables of lyric.
On the other
this idea:
it must, hc:wever, be recognised that thJ.s theory will only account
directly for a vocalic equivalence of V and W and not for a
quantitative equivalence of ~ and~~· It will account for the
latter only in so far as 'naturally' heavy syllables are concerned
but not in the case of 'positionally' heavy syllables· : • • One
would therefore have to assurre an extension of the equl.valence
'principle in the latter case. (AR 257)
Allen prefers a theory in which vc:wel contractions produced spondaic
sequences, which gradually became the justification for other spondaic
fonnulae.l
That the principle was not extended to Lesbian would then
1cf. also Nagy 49ff., Peabody 55ff.
i
r
r
- 31-
-30be explained by the fact that contraction had not advanced
Ionic.
1
"as
far as :in
There are difficulties about such an explanation, but s:ince the
pitch accent seems to have played little part :in the Greek metrical
system it is perhaps unlikely that the different Lesbian accent
have had so profound an effect on the metres.
should
The po:int is an obscure
one, but the argument that, because Aeolic verse did not innovate :in the
same way as Ionic it was sarehaw rroribund, is not ultimately conv:inc:ing.
blend of the epiC language - one vrould expect to see much rrore fundamental
Ionic :influence i f Lesbian poetry had been rroribund: the fact that not
even the highly u5eful equivalence of uu and -was adopted suggests that
the Lesbian poets had an adequate metrical tradition at their disposal.
Peabody's pr:inciple is important here: 'traditional meters do ndt exist
as fonns apart from utterance, and the l:inguistic :interdependence of
elements :in an oral tradition safeguards any of its features fram swift
or radical change' (61) . 1
This difference between Ionic and Lesbian can be used rrore fruitfully.
The archaeological and legendary evidence has, as has been said, sh=
that the Lesbian poetic tradition is to be connected with the northern
mainland of Greecei the metrical evidence po:ints :in the same direction:
th~ ~onic and Doric branches share several features of secondary
ongm. ~t follows that the tradition which they represent had
already diverged fran that represented· by the Lesbian poets well
before the Ionic migrations, and therefore before the Aeolic
migrations too. The Lesbian tradition, then, goes back to Bronze
Age Thessaly. (West, GP 183)
.
It would seem, therefore, that even when
Homeric epic achieved so prestigious a state that it began to exert an
:influence
on a wide area of Greek culture outside literature, its
influence on the metrical as opposed· to the· l:inguistic aspect of Lesbian
poetry is not to be over-estimated.
2
In the light of these preliminary remarks, I turn naw to consider
the relationship between epic and Lesbian lyric in tenus of the metrical
structures and the diction used :in t.'1em.
I shall divide Lesbian poetry
If we presurre that the migrations were tak:ing place around 1000, tl:len it
:into two groups: those metres which look as though they may have been
is significant that Lesbian and Ionic poetry had been :in contact for
recited, and those which were sung.
something like three centuries and rrore before Sappho and Alcaeus wrote,
~levant here too is the question of hCM far the :introduction of the
and yet, whatever may have happened to the diction of Lesbian. poetry
alphabet affected methods of composition, and haw far the poets were
:in that period, the typically Aeolic fonn of the metrical system survived:
3
The metre in the first group on
literate: cf. Davison, Segal, Havelock and Cartledge.
Oral methods of
composition no doubt cont:inued to a considerable extent, with direct
the :influence of specifically Ionic verse-fonns is, as may be seen fran
composition to the lyre (cf. Segal).
Voigt's Conspectus (15ff.), comparatively slight.
the end of the sixth century Greece was 'craft literate', only craftsmen
This would suggest
that Aeolic poetry had cont:inued to exist :in a fonn that was sufficiently
and scribes having the skill.
Havelock (372) argues that until
In Sparta, Cartledge sees a situation where
'deep literacy was the preserve of an elite operat:ing at the highest levels
vital to resist outside pressures and to satisfy the needs of the poets
of state' (37); if Aleman did not write d= his =poems, those who,
who used it.
like the royal family, wished them to be preserved may have had them
Though there is no doubt that interchange took place between
the two traditions - it did after all probably produce the Ionic-Aeolic
written d= (ibid. 28).
1
2cf. Coldstream 341ff. artd
an
contraction :in Lesbian poetry, cf. Hamn 29ff.
HC
for the influence on hero-cults.
3For this dist:inction, cf. M::!illet,
OMG
25ff.
I
r
1--
- 32 -
which I shall concentrate is the glyconic expanded with two ·'dactyls
(gl2d).
There are a number of reasons for this: firstly, Nagy has
1
~
- 33 -
Sa. 44.3
••• -raxu.;; O:vY EA.oG
Il. 18.2
••• -rax&.:: l'rtYEA.oG ?iA.&
In opposition to the theory that Sappho simply lifted this from epic,
already discussed it and its relation to Haneric diction; secondly,
it is one of the
fa~ metres shared by Sappho and Alcaeus; 1 thirdly,
he • forces • himSelf to imagine her selecting Homeric line-endings with
disyllabic closes, rerroving the last two syllables and then, if nea;:ssary,
there is a reasonable, if not large, arrount of it extant; and fourthly,
rearranging the syntax of the line.
Whilst I too would be sceptical of
its very similarity to the hexameter makes it an ideal test case for
a canparison between Lesbian and Ionic metre.
2
theories which made Sappho of all poets laboriously trick out her poems
with -rE].JJixn -riJN • O!J.npou
.SdTT.VCUV,
it cannot easily be denied that a poet
might indeed operate in this way, once it was realised that Homeric
The main exanple of this metre is Sa. 44, and the rrost noticeable
forrm1lae could be adapted in this way.
aspect of the
p::>e!ll
On the other hand, while such
is the number of expressions which it shares with
a process may be conprehensible in many of the cases he quotes, Nagy is
Haner.
It has usually been argued that Sappho took over these expressions
from the epic, because of the heroic subject matter of the poem, but this
has recently been disputed by Nagy.
3
surely right to say that it would ill suit a pair like
sa. 44.9
He prefers the view that these
~xa-rau-r[ •• )va., noCx~A.· 6.8Up]JO.-ra
od. 18.323 n.ai:Oa. 6E tit; 6.-rC-raAA.e:, 5U3ou 5' Cip' 6.8Up]JO.-ra at>].I.WL
parallels with epic are to be explained as springing from 'a tradition
The breaking of Hermann's Bridge in the Homeric passage suggests that
of inherited fonnulas which were parallel to the inherited meter of her
this expression is unlikely to have been heard frequently enough for it to
verses' (134).
I shall discuss Nagy's views briefly, before going on to
have be=e familiar and, as Nagy says, 'its banal oontext makes it all
offer a slightly different view of the reasons for the similarities.
the less likely a model for Sappho' (124).
The second feature concerns the similar usage of spondaic words at
Nagy selects three similarities in expression and word-localisation
the start of the line.
between the two metres.
Nagy argues that Sappho cannot be said to have
Firstly, there the nine lines in Sa. 44 which
simply inserted Homeric fragrrents into her
p:::>eiliS
unconsciously, since
end with a phrase equivalent to a Horreric line-e11ding minus its last two
one would then expect her to have taken spondaic words from many parts
syllables, e.g.
1
cf. Voigt 134f.
of the hexameter; in fact, she has 'taken' them in each case from the
start of the line.
~est,
GP
191 suggeststentatively that in Sa. 44 'we may have a specirren
Nagy therefore argues that imitation is not involved.
Again, however, one might counter that it was the very fact that these
or at least an echo' of Aeolic epic: the expanded glyconic used xa-ra
m:Cxov 'is plausible for an Aeolic descendant of Middle Helladic Epic'.
2
Several of the fragrrents deal with epic subjects, and the gi. d would count
as a 'long' line (cf. above, p.28 n.l), but we helve not the evidence to
be certain.
3
Cf. Nagy 118ff. and Marzullo, SPE 115ff. for the parallels.
words began hexarreter lines that ied Sappho to place them at the start
of her glyconic lines.
On the other hand, two things suggest that Nagy
may be near to the truth.
Firstly, apart from Sa. 44.27 axw aEortEai.a,
r
..,.-
1--
- 34 we are dealing with simple and straightforward wo~ds,
~such as 14
0:-tov,
which is initial in three of its nmoe appearances in Honer: such
phenarena hai'dly deserve to be dignified with the title 'epic usage'.
More
l.IlpOrtantly'
0
when one looks at spondaic words in Haner' one finds
that they occur finally in 40% of cases, and that the next :rrost frequent
place is the start of the line, with about 20% · 1
In
g 12d , h cwever,
spondaic words virtuallyohave to be inito~a1 ' s:rnce
o
the only places wherethey can occur are at 1 2 or 2 3, and :rronosyllables rarely begin the line
in our evidence.
In these circumstances, it is not surprising that
- 35 in the sarre direction for a certain measure of autoncmy for Lesbian
1
I
rretre, by oonsidering phraseology and structure in a slightly different
manner.
Although
Ii
evidence is sparce, it is nonetheless possible to make a
2d
number of points ooncerning the structure of gl
and the hexarreter.
Firstly, an analysis of ....uro-break patterns shows that there are sorre
2d
broad similarities between the two rretres. For gl , the figures are
1
as follcws (with ....uro-break defined as in Maas 88f. ) :
1
oorrelations should occur between the two metres: mathema.tically, the
2
3
chances of oorrespondence are high.
Finally' Nagy notes the way that formulae of the shape uu-uu, which
oould appear in four places in gl 2d, congregate at the end of the line,
4
5
6
7
8
9 10 11 12 13 14
xx-uu-uu-
uu-ux
Sa.
0 17
°'
6
6 ll
8
6 ll
4 10
6
Ale.
0
8
2
3
3
4
1
3
0
5 0
(10 lines)
Total
0 25
9
9
9 15
9
9 18
4 12 11 0
(36 lines)
7
2
0
(26 lines)
There are thus three places in the line where word-break is :rrost ccmron:
as do their epic oounterparts:
It
Sa. 44.4
Ilo
9.413
•.• xAEOG
xxj-uu-/uu-/uu-ux
A
B
C
~L,OV
••• xAEOG ~L'OV ~a.aL
This is closely similar to the pattern of the main caesurae in the
These parallels he explains as 'inherited Glycomc f omulas
. rather than
0
I
I
(l3 2 ) and as the result of 'the rigid
!
truncated Pherecratic fonnulas'
II
metrical oorrespondence between gl2d and pher3d'
hexarreter:
-uu-/uu-/uu-/uu-uu-x
A
B
C
The difference is that in the hexarreter the first caesura is :rrore cO!IIlDn
2
after the first syllable of the seoond foot tha11 after the first foot:
I!
Though, as it stands, Nagy' s case may not be completely persuasive, 2
1carpiled from the follcwing lines: Sa. 44.5-15, 26, 30-4, 47. 2, 48-52;
I feel that it contains
, - - - - - - - - - - - e - e r r1e n t s of truth, and I will new try to argue
1
o'Neill 141.
Ale. 38.3-5, 7, 9, 141.3-4, 364, 365.
2
statistically significant, and should be mistrusted.
It is accepted by BeI'gren ll1
o h er discussion
o
of certain apparent epicisms
in Alcaeus (ll9ff.) .
Ale. 304.
Also in this metre, Sa. 43, 45-6,
The figures for Alcaeus are based on too small a sample to be
Still, the strong
tendency for woro-break at A (8/10) and C (7/10) is noteworthy, as is the
c:arparative infrequency of one at B.
2 61%:29% (Porter 52).
I place the C caesura on statistical grounds (with
Fraenkel and Peabody 330 n.60) rather than on aesthetic ones (Porter).
I
I
:I11
II
,!I
il
F
n
:: rL
- 36 the flexibility offered by the initial Aeolic base in gl 2d may have
are two subsidiary caesurae linked to the main ones, there is a
!
complementary tendency in this direction in the gl 2d in Sappho's figures:
:I
sorrething to do with this.
Furthenrore, just as in the hexarreter there
-uu/-/uu-/u/u-/uu/-uu-x
Al A2
Bl
B2
Cl
A2
Bl
B2
Cl
If this was a feature of the gl
2d
C2
course that the hexarreter admits spondees), and closely related in the
first, where 40% of the first feet in the hexarreter are spondaic in Rorrer
1
and Hesiod; in the fourth, the difference is mainly one of length:
1
XX
xx-
hex.
-uu
-uu-
2
3
u-ux
uuuu-ux
u-uu
uu-uu
uuuu-u
-uu-uu-u
u-uu-x
uuuu-uu-x
u-uu
uu-uu
due to imitation, but that sare are the result of the natural propensity
for words to gravitate to certain points in the line because of their
shape.
In certain cases, imitation seems an unlikely explanation: we have
already seen the case of 6.a{p).ICI.-ca in Sa. 44 (p. 33 above),· to which one
may add examples where the ward in question is too insignificant for
imitation to be likely, as in the case of -caxa in
Ale. 141.4
6v-cp~l)Je:~ -caxa -cav n.Oi\.~v· 6. 5' ~XE"ta~ P6rr.aG
Il. 6.331
6.i\.i\.' O:va.,
no rreans certain.
Jlli -caxa Cbru ITvpa~n~o~o &pn-cm
rroi\.u~6p~G
may hold the same position in
rroi\.U~6p~G
Ale. 38.7
6J.J..1J. xat
Od. 15.459
fli\.u&' avnp rroi\.U~6p~G
fuJv Urr.a
xCip~ [
qrou TTiJOG &Il).ICI.-ca na.-cP<SG
but
Od. 23.82
why Sappho so often plaoes a word in the same position in the line as does
~ere are almost no examples from gl 2d of words which display a tendency
This need not be imitation, but rather the result of similar
Thus, in Sa. 44.18, M&o~ occupies the
position that it holds in 75% of its occurrences in Rorrer, but its shape
II
At the same tirre,
the only other place the word appears in Harer, shows its position was not
pressures in similar rretres.
, ,I
1
poetry in two related dialects, and it goes sorre way towards explaining
Honer.
':.1
certain practices of this kind.
Even in the case of rare words occupying the same slot, imitation is by
ways, to be expected when we are dealing with two similar rretres used for
II!
In most cases, of course,
the Lesbian evidence is insufficient to tell whether a particular
4
uuuu-u
-uu-uu-u
This similarity in the way the two rretres tend to be broken up is, in many
II! II
simply to chance is too seldom entertain<'rl.
it is at least a tenable hypothesis that not all the correspondences are
rretre generally, then the caesura
shapes, which would be identical in the second and third cola (except of
I
usage is discussed, the possibility that such coincidences might be due
both traditions shared
patterns in the two rretres will have given rise to si:nlilar groups of cola
.I
- 37 Furthenrore, when the relationship between Lesbian and Hareric
correspondence is the result of chance, of imitation or of the fact that
C2
xx/-/uu-/u/u-/uu/-ux
Al
,.
1---
-uu- conveniently fills the space between the
1
Cf. Peabody 334 n. 76..
COIIIron Al
and Bl caesllrae.
to occupy a particular place in the line.
The best exarrple is that of
llEYaG, which, as in Homer, tends to care after the masculine caesura:
Ale. 304. i. 4
365
38.4
Compare perhaps
]
J.Jtyav OpXOV ~E
XE'C"tm n£p XE~ JJEYUG, ~Atmutfu, i\.tfuG
&lJe;o8', 6.i\.i\.' d.y~
fucx>).ICI.~
Jlli UEYOAwv bt[u-ux
final in Sa. 50.2 and Ale. 304. i. 5.
n---
I
I
i=··
1
~
' f:ii
- 38 fixed in epic.
explanation,
Frequently, therefore, imitation is not a necessary
and, indeed, when one considers that Lesbian and Ionic
poetry had been in contact for so long, it is not surprising to find that
I
- 39 between the hexarreter and gl
2d
could account for the similarities in the
handling of traditional poetic diction.
differences that exist between them.
Equally instructive are the
There are four major ones, of
correspondences exist: they may be exarrples of long-standing 'Gerreingt1ter'
which the first has already been noticed, narrely that the A2 caesura is
shared by similar rretres.
2
rrore cormon in Honer than the Al, the reverse of the situation in gl d.
\
The second has also been rrentioned, the preservation of isochrony in
When one considers the positioning of phrases rather than single
Lesbian beside the equivalence of uu and - in Ionic.
If the
develo~t
words, matters are much rrore canplex and uncertain, and the evidence does
of the Lesbian glyconic poetry had proceeded with a good deal of help
not allCM anything significant to be said yet.
from the dactylic hexarreters of epic, one would have expected that so
Nagy's theory that the
apparently epic fonnulae in Sa. 44 are in fact glyconic fonnulae is, as I
useful a feature as this equivalence would have been adopted.. However,
have said, difficult to prove or disprove.
it is only in Sappho's hexarreters that the equivalence is found; that
It is true that phrases like
2
-.&.x.u!;; O:(yEAor;;, MEO!;; &pavmv fit conveniently in the gl d between the Cl
this is a clear case of Sappho imitating an Ionic practice in an Ionic
caesura and the end of the line, but this proves nothing.
rretre is borne out by other Ionic features in these poems.
Nagy tried to
One must
support his theory by relating the phrase 'KAte(; &pa~ "t"OV to the usage of
presume that the equivalence was not felt to be appropriate in Lesbian
similar expressions in Vedic; he argued that such expressions were old IE
verse.
1
formulaic line-endings, but the difficulty, as he admits, is that no Vedic
line-ending srava (s) aksitam actually .exists.
1
Indeed, there do not
s~em
A third difference concerns the B caesura.
In Haner, there is a Bl
to be any certain exanples of semantic, rretrical and positional equivalence
2
or B2 caesura in alrrost 99% of cases; however, in the gl d, the figure is
between Horreric and Vedic expressions: there are phraseological, conceptual
only just above 40%.
and fonnulaic similarities, but a precisely corresponding expression with
2
the hexarreter was a canpound rretre, unlike the gl d, which would be an
the sarre rretrical position and granrnatical function has not been adduced.
expanded long line.
This does not in itself invalidate Nagy's theory, but suggests what is
~oigt (22) actually marks a case of the breakd<:Mn of isochrony in
. Ale. 364
anyway likely, that Vedic and Greek poetry, no matter heM closely they
2
This difference would support Peabody's claim that
Again, as in the case of isochrony, the fact that
O,pyclA.Eov TIEVLa xdxov OaxE"tov, <'i u{;yav
&i]J.va MiDv Cxua.x.av (m oov ooE/,q)Em
may have once been related, had diverged considerably in this respect
she makes the rretre 5dau-.
during their developrent.
2
Page (325), however, makes the lines gl d,
with synizesis in O,pyclA.Eov, which is a preferable analysis, for which
there are sufficient parallels (on synizesis, cf. Hamm 34).
2
cf. table on p. 35 above.
I have tried so far to derronstrate heM the structural similarities
1an this expression, cf. Schmitt,
•-Uu--uu ... '
DD
6lff.
I
~
~--' ~'
'
---
--,--~-
- ------ --- ------r
----
1
'
I
- 40 the Lesbian metre did not adopt so characteristic a structural feature
of the hexarreter argues for a measure of independence on the part of the
former.
fI
\'
- 41 Turning to the lyric metres, the remarks made above on the fusion
of Lesbian and Ionic elerents still apply.
I propose to discuss these
metres fran the specific point of view of the localisation of certain words
and 'I!.Urd-types; since it is even less easy to prove anything in this case
The final difference takes us back to the positioning of words in
the line.
2
than in that of the gl d, I shall content Ir!YS.elf with showing how the
practice of word-localisation can grow up without necessarily requiring
In
a pre-existent rrodel.
E:qx:xLvEo occupies the sarre place in the line as the metrically equivalent
~CvE-co does on each of the five times it appears in Harer.
Words of
These metres display nothing that could be called a formulaic system,
this shape oc= in this third colon in 95% of cases in epic, which
but Nagy has argued that 'even if the lyric diction of someone like Sappho
might e:xplain the Lesbian usage.
may not be strictly formulaic, it could still depend heavily on earlier
However, despite the prevalence in
Homer, there is in fact no corresponding tendency in Lesbian, as far as
formulaic systems that had been appropriate to her archaic meters'
our present evidence goes: in Sa. 44, n.o-d)pLa (10) and E:J«ll3oA.ov (33)
There may be a degree of truth in this, but one may wonder whether the
conform to the epic pattern, but E:A.Cno;ra (8), {x,%p]JD.-ca (9) , Em'Jpa-cO\I
range and diversity of the lyric metres might not have militated against
(32) do not, and nor does \IOn]JD.-ca in Sa. 51.
the creation of a fotmulaic system anything like that of hexameter epic.
This is a small point,
(14).
but it does suggest once again that Lesbian poetry resisted the whole-
Furthenrore, conparative evidence shows, that such a formulaic system is
sale application of epic practices, not, only in the structuring of the
by no means a necessary adjunct to oral poetry.
metres, but also in the localisation of word-types.
quotes a letter from an expert in Scottish Gaelic poetry:
In conclusion for these WJ.-ca m.-Cxov metres, therefore, one may say
that the similarities detected between them need not necessarily have been
due to imitation, and in some cases this is an unlike\Ly explanation.
For instance, Young
'Ther~ is, in Scottish Gaelic poetry, concrete, positive evidence
that oral composers do compose without using formulaic expressions
at all' . Mr Macinnes goes on to discuss the Gaelic court poets,
who, he states, 'were highly literate'. He finds 'a much better
case could be made for describing their verse as "formulaic".' (285)
Until we have rrore evidence, Nagy' s point TIRlSt remain purely hypothetical.
Other factors have to be taken into account, such as chance, the structural
similarities between them and the geographical proximity over several
centuries.
Beside these = t be set the differences, which suggest that,
Although no formulaic system is visible, one feature is to be
noticed: the tendency for certain words and morphemes to be localised
though Lesbian metre was not independent of Ionic, it nonetheless possessed
in certain places, and for some of these positions, but by no means all,
certain features that were proper to it and which were sufficiently firmly
to correspond to those in Homer.
entrenched not to have been corrpletely eroded by epic influence.
correlations is the localising at the end of the line_ of trisyllabic
One of the rrost striking of these
words shc.ped u-x, and of these the rrost noticeable is the case of present
- 42 and aorist infinitives: out of 30 exarrples that I have counted, 28 occur
finally, and, of the two exceptions, one is elided and so not really
relevant since its shape is different (Sa. 62.10 Cxe:ct7' initial), and
the only true exception is Sa. 27.6
~dAe:EaL.
The· follCMing is the
evidence: the tendency is found in all metres that end u-x.
i
I !i.
I i1
Sa. 1.17
5.3
5.6
16.21
58.18
88a.17
.
I]
!
~.
Final in Ale. 34a.5,
1.26
5.2
5.4
16.22
20.5
23.5
23.13
27.7
?58.6
60.7
85a.i. 3
0ooa. 5t ]..IOL "LEA.e:oo:lL
~EAaL\10..
Final in Sa. 1.10, 16.2, 20.6, 58.14; Ale. 34a.l2,
2 3 4, but does not) : in Harer, final in 85% of just over 100 cases.
d.
~"La.
Final in Sa. 2.10, 20.9, 71.7; Ale. 249.5: always final in
e. parts of c:pEpw.
-ruCc5' Cxe:afuL
ruiv1:a •e:]A.Eaanv
n]e:c5€.xnv 0paoaaL
] • E:\IOG xpELnOO.L
• EAML a' E: Caxnv
rravlwxCa[c5]nv
• ] c5pa. Xclp LOOO.L
]L&ixaJw
~iLOL lJ(ixe:afuL
]rotOUn\1
Final in Sa. 58.15, 58.20, 88a.7; Ale. 34.11, 48.7,
48.8: final in Harer ih 80% of some 90 occurrences.
f.
~aLpa.
Final in Sa. 1.13, 15b.l, 68a.6, 8lb.3: this form is
not used in Harer.
In addition to these trisyllabic forms, which are always final when
the metre ends in u-x, there are also
] "LW cpEpE:afuL
Xf)]uaE:\11:. tyeppnv
l i\w v6nafuL
OL~AaL~ E:ve:Gxnv
ax&N pue:afuL
6.yc5r:O& CxxOUoaL
}ID%oenv
Mtvcu\x:x. xOAE:OOO.L
E]..IOL YE: yE\Je:afuL
g.
Aqp65L"La.
Final in Sa. 1.1, 33.1, 73a.3, 96.26*, 102.2, 112.5,
"
133.2*; Ale. 41.19, ?26lb.i.2; IA 23* (in cases marked with an asterisk,
the name must be final [unless in the vocative]; in Sa. 73a.3, it has to
be final): in Homer, it is final in all but two of some 40 occurrences.
h. A<EI;;,.
Final in Sa. 58.19, 103.13, 104.1, 123, 157; scanned--,
this name could be accommodated in a number of places in, for instance,
~e list includes exarrples from the end of the 'third' line of the Sapphic
metres with chorianibic expansion.
stanza, although this should in fact be joined to the adonaic clausula
cases.
SVE).
Given
that the 'third' line ends in the same way as the other two, one expects
to find these infinitives there also.
45.2, 48.6, SLG 262.7: in Homer,
Homer and Hesiod.
aEA.oL nOnafuL
a6ve:•ov n6noa.L
as a longer final line of a three-line stanza (cf. Irigoin,
iil,ll
b.
326.4 (with a long final syllable, this word could appear in position
certain parts of the line, rrost notably again at its end.
i
Final in Sa. 1.14, 4. 7, 16.18, ll2.4: in Homer, final
6/8, Hesiod and Hyims always.
c.
There are also a number of individual words which are localised in
. i
1
- 43 a. rq:Xxx.mov.
final in three out of four cases over about 140 occurrences.
1
ati\w YE\IE:afuL
atA.n L yE\JE:afuL
x&po;v yeve:afu~
ou OU\10.1:0\1 YEvE:a8a.L
ou OM"LO\I YEvE:a8a.L
Ex.Up:x. yf; [ ve:cft:tL
5.9
16.5
Alc.48.7
48.12
48.16
ll9.12
129.20
130.18
335.4
368.1
368.2
r-
The figm;es for some of the words
i. yO..
In Homer, it .is final in about 80% of
As a rronosyllable,- this could naturally appear in a number
of places in every metre, but it is noteworthy that in systems that close
involved in the table in Homer are: yeve:afu.L final 29/41 (71%), "LEA.e:ooo.L
--uu-ux (i.e. Alcaic stanza 1, 2, glyconic with dactylic or chorianibic
5/5, CxxOUoaL 10/10, CxxOUE:L\1 2/3, J.llixe:afuL 101/107, q>{;pe:ofuL 14/14, txEafuL
expansion), it always occupies the sarre place in our evidence:
52/56 •
i
'!
I
j
I
Sa. 44.4
y~
1
Ale. 6.14
YOG Orna XELuEvOLG
~
- 45 -
- 44 -
..
j .
HAEOb
be terrpting, particularly in the case of trisyllabic words in u-x, to
~L•ov
look to Harrer for the origin of this practice.
EnLE~VOL
129.17
yav
345 .1
YOG Cxn:U ne:pchwv
350.1
YOG
these trisyllables occur finally in 93% of cases, and sane 38% of lines
in those poets end with a trisyllabic word of this shape.
EA~•~vav
One might also note two minor exarrples, that
In Harer and Hesiod,
tJtnpa.•os
closes
glxc lines on the three occasions it occurs in them (Ale. 34(c) .10, 70.13,
ll7b. 4) , and •Af:x::J;v6o. appears twice in the first two lines of the Alcaic
stanza, in the same position and with a compound epithet: Ale. 325.1
1
Furthennore,
on a rough oount, an infinitive of this shape occurs about four times
Despite the irrrrediate attractiveness of such a
every hundred lines.
view and its eoonCT.\Y, two factors suggest matters may not be so sirrple.
Firstly, as the case of the media-passive participles shows, Lesbian
poetry had generated metrical practices wit."lout requiring an epic model
as a basis.
SO far I have dealt with usages which have, for the most papt, a
parallel in Harrer.
nothing to Harrer.
There is also one notable usage in Lesbian, which owes
This is the localisation of media-passive participles
at the end of the first two lines of the Alcaic stanza; there are seven
Ill
II
ETtn]..lEVOL
335.2
<laa]..lE:vo L
75.4
rq:x:x:XiE6E LX]..!EVOV
119.14
O'KOTtLO:!J.(
119.17
errovrn.J.[ e:voL
129.17
EnLE~VOL
was this part the first to undergo fossilisation ~ which would have brought
with it a ccrrplementary tendency for words to localise at this point, but
also, as in the fonnulaic composition of epic, the existence of fixed
These metrical practices
can be found in other lyric poets, and suggest once again that Sappho
xe: q.ilvo LG
58.14
be the place where these practices are most frequent, since not only
types of line-ending would have aided the poet.
instances with no exceptions:
Ale. 6.14
Seoondly, it is significant that the end of the line should
and Alcaeus repose on a tradition of lyric verse of some sophistication.
In this chapter, therefore, I have tried to show that the idea that
all the metrical correspondences between Lesbian lyric and Horreric epic
are to be e1tplained in terns of the influence of the latter on the fomer
This practice probably owes something to the fact that such participles
is too sirrplistic.
It is based on an incomplete notion of the relationship
with two short syllables before the final cretic cannot stand anywhere
betweE¥1 the two kinds.
else in the line.
existence) co-existed in the same social a11d cultural environment for a
These had (if one accepts the Aeolic tradition's
lang tine, so that oonstant interchange and interpenetration would have
The evidence, therefore, though inoorrplete and based on very small
been inevitable, thus blurring any strict distinctions between them.
sarrples, does point to a tendency for Lesbian poetry to localise certain
Furthennore, the fact that epic and lyric metres appear to have had their
words in certain positions, especially at the end of the line.
1
cf. O'Neill 142; Porter 63.
It would
- 46 -
origins in the sarre rretrical system rreans that there are likely to have
I
I'
CHAPTER TWO
been similarities in diction fran the start, especially in the oral
period.
THE LANGUAGE OF THE POEMS
As a result, one might suggest that the phrase 'epic diction'
Nel linguaggio di una plebe si
pub dir poco o nulla, perahe la
vera plebe difetta di vocaboli
come di notizie e di idee.
be replaced by 'traditional diction' , since the latter would not imply
the existence of sorre discrete body of epic diction upon which lyric was
G.G. BELLI
privileged to draw, but rather a shared corrnon poetic language that was
available to all poets.
the lexicon.
:r
shall return to this in the last chapter on
Introduction
Consequently, when a lyric poet uses a high proportion of
'epic' diction in, for instance, a hymn, this need not be because it was
In the introduction to this work, I shc:Med heM the evidence fran
traditional to use phrases fran epic in such cases, as Harvey has argued,
mythology, archaeology and ancient tradition pointed to I.esbos and the
but rather because such language was traditional both in epic and in
Aeolis being colonised by people from the mainland.
hymns; choice of diction, therefore, would be a matter of genre rather
evidence points in the same direction.
than imitation, and there would be no roan for a hierarchical ordering
research has made it plain that the old view of Lesbian as the 'pure'
with epic at the t6p as the source for other types of poetry.
1
I f this
The linguistic
In the last thirty years or so,
form of the Aeolic dialect, with Thessalian and Boeotian contaminated by
1
suggest..ion has any validity, theh the study of lyric poetry can concern
the neighbouring North-West Greek dialects, is no longer tenable.
itself less with questions of whether this or that expression was 'epic'
clear nCM that Lesbian only developed as a distinct dialect after the
or not for the poet (questions which we are ill-placed to answer in tl'le
Aeolic migrations had brought it into contact with Ionic: Lesbian differs
absence of concrete evidence) , and more with broader stylistic consider-
fran E. Thessalian in a number of places where it agrees with Ionic, and
ations.
it is highly significant that these places should involve innovations in
Ionic.
It is
So, where E. Thessalian retains original -ti-, Lesbian' with Ionic
has -si-
(ua:rtyve:~ l:O!;;: J«XaLY\JTll:O!;;);
Thessalian has f;v + ace., Lesbian and
Ionic d!;; (<E:v!;;) + ace.; where Thessalian has mnL, Lesbian and Ionic use
TTP6!;, and so on.
Such features are best explained as the result of Ionic
influence on Lesbian, an influence whose continued effects can be seen
throughout the history of the I.esbnm dialect.
~or a different view of the relationship between genre, metre and style,
cf. Pavese 257ff.
The pre-history of the Aeolic dialect group has recently been discussed
1
Cf. Porzig, Risch
GGD,
Chadwick,
GD.
- 48 -
by Garcia-Ranim.
In opposition
to those, such as Wyatt and Coleman who
r
- 49 -
influence may be detected, and whether this influence need have come fran
have sought to deny the existence of anything like a discrete Aeolic
epic or whether it could be due to the effect of the spoken Ionic dialect.
grouping, Garcia-Ram6n argues that the characteristic features of Aeolic
Secondly, there is the question of haw much of the archaic element in the
developed after the Mycenean period, and he dates the fonnation of 'proto-
Lesbian poems must have been borrowed fran epic and haw much could be
Aeolic' to a notional 1220-ll50.
explained in tenus of a native Lesbian tradition.
Fran this original block, there then
separated off arotmd ll25 a group who were to becare the speakers of a
characteristically Boeoti~ dialect: Thessalian and Lesbian share certain
Linguistic Evidence for an Aeolic Tradition.
features where Boeotian has innovated.
The primary linguistic evidence for a specifically Aeolic tradition
Around lCVJO, at the tine of the
migrations, there IIDVed fran Thessaly to the Asia Minor coast speakers of
of poetry is, of course, to be found in the Aeolic fonns in Haner. ·Despite
proto-Thessalian, whose dialect became Lesbian under Ionic influence.
the efforts of Strunk to deny the existence of such fonns, it is hard riot
Garcia-RamOn's theory that the Aeolic group is·a post-Mycenean creation
to accept the view that those elements that are not explicable as either
has been challenged in a review by Dunkel, but here is not the plaoe to
Mycenean, Arcade-Cypriot or Ionic hav'e care fran the Aeolic group.
enter this discussion, since we are concerned with the later develOJ::rnent
deciphennent of Linear B has reduced the number of fonns which are
of the Aeolic dialects rather than their origins.
1
However, the picture
given by Garcia-Ram6n of the break-up of the original block is persuasive,
and the relationship between Lesbian and Thessalian will provide a useful
supplement to our lacunose evidence for Lesbian around 600.
The
···I}(:
specifically Aeolic, but there does seem to remain a residue of fonns which
are IIDst easily explained as Aeolic.
FurtheriiDre, Chantraine writes that
ces elements sont fort anciens comme le prouve leur diversite merne.
Dans les IIDrphemes d I infinitif I par exernple I Horrere emploie a la
fois des suffixes lesbiens, thessaliens et beotiens ..• ; la
prepositio~ no•t est ignoree du lesbien et de l'eolien d'Asie.
Ces faits inclinent a penser que les I eolismes I epiques sont
anterieurs a la grande migration eolienne en Asie. (512)
In this chapter, I shall consider the Lesbian poetic dialect with
particular reference to its relationship with Ionic.
After a fairly brief
discussion of the linguistic evidence for a native Aeolic tradition and a
The same point i~ made by Wathelet at the end of his long survey of
thiS questiOn:
I
enfin 1 1 exiStenCe de traitS OOlienS irreductibleS COnfirme • • •
survey of other theories about the language .of Sappho and Alcaeus, I shall
que les eolismes epiques ne representent pas une facade artificielle
turn to the main enqUiry, in which I shall be concerned with two broad
appli~e
questions.
and Ionic features of the epic dialect were blended together remains open,
Firstly, I shall consider haw far and in what areas the Ionic
1mnke1 objects (1) to the short tine avail9hle for the changes ·Garcia-R;mOn
wishes to plaoe from ll50-1075; and (2) to the negligible East Greek element
in proto-Aeolic (only
LE~,
which is doubtful, and ,1st person plural -lJ,Ev),
which does not well support the idea that Aeolic was a post-Mycenean blend
of East and West Greek.
He sees some fonn of Aeolic in the Bronze Age.
apres .coup' (369).
The question of precisely how the Aeolic
but it would be at least natural if the blend had resulted fran the meeting
and mixing of Aeolic and Ionic poetic traditions after the migrations.
'I
H'
i
!'
-50-
- 51 -
Wathelet's work constitutes the most detailed treatment of the Aeolic
element in Hamer.
He lists nineteen
features as specifically Aeolic
(see 366ff.) : labials from labio-velar + e; retention of -t;i-; retention
of old -ss-; -ri- >-re-in nvooE:n,
'EKLOpEO~
rredial double sonant fran sibilant plus sonant and
Iii
II!
l
OLELn~i
etc.; OnaLPQb, 6BpLE,
-rr- from recent -ry-;
the other hand, one should point out that concem about the alpha
privative did not always have this sort of effect, as is shown by words
like 0/..oxq;, 6.yclA.cotLOL, 6.y0a-t-up (Schwyzer, GG l. 433). l
is not well-attested in Aeolic for the syllabic nasals (cf. Lejeune 197,
Harrm 28f. and Chanttaine i
adverbs Ull:aLfu, &,i.uOL~, 0/../..uOL~i various personal proncminal fonns,
of Lesbian.
11
such as Llivn, •Eoto, I!:E, ape;, (4Jue: etc.; possessive adjectives LEQs, £6~,
ljl
Ow.~,
o- might
s:inply be an Aeolic reflex of m (Chantraine 25), although this a-reflex
barytonesis; datives in -e:cxn by analogy, and in -EEOOL for s-stems; the
I
II
'II
The
DE
s. v. 6-) .
The psilosis remains in favour
1
I
,,
•oto6ECXJL; indefinite relatives, as
OTIL~,
and adverbs with double
2. -pL- > -py- > -Epy- > -Epp- before a vowel (Wathelet 207ff.).
TIE:~,
labials, e.g. cmoo•E; 'eventuellerrent:! ta; the extension of -afu. fran the
This is a most uncertain exclmple, since one of his instances,
perfect to the present; infinitives in -]J£VO.L, -ElJ,EVCX.L, and probably
does not appear in Homer, and the others, feminine nouns in -LELpa (: masc.
IiIIi
-]..l£v, -E]..I£\1; perfect active participles with present endings; &::0.
-LnP) where one expects -•pLa, are of uncertain explanation.
I!
feminine of &::~; tP4; for tEP4;; thematic ~' YE~.
first, he notes that IIpLCll-LL6n~ in Homer has a long first syllable knd
i!
To these he
As for the
I'
tentatively adds NT)/..EU!;, i f it is from
,_;!
II
*NE-E/..E~.JG; rnL5EUEL~,
With -ww-;
we presurre that epic had *IIEPPCll-LLOn; as the original form.
and the use of -oLO as ablative.
li
1.i!
does not usually make position, both of which can be accounted for i f
As Wyatt
points out, however, an alarming number of assurrptions have to be made,
Not all of these are certain, but here I propose to discuss only
I,
i
I
'!
for which there is no evidence, i f this theory is to work
(MLH
l53f.) .
those which Wathelet attributes specifically to Lesbian, of which there
Wackemagel, in discussing the -•ELpa suffix, suggested that it could
are ten in all.
be an Ionic treatment of a Lesbian -•Eppa by analogy with LlJ.ELf:XO : LlJ.Eppw,
etc., but the matter remains obscure.
l. OnaLPQb, OLPLX<lb,
OLELn~
(Wathelet 173ff.).
Wathelet accepts
Ruijgh' s suggestion that the 6- here is fran *sm- in place of 6.-, which
v.uuld have .caused confusion with the alpha privative.
The 6- would
have been created on the analogy Ov- (~) : 6.- (~) :: Q]J.- :
:~;-
= b (6 with psilosis).
since
.
;
i i
l
II
I
X,
The psilosis points to Ionic or Lesbian, and
Ionic has nothing of this kind, Wathelet opts for Lesbian.
On
3. Barytonesis (Wathelet 22lff.).
This appears to have been the
property of Lesbian alone, and is actually marked in the texts of Harer,
though sarewhat sporadically.
Hooker (18ff.) has argued that barytonesis
was not, in fact, a feature of Lesbian in the early period, but that its
appearance in the texts is due to misapprehensions by the ancient
lyrom here onwards, I shall for convenience put references to scholarly
discussions of philological points in the text, for the most part, at least.
- 53-
- 52 grarrmarians.
or Boeotian, but it is likely to have been an early feature of Lesbian,
since the
5. O"t"HG, bmt6-cE etc. {V;athelet 294f.).
It is true that barytonesis is not attested for Thessalian
gra-~ing
It may. be significant
that Lesbian retains the older accusatives in -w for nouns in
-~G,
-~v
is kept.
that Lesbian had a recessive accent around 600.
Homer is uncertain.
2
1
6 . -a8a. transferred to the present tense (Wathelet 3llf. ) •
-L6q;:
in Attic, when the accent is the oxytone, the accusative of these words
is -Lfu, but when the accent regresses,
exclusively confined to Lesbian, except that o-cn [ VEG appears in a
late Argive inscription (Schw. 90.23f., Argos III [ante 251]).
influence of Ionic would not easily have led to a
change CJJNay from the Ionic accentual system.
Such fonns are alrrost
This might suggest
The evidence from
Chantraine concluded that 'les traces de 1' accentuation
All the
evidence for Lesbian is from the poets, but the rarity of this feature
in the Ionic poets other than Homer and its absence from the Ionic
inscriptions suggests it is perhaps Aeolic in Hamer; again, as an innovation, it would presumably be Lesbian.
eolienne dans la vulgate hamerique sont done rares et incertaines' (190f.);
7. Athematic infinitives in -(E)]J£vc:u (Wathelet 316ff.).
Wathelet is rrore confident in them, arguing that the Aeolic accents
Whatever
i
are not simply the result of Alexandrian scholars marking with an
the origin of these fonns, Lesbian alone possesses them, and this is the
appropriate accent words they took to be Aeolic, since many such words do
rrost concrete example of a Lesbian form in Hamer. 1
not carry an Aeolic accent.
If such accents be accepted in the Homeric
~,,.
. I;
vulgate, their origin will be Lesbian.
8. &a feminine of 3E6G Nathelet 354f.).
The absence of this word
: ;~
in Mycenean, Arcade-Cypriot and Ionic suggests, by elimination, that its
4. •oCa6Eaa~ (Wathelet 293f.).
type of declension are the cases of
In Ionic, the only parallels for this
•oCo6Ea~
in Democritus and Hippocrates,
which Bechtel (3.167) put down to imitation of Hamer.
The declension
presence in Rorrer is due to Aeolic, even though there is no early
evidence for Thessalian (&a appears in Phthiotic Thebes in the fourth
century, Schw. 551. [2)).
aE8e:aa~~EAav. 2
The only Lesbian evidence is the uncertain Sa.
of normally indeclinable particles is found in Thessalian as well as in
96.4f;
If Wathelet is right to suggest the word is an
Lesbian poetry, but since •oCo6EaaL is an innovation rather than an
innovation against Wawa, i t would again presumably be Lesbian, but it
archaism (Shipp 80), it is likely that its origin was Lesbian, though
could still have been a general Aeolic form.
•wvaEWVTiv in later Argive sha-~s that such fonns could be created in the
9. t~ (Wathelet 356f.).
spoken language of any dialect by simple analogy.
1
It is not clear whether the absence of the equivalence uu = - in Lesbian
1
I t is difficult to base anything on this
strunk (99ff.) has argued that this -was an archaism, and Coleman writes
rretre is in any way related to the special Lesbian accent, though it is
that it is 'an instance of independent selection from arrong the group of
perhaps unlikely: cf. pp. 29f. above.
fossilized case forms which provided the various Greek infinitives' (76).
2
cf. on this Wackernagel.
Against this idea, cf. Benveniste 129ff.; for literature, Schwyzer, GG 1.806.
2
It is rrore likely that &a is involved here than &6G; cf. Voigt ad loc.
I
II
~
l
~
11'
1
! II
Ii
T
-
- 54 -
fonn, since the relationship between
clear.
te:rx'>G/tcxo6(;/to~
Wathelet suggests that we have in
tp6~;
is by no neans
an exarrple of Lesbian
--
1
influence on Ionic, s]nce it appears in those parts of the Ionic speech-
Lesbian to show
of develOfXll9Ilt.
which we have no independent evidence) may be deduced from its treatment
the evidence is all third century or later, and
•
Homer, and would attribute even rrore to that dialect than does Wathelet.
Starting from the characteristically Lesbian infinitives in
tapa- also occurs once.
(Cf. below pp. 95f.).
The ancient grantllarians
call these 'Aeolic' (Bechtel 52) and Wathelet attributes them to Lesb'ian
because of their appearance in the poems.
he
If, then, we have an Aeolic form which must be Lesbian and, beside
it, a set of fonns which could be Lesbian, is it not rrore likely
that the 'Corrinnn Aeolic' fonns are Lesbian than that they are all
non-Lesbian and no feature save the anparatively rare infinitive
in -]J.Eva.L was ever borrowed from Lesbian? If the Lesbian dialect
influenced Haner's language to this extent, it can, I presume,
have done so in other ways as well; and when we actually encounter
in Homer fonns which may be Lesbian, it seems wrong in principle
to deny the probability that these also originated in the Lesbianspeaking area of Aeolis. (74)
be due to Ionic influence, which would accord with its use in the
yE:A.01; (Wathelet 355).
-]J.Eva.L,
argues as follows:
Whatever the original Aeolic/Lesbian fonn, [po~; in Lesbian is likely to
E':po~;,
so that there may well
Hooker (69ff.) has also discussed the question of Lesbianisms in
evidence is again too late to be decisive: tE:P6!; etc. are regular, but
10. Thematic
Ion:iei~d,
Discussion of this feature, which will
be taken up later, is also harrpered by the fact that the Thessalian
neighbouring Ionic dialects.
Furthenrore, the language of epic
or were replaced by metrically identical Ionic fonns in the later stages
from *isros, if Lesbian's treatment of -sr- (for
of -sl- (cf. Lejeune 239 n.2).
from the Lesbian spoken dialect.
have been many rrore Aeolic/Lesbian fonns, which either became obsolete
On the other hand, as he admits, one would expect
*[ppo~;
Greek poetic language: the Lesbian elements are not likely to have come
appears to have been progressively
area that are close to the Aeolis, but not at places like Miletus, Sarros
or Halicarnassus.
- 55 -
of Lesbian pcet:ry was ilrportant enough to affect the developrent of the
There is a danger of circul-
In favour of his thesis, Hooker also introduces the historical point,
arity here, since this is probably why the grarrmarians assigned them to
that 'the Ionian migration seems to have occurred too early to permit
Aeolic in the first place.
the significant develOfXll9Ilt of an Aeolian epic before the arrival of
Thematic (iy<.U\IQI; in Ale. 403 is not sufficient
to prove that the change to the thematic flexion was a Lesbian feature,
and evidence from Thessalian is missing.
the Ionians in Asia Minor' (71).
The innovatory nature of the
thematic fonns nonetheless points to a post-migration date.
I would agree with Hooker that the epic dialect was formed on the
shores of Asia Minor, but prefer the view that an Aeolic strain was
The number of Lesbian fonns, therefore, is not large, but, despite
developed on the mainland before the migrations.
Thus, in the case of
the uncertainties, the fact that there should be any at all is significant,
possible Aeolic fonns in Homer, we are not dealing with Lesbian or. non-
since it suggests that before the t:il!e of Sappho and Alcaeus the language
Lesbian, so much as with specifically Lesbian and generally Aeolic.
1
I
I
The
II
'•
latter would have been part of Aeolic epic before Lesbian developed as
a d.i screte dialect. · '!'he Aeolic (and Lesbian) elenents will have entered
the Ionic stream on the Asia Minor coast, but this is not the same as
saying that they 'originated' there.
i·'l
- 57 -
- 56 -
Lesbian poetry.
the conclusion that, as far as the manuscript tradition and the papyri
allCM us to see, these forms are authentic: Motoa., MoLoa.tos, i\pEfuLoa.,
Kp8mo',
1
Verdier has examined such forms in Pindar, and comes to
ME5o~OOb;
thematic active participles in -moo.; some third
person plurals active in ·-mm (v}_; and perhaps 1st aorist partiCiples
After Harrer, there is the question of Lesbianisms in Hesiod. '!'here
2
are four possible cases, all fran the work~ and Days: 510 n;~/.;va. (v.l.
"[l;LAvUL), 526 OE(HvU, 696 •PLnH6v.wv, 777
vn
(v.l.
vEt, vRL Cobet, West).
'!'here
are no definite parallels in the poems for odHvu, though there are two
possible ones: in Ale. 364.2, the MSS give o&!J.\Illm, which is unrretrical
and rrost easily corrected, after Blcrnfield, to o&!J.va.; in Ale. 74.7 rrpo~EL
could, as Hanm (161) points out, be a 'Vulg!lrfonn' for *npo~n.
Finally,
Herodian (2.832.36L) quotes -~an, 5~5w, ~EUYVU as Aeolic, so that OE~HVU
is presumably Lesbian (despite Ale. 58.23 •(5noLv).
n;~AVO.(L) could be
Lesbian or Ionic (mAvQ.) from *mAvcrw (Edwards llO, west on op. 510):
there are no similar third person singular forms extant in the poems
(cf. Hanm 162).
vn
Motoa. and -oLoa. are the rrost cami'on· in Greek lyric.
1
Risch explained the -oLoa. forms in Alanan by the ingenious theory
that they are not borrCMings fran Lesbian, but rather were introduced
Of these, •PLnH6v•wv is the rrost certain exanple, since inflected
mnrerals of this sort are confined to Lesbos and Chios (Buck 96).
in -oa.q;;, -oa.wa..
is too uncertain to be of use (cf. West ad loc. and
into the text by Alexandrian editors, who looked to the Doric of
reighbouring Cyrene (home of Callimachus) for help in editing 1\.lcman' s
Doric: in the Alexandrian period, Cyrenean inscriptions show -moo.
participles, which were erroneously introduced into Aleman's text.
'!'his view has been challenged by Hooker (63ff.), who argues that it is
surprising that the 'Doricising' of Alcman's text was only partially
carried through: £x= was changed to EXOLoa., but not Mii'xJa. to Motoa.,
and so on.
Hooker prefers the traditional explanation, that they were
genuine Lesbian forms, specifically on the grounds that Terpander had
been active in Sparta.
I f Lesbian had, by Alanan' s tirre, become a
poetic tradition of scna standing, one might not need to look to any
Wathelet 302 n.32).
single poet as the source; it is odd that only this single rrorphere
Another area of study has been the apparently Lesbian forms in non1It is impossible to go into great detail on this whole question, since
should have been used, but it may have been sufficient to give a
Lesbian colouring to a poem.
we do not knoW when Lesbian replaced each of its original Aeolic forms
with Ionic ones: no•( in Homer is neither Ionic nor Lesbian as we know
them, but it could have been taken fran Lesbian before that dialect
replaced it with Ionic rrpcJ,;.
On this particular example, see further Janko.
20n Aeolic forms in Hesiod, cf. Edwards lOlff. and West, Theogony 82ff.
'!'his question of a native Lesbian tradition has also been discussed
1cf. Verdier 47ff.
. ese f orms are "-oun
'l'h
~ d m
· Alanan, Euirelus, Stesichorus,
Bacchylides, Telesilla and, less certainly, Sirronides.
I,
- 58 - 59 1
from the IX>int of view of certain features in the lang\lage of the Lesbian
poets in the use of carpotmd verbs.
~ts
thanselves.
West argues fran
Lesbian has its own fonn
IIE:p~
IIE~~o
i~
(Sa. 44.16): the fact that
r [
: l
for Priam is proof that the Lesbian
Finally, one should notice Pavese's attempt to reconstruct what
~ts
had been singing of him for sane time and independently of the
may be known of a 'tradizione settentrionale' of Greek poetry, which was
Ionians.
Furthenrore,
separate fran the Ionic tradition and represented in our sources by
Sappho' s II~ appears to be a corrpranise between the sound of
the secondary fonn IlEPfJO.l.IO!; and the metrical value of the original
IlpL~ - a oampranise pecessitated by a ~tic tradition which
made extensive use of fixed fonnulas. A fonnula containing IlpL~,
provided that the IIp was not making IX>Sition, could change its
sotmd in the direction of IlEPfJO.l.IO!;, but the metre prevented the
first syllable fran becoming long. Thus IIE:~ as well as
IIE:PfJO.l.IO!; became established in the Aeolic ~tic language. (GP 191)
Hesiod, sane of the Haneric Hymns, Tyrtaeus, Theognis, Lesbian lyric,
choral lyric and the metrical dialect inscriptions of the mainland.
Pavese tries to flesh out this tradition by collecting those morphological and phraseological elements that are shared by this group but
2
This is an attractive argmren.t, since it is likely that Aeolic IX>etry,
not by Haner.
HONever, not a few of these _, fonnulae' in fact appear
like Ionic, should have used fonnulae and concerned itself with the
in Haner in slightly different fo:r:ms, and the morphological elements he
Trojan War: it was, after all, the Aeolians who colonised the Troad in
instances can often be explained in other ways than as elements of a
the eighth century and 'the Lesbians had a !lOre or less proprietary
northern tradition.
interest in the Heroic l!Onments of the Troad; and am::mg the holiest
main source for this tradition, Hesiod, is using a dialect that is even
of these was the tomb of Achilles' (Page 281).
m::>re Ionicised than Haner.
i ~~
A more ftmdamental objection is that Pavese•&
This he explains as the result of the trans-
mission of the IXlei\1S through Ionic bards, who gradually eroded the
crpJ.L'
of
Rather less convincing is Gallavotti' s theory about the expression'
original character of the works.
Unaa5Eu!;a~oo.
shoon that there are grave obstacles to such an extrerre view, and without
tmo6EUYVUJ.L~
in Sa. 1.9.
This is usually explained as a rare use
with the vehicle rather than the animal (elsewhere only
Plut. Cam. 7).
, I[
Ill
I!
r
Hooever, Edwards's work on Hesiod has
Hesiod, Pavese has little Greek poetry to employ.
I
3
Gallavotti claims that it represents the same operation
as that described in Il. 5. 722
~· 6XEE<JOL, •• 13<UE ..• xiMAa..
The failure to establish a specifically northern tradition of verse
He
explains it thus: 'dOIX> avere attacato sotto i l cassone (Urr.6) la coppia
~e also connects Ale. 357.1 OpT)~ with the e-stern root *apn- fotmd in Myc.
a-re, but this is another very uncertain exanple (cf. Gallavotti,
(6Ei:iyq;) delle ruote (&p]JO.).'
AM
854).
Op]JO. is translated 'wheels' after Myc.
2
a-mo (armo 'a wheel'): 'qui dtmque .•• pennane ancora viva una traccia di
'
Such a procedure also rather presumes that Haner is a kind of treasury
IIi[i
i'
'
of all the Ionic epic expressions.
quello che fu i l significate originale della parola &p]..IO..
1
3
silrplex
6EUYVUJ.L~
I
But the
is regularly used of the vehicle, so the use of
On Pavese, see the highly detailed and critical review by Casadio.
For
the theory, see also Grinbaurn.
Unaa5Eu!;moo. may be no m::>re than an exanple of the freedan shown by Greek
II
!II
- 61- 60 does not affect the contention that Aeolic poetry was composed before
co-existing. 1
Sappho and Alcaeus: there is no reason to suppose that any northern
a number of the features of the language had, in fact, been taken fran
tradition would have been so completely different from a southern one
the epic, though he too otherwise agreed with Ahrens that it was the
that it would be detectable by a simple process of exclusion.
'Volkssprache' of the period (16).
The
Towards the end of the century, M=ister pointed out that
This theory remained much the most
eXistence of Lesbian forms in Harreric epic, Hesiod, Laconian and Ionic
powerful for many years, and fonred the basis for the work of Hoffmann,
lyric oonstitutes broadly based evidence for a Lesbian tradition of sone
Bechtel, SChindler,
2
and, especially, Lobel.
age.
It is Lobel's work that has really dominated the thinking on this
Theories about the Language of Sappho and Alcaeus
subject since its publication in the 1920s.
Even those who may not accept
his thesis in its full fonn seem to agree with its basic tenet.
.The theory about the language of Lesbian poetry for which I shall
be arguing is not entirely new by any rreans.
1
In 1891, Fick propounded
it in its basic fonn, arguing that the archaic and 'ananalous' elerrents
were not always the result of imitation of epic, but were genuine
Lesbian archaisms.
For instance, discussing the genitives singular in
-oLo, he wrote:
Because
of this influence, it is Lobel's writings that I shall most frequently
have to confront, though I do not do. this in a spirit of odium philologicum.
Lobel's own views may have changed since he wrote, but thei
theories are still widely accepted, overtly or by implication, and fonn
the basis of much of the other important work on the Lesbians especially
in this country, so that it seemed profitable to subject them to further
Entnahmen sie diese genitive gelehrter weise dem honerischen epos?
Ja, rnll.ssen denn die alten lyriker nothweridig geschmachlose copisten
gewesen sein? ... Jede dichtungsart erhiD.t ja einen gewissen schatz
von sonst abgestorbenen formen und wendungen am leben. (177)
3
.
scrut my.
In the Introduction to the first book to appear, Earup:)fx; ME:k),
Not all the details in Fick' s argurrent can now be accepted, but I shall be
trying to refine and substantiate his basic insight.
1Ahrens is treated harshly by Marzullo (15ff.) as a dogmatic heresiarch,
but there are elements of his thesis that Marzullo himself accepts.
Pick's article was a reaction to two other influential theories put
forward earlier in the century.
In 1839, Ahrens suggested that the poetic
language of Sappho and Alcaeus was, unlike that of the Dorian poets, the
2The oonclusion of this brief and often neglected monograph is that: 'Das
Melos hat ja alle Zeit unter epischen Einfluss gestanden.
Aber diese
Fonnen sind so wenige,. dass durch sie der rein lesbische Charakter der
Lyrikersprache ni¢ht betr~chtlich beeinflusst wird' (14).
spoken language of the day, unadorned by any literary (and especially epic)
features.
Even the few doublets that he discovered in the texts at his
disposal were not allowed as exceptions to this theory, , since he argued
that it was a feature of spoken languages to have older and newer forms
~or a full survey of this topic, cf. Marzullo, ll5ff.
3As recently as 1976, Rix has written: 'Lesbisch mit Einwirkungen der
epischen Kunstsprache ist die Sprache der Lyrik von Sappho und Alkaios'
(4).
By contrast, the latest writer, Hooker, has opposed Lobel.
- 62 he argued that Lesbian poetry could be divided into three parts.
- 63-
First,
uses ya but not yat:a whereas Alcaeus has both: ya is therefore the proper
there is the bulk of Sappho' s poetry, in which the language is haoogeneous,
Lesbian fonn. 1 Where the poets share two fonns, he posited a 'real or
displaying only fonns which provide 'ample testirrony to a particular
vernacular doublet', as in the case of ntp, TtEPL + consonant.
normal usage, proper to Lesbian Aeolic and sharply distinguished fran
the usage of the Epic and fran the usage of Ionic and Attic' (xxv) .
In its strict form, this approach contains a nuniber of problems.
Secondly, there is a 'small but irreducible residue of poems which,
It is true that, to soma extent, vernaculars do have in principle 'one
although still preponderant:).y confonning to this nonn, yet in certain
way and no rrore of expressing one maaning', but in practice, old and new
points diverge fran it to admit from time to time peculiarities
fonns will exist during periods of change fran one to another.
characteristic of another, and that usually the Epic, practice' (xxvi).
These are the 'abnormal' poems.
1
there are, as Lobel h:imself admits, difficulties in trying to reconstruct
He set these aside from any discussion
a spoken language. fran a poetic corpus.
or reconstruction of the Lesbian vernacular, and came close to denying
their authenticity.
One might argue that all one
use but one fonn, though it is often irrpossible to say whether this was
corpus of Alcaeus' s poems, where the alien fonns are 'distributed •..
actually the vernacular form of the time.
This
I shall argue later tliat sare
of the features claimed by Lobel for Lesbian vernacular speech were in
last group could, therefore, be used to corroborate the evidence fran
Sappho, but could not be used separately.
2
can really say about Sappho is that she has chosen for the rrost part to
The third group, lying between the first two, is the
without reservation over the whole body of his verse' (xxvii).
Again,
fact from the poetic register.
The rest of this Introduction
The difficulties are exacerbated by the
ill
small body of materiai available, and Lobel is surely going beyond the
)'·
was given over to a demonstration of the hcmogeneity of Sappho's language.
limits of the evidence when he concludes that 'in so far as a language
used as a vehicle for literary expression can be non-literary, Sappho's
In the volume on Alcaeus' s poems that appeared two years later, he
language is non-literary and represents, as nearly as the nature of the
broadened his study by a corrparison of the rrorphology and lexicon of the
two poets.
case permits, the contemporary speech of her country and class' (su lxxv) •
Basing himself on the theory that 'a vernacular or spoken,
lif Voigt is right in foilowing Wilamowitz's ascription of Sa. 168c V to
as contrasted with a literary, dialect has in principle one way and no
Sappho (noLxLMe:-raL ]ltv yat:a noA.uc:n:€~) , then even Lobel's paradigmatic
more of expressing- one maaning' (xviii), he tried to show that this was
example would fall.
it is wiser to suspend .judgerrent.
always the case with Sappho and that consequently her language could be
taken as representative of sixth-century Lesbos; by contrast, any
l
2Cf. the wru;ning given by Meillet: 'quand on parle de grec, c'est presque
toujours
ancmalous fonns were always exhibited by Alcaeus.
For instance, Sappho
~ese are Sa. 44, l04a, l05a, c, 106-9, 142-3. Lobel did not say why
these poems and not others in the same rretres should have been different
fran the rest of Sappho' s work.
In the absence of a definitive ascription, however,
I
!
I
a une
langue littE~raire -qu'on pense....
En fait, la plupart du
terrps on ne connatt des langues anciennes que de formes litMraires.
Il
arrive m€!rre que les langues litMraires soient assez eloignees de 1' usage
courant pour ne laisser presque rien entrevoir du parler courant des hormes
qui les errployaient'
(ALG 119).
·r
j---·-
- 64 -
- 65 -
Finally, sorre criticisms can be made of the way in which wbel reacts to
by alien or artificial forms and features....
fonns (and indeed whole poems, if we include the 'abnonnal' class) which
not thus divisible into a normal (Lesbian) majority and an abnormal
go against his thesis.
Too often, resort is had to errendation or to the
presurrption of oorruption, where there is strong evidence in favour of
authenticity.
(Lesbian + Epic) minority. . . .
The relics of Alcaeus are.
The Aeolic of Sappho and Alcaeus is not
a literary dialect' (327).
At times, the method is inflexible and conservative to the
extent that there is no place even for the smallest residue of anomalies,
which might be said to give 'a sanewhat artificial picture of a poetic
or even a vernacular language.
nearly as possible mechanically'
IDbel wished his rules to be applied 'as
(SM
inposing too great a confonnity on
ix), but this would run the risk of
neN
texts, especially of Sappho.
There have been expressions of dissent, however, of a more or less
strong kind.
In 1954, Mastrelli proposed a more flexible view of the
language of the Lesbian poets as an amalgam of, on the one side, a
vernacular poetic tradition, 'che per il suo schema era senza dubbio
arcaica, quantunque dovesse essere poco significativa dal punto di vista
letterario', and, on the other, 'un elezrento dialettale genuino, rna
When Lobel's work carre out, it received justified acclaim, though
denunciante anche tracce di vicende e sviluppi remoti e recenti' (xlii).
one or two reviewers entered caveats about sorre of the nore dogmatic
Shortly afterwards carre the first major attack from this country, i by
aspects.
He appealed to a nodern parallel, already rrentioned by BcMra, of the poet
Turyn, in particular, soon restated with sorre force the case for
Q:mne.
the existence of doublets in the language of Sappho and Alcaeus (llff. ) .
Burns, who, as well as using traditional poetic diction, drew on both the
Nonetheless, IDbel' s thesis was, with one or two refinanents, accepted
spoken English of his day and his native Ayrshire dialect.
by nurrerous scholars.
For instance, Bowra' s brief discussion of Sappho 1s
In using these
last two together in his poems, he was reflecting the actual speech-
language in the first edition of GLP (241) cwed IlRlCh to wbel, though he
habits of his part of Scotland.
retained the idea that certain epic features were present as well; this
not Sappho was closer to the spoken language of Lesbos, in so far as he
was repeated without major alteration in the second edition (23lf.).
reflected the influences of epic, which had penneated the spoken language
Gallavotti, in his handbook, claims IDbel as his basis in the 'Prezressa',
through the educational system.
and his smnnary is in line with this: 'la lingua canposita e in certo
corrpare like with like: is the influence of epic (whatever it may have
senso artificiale dell'epopea omerica ..• cede a Lesbo decisarrente il passo
been)., on the spoken Lesbian language likely to have created a s:iJn:ilar
al dialetto epicorico' (LPE 25f.).
Page, too, took a strongly IDbelian
Gorrme therefore argued that Alcaeus and
One wonders, however, whether this is to
mixture as the linguistic amalgam in Burns as described by Gorrme?
line in Sappho and Alcaeus, where the older scholar's principles eire
frequently invoked to decide a textual point: 'the dialect of Sappho, in
the great majority of the relics, is the Lesbian vernacular, uncontaminated
A rrore sustained and detailed critique of IDbel was made by Marzullo
a few years later.
He examined four poerns whose 'safficita' had been
Ill
-r·
~I
'
,!
~
II
--
;I
r:I
- 66 -
ll
l
i!!l
challenged: one 'spurio' (94D), two 'dubbi' (105a, c) and one 'falso'
(44) ·
II
He aimed to show that the features used to suggest the inauthenticity
of these poems could all be seen to exist in epic and other lyric, so
l
- -
1
l
evidence collected, but I cannot accept the premise on which the
argunent is based, that the epicisms can be separated off as a discrete
conponent beside the vernacular element.
Harrm's Grarrunatik, though
completed in 1951, did not appear until 1957.
that their presence in poans by Sappho should not cause any alann, so
\,
- 67 -
It provides a IIOst
thorough description of the phonology and morphology of the Lesbian poetic
long as 'all' :irrm:lbile concetto di "vernacolo" si sostituisca quello di
dialect, and is quite indispensible.
She too ascribes as many alien
lingua, una dirnensione IIDlteplice; allo schematiSIID epico si sostituisca
features as possible to an epic origin.
la CCIIlplessa realta di una tradizione letteraria, che i1 naufragio di
ogni altro docl.l!rento costringe a definire "anerica"'
(197).
He wanted
The latest substantial worlt on the Lesbian language is· that of
to get away from the standard idea of a Lesbian poetry written in a
Hooker. 1
vernacular with a garnish of epicisms, in favour of a IIDre organic view
of the growth of Greek poetic diction: 'alla dicotomia epica-lirica .••
si sostituisce un sinergismo epico-lirico, l'equilibrio di almena due
filoni fonnali, carat,teristicamente definibili 1' uno per i suoi ante-
He takes the presence of epic phraseology in Sappho and Alcaeus
as a reason for not accepting Lobel's thesis.
I
~.
He also notes the fact
that Lesbian poetry uses different forms of the sarre word in different
metrical situations: 'one of the typical marks of a Greek literary
dialect' (46).
More account is to be taken of the possibility of a
cedenti, l'altro per la sua documentazione successiva' (99).
native Aeolic tradition:
I
II
'I~ -
Though I would not accept Marzullo's method of defending the
authenticity of the Sapphic poems he discusses, nor the idea that Sappho
::
IIi'
\
I
'I
'\··,···.'
I 'I
i
is sirrply imitating epic in poem '44, it will be clear that I agree with
his basic thesis, and it will be part of the function of this chapter
He places Sa. 44 in this Aeolic stream, and explains the alien features
and the next to provide more concrete evidence in favour of it.
in Sappho' s other abnormal poems as the borrowing of 'Homeric prosody
11
and language along with Homeric metre' (76).
I'
:! :
!:
The presence of Aeolic fonns in Homer, above all, strongly suggests
that, as well as a direct borrowing by Alcaeus and Sappho from the
· Homeric poems once these had achieved something like their final
form, there was also inheritance (especially on the part of Sappho)
of poetic themes and language which, by another channel, went into
the mainstream of Homeric verse. (82)
This view that epic :imitation is the cause of the anomalous elements
in Aeolic poetry also plays an irrportant role in two books which appeared
about the sarre tirre as Marzullo's , by Kazik-Zawadzka and Harrm.
Though our methods of
argurrentation differ at a number of points, I fully support Hooker's
insistence upon an Aeolic tradition beside the epic.
The
former collected all the metrical, IIDrphological, syntactical, lexical
and phraseological parallels between epic and Lesbian, in order to give
a corrplete picture of the 'color epicus' of the Lesbian poetic language.
This is an irrportant contribution to the debate, because of the mass of
~or Hooker, cf. Liverpool Classical Monthly 3 (1978) 23ff.
- 69 -
- 68 -
existence it suggests that Sappho and Alcaeus were writing in a poetic
The Linguistic Mixture of Lesbian Verse
tradition endCJNed with its own resources of poetic forms, and that oot
A reasonably good theoretical case can, therefore, be made for
interpretitlg certain alien or
1
all the apparent epicisms need in fact be borrCMings.
abnonnal 1 features of Lesbian poetry as
the retention of the digarrma in certain classes of word: by 600, it is
native, Aeolic fo:rrns ;:-ather than as simply borrCMings fran the epic.
fairly certain that the digamma was no longer pronounced in Lesbian,
There is ancient testimony for poets before the time of Sappho and Alcaeus,
or in Ionic epic or Ionic speech.
and the study of Aeolic metre and the presence of Aeolic forms in Harner
In what follows, I shall treat the
digamma at sare length and then exarrdne the poetic dialect by grarrmatical
and other early Greek poetry suggests that they may have written in a
native idian.
This feature is
category to see heM many other forms might have been Aeolic archaisms
Younger poets hearing archaic forms in the songs of their
and heM many must be due to Ionic influence.
elders would have retained and preserved them in their CMn compositions.
The discussion will not
.
be absolutely exhaustive, since there are a number of 1ntractable cases.
1
In the context of archaic forms, it is worth noting that, for the rrost
part, the
1
epicisms 1 detected in the Lesbians are archaisms: if it were
simply the case that they were borrowing fran the epic tradition, one
•
\
would expect far rrore innovations.
1. The Digamma
The evidence is strongly in favour of the theory that the digarrrna
had been lost in the Lesbian vernacular ca. 60J.
2
I t never appears in
the inscriptions , and in poetry, the facts are as follows.
The difficulty arises when one tries to isolate native archaisms,
InitiallY,
it is generally ignored: it does not make position (e.g. xn~s
Coos
Sa.
since the Lesbians share virtually all the possible candidates with epic.
31.1) and does not prevent elision (o'
The traditional explanation of imitation is thus very attractive.
There are a small mmber of exceptions to this, where there is hiatus
On' the
£Coxnv
Sa. 23.5; cf. Bechtel 13).
other hand, as I have said, the long co-existence of Ionic and Aeolic
before a word that originally had a digarrma, which is not written (e.g.
poetry posited here would lead one to expect many similarities in the
yN;xx;a fuyc., on which see belCM) .
two poetic languages, especially when similar metres are being errployed.
actually written in the texts and guaranteed by the metre is in the
What is difficult is to knCM whether a particular feature, which could
third person pronoun and its possessive adjective.
have been an archaism for Aeolic, was a
has a consonantal force only in auo:m; otherwise, its loss usually leads
1
Gerneingut
1
of Ionic and Lesbian
poetry, or had been borrowed by the latter.
The only place where the digarrrna is
to hiatus (Ci.EL&lv, 6£A.Cw etc., cf. Hamm 29).
M::!dially, the digamma
HanT.l lists a m:nnber of
~or shall I discuss all the scholarship on the Lesbian or indeed Greek
There is hCJNever one feature which appears to be an archaism for
lesbian but which does not have a precise parallel in Homer.
Despite its
isolation (there are one or two other \.Ulcertain cases), by its very
treatments of some of the more disputed features: much material on this
can be found in the works by Wathelet and Garcia-RarrOn.
2an the digarrma in Lesbian, cf. Bechtel llff., 2lff.; Parry; Thurnb-Scherer
92ff.; Hamm 17ff., 23, 29ff.; Wathelet 142ff.; Hooker 23ff.
ancient evidence, Meister 103ff.; Hoffmann 454ff.
For the
j
li
- 70 - 71-
places where there seems to be contraction over a lost medial digamna:
the digarrrna.
Wenn man von den textlich oder etymologisch unsicheren F~llen
absieht, findet sich an sicheren Kontraktionen tlber inl. -f-:
Tiai: , Tiai:Oq; usw. , &loae: ~ , Mj3oA.ov, rrood6a.v, rnap& • , 6vc)p1:aq;:,
:im sek. Inl. ~~, also verhll.ltnism!!ssig wenig tiber die han.
Sprache hinaus. ( 30)
1
What the situation was in epic has been disputed.
2
It
has often been assumed that the digamma was available to the epic poets,
but this argument has mainly rested upon its continued metrical effectiveness, which is to confuse prosodic and phonological questions.
As Parry
However, the etymological uncertainties are greater even .than Hamm allows.
said against those who wished to restore the digamma to the Haneric texts,
E;rrape• and 6vclp1:a~~:: seem very probably to have had a digamna, though
the etymology of the word
s.v. adpw
1).
~s
the formulaic system is sufficiently flexible to withstand something like
not established (cf. Chantraine,
DE
23
the loss of initial digamna.
The Hesychian gloss &lBaxov· OOKcru T\ {Jp6vov seems to
Perhaps some feeling for the lost consonant
remained, 'but only as a factor which justified the irregularities
guarantee a digamna in the case of
&Jooe:~.
By contrast, raeja in
which the diction irrposed' (399) .
Mycenean and A.ao(~::) in Cypriot make a digamna unlikely in Mj3oA.ov, as
does Myc;
posidaijo
931 s.v. rroodfulv).
DE
850).
etc. for IICXJe:Cc5av (Chantraine,
The situation with
nO.~~::
DE
609 s.v. A.Oa~:: and
is quite obscure (Chantraine,
Despite the uncertainties, therefore, there is evidence of
contraction over a lost digamma, though it has not gone very far.
3
Arguing fran a different set of evid'-
ence, Jeffery (66) suggested that the digarrrna, though lost in the spoken
.
language, may still have had a restricted use in poetry.
In the Ionic
abecedarium, which was eventually preserved in the 'Milesian' alphabetical
number system (fonred probably in the second half of the sixth century),
In
the digamma continues to feature, whilst
san,
which was equally obsolete
post-consonantal position, the digamna is lost without any change to the
preceding vavel (Kci>..o(;:, ]J.6vov,
~,
COO!:: etc.) .
The few exarrples where
I
in the Ionic abecedarium, did not survive into the Milesian system.
It is possible that this rare use of vau, perhaps confined to verse,
was not unknown in Ionia also, even as late as the sixth century,
and so may have provided same faint shadow of justification for the
retention of the letter in the abecedarium, until it was fixed there
firmly once and for all by the establishment of the so-called
the vowel is lengthened (n'Epc)xwv Ale. 345.1, etc.) may be put dCJNil to .
Ionic influence.
Lastly, before r, the digamma appears in two guises:
initially, in certain words, it is written B and makes position; after a
prothetic vawel it appears as u (e:\jpnEe:), as part of a diphthong.
Of this,
there is no trace in the inscriptions.
II
~athelet dates its loss to ca. 950-900 (148f.).
2
For discussion and bibliography, cf. Chantraine 116ff. , Edwards 132ff.
3
That it is ignored for metrical purposes and that contraction should
4
I cannot accept, for reasons which will be=e clear, Parry's view of the
digartrna in Lesbian: 'the ancient critics had observed the s:imilarity between
Lesbian and the other Aeolic dialects, and they had found, somewhere in
have started where it has been lost intervocalically, is sufficient to
suggest that the digamma was no longer pronounced in Lesbian by the time
of Sappho and Alcaeus.
The same would also appear to be true of spoken
Ionic, since the inscriptions fran the earliest period show no traces of
these other dialects in sane form or other the diga:rrroa which would correct
what they thought were the metrical faults of Sappho and Alcaeus' (402).
~is
need not mean F was pronounced: 'it is not natural for illiterates,
learnL1g fran an outside source an automatic mnemonic recitative and a row
of letters, to reject at once the
r~
and letter for which their dialect
has no use - though they may not use the letter in practice' (Jeffery 326).
- 72-
- 73-
'Milesian' alphabetic numeral system. (326)
survived longer than elsewhere.
1
It is here that the digamma is JIDst
She supports this idea with exfii!~Ples of digarrma from early Naxian and
consistently 'observed' in Rorrer: there are sare 600 cases of hiatus
Athenian inscriptions (both dialects where the letter was no longer in
before these words, and sorre 140 of a final closed syllable being
regular use) , but the exarrples are not corrpelling, since the diganmas
lengthened.
do not represent true original ones, but sirrply transitional consonants,
indirect trace of the letter is preserved in the orthography of the
I~
whose very use suggests that the proper use of the letter had been long
manuscripts: ephelcystic nu is not added to words with a final open
',i:
:rlr
Again, • (f)e, · (f)m are the only words in Rorrer where an
I
!
~!
forgotten.
1
syllable that stand before them: OO.'Lt: ol, x£ ol etc.
A similar state
of affairs can be reached for the poss,:,ssives by the deletion of 6', y'
The strongest evidence against the pronunciation of digamma in epic
poetry is to be found in Hesiod's text: his practice, as Edwards has
shown, is quite at variance with the idea that the letter was available.
If it had been regularly sounded, then one would expect a poet like Hesiod,
who used the digamma in his everyday speech, to have made JIDre use of
so familiar a feature than an Ionic poet.
is the case.
In fact, quite the opposite
Not only does Hesiod show a greater proportion of
'neglects' to 'observances' than Rorrer, but digamma is also regularly
ignored •in close association with a feature which we have reason to
· think may be a Hesiodic innovation' (Edwards 134: he carpares Op • 564
1POTIDG f]e:A.Cmo).
Furthenrore, when he adapts a Homeric fonnula, he does
so without regard to the digamma (e.g. Th. 295 ouo~v EOLx6G: Il. 1.47
etc.: ouo' oi5 > o6 oi5 and so on.
Edwards allCMs that the digamma maY
have kept its consonantal force longer in these words, and quotes
Hoekstra's theory that initial digamma had been lost just before Homer's
tirre.
2
This theory is based mainly on the speech of Zeus in Il. 24.144ff.
and its repetition by Iris in 17lff, and especially on the pair 154
56
QEE:L 1 183 6b a' QEE:L:
Though Greek syntax often leaves the grammatical object to be
understood from the context, here both rretric and the exact
parallelism of the other expressions strongly suggest OG QEe:L
reflects 5b F' QEe:L. (43)
HCMever, this is a great deal of weight to place on one exarrple, and the
case is based upon a m.nnber of unargued assumptions about the date of the
twenty-fourth book.
3
ClG Q.Ee:L is explicable in terms of the desire to
preserve the close parallelism between the speeches, and hexarreters
beginning u-- are not without parallel.
Since much of the evidence from Lesbian concerns them, it will be
1For epic practice, cf. Chantraine 146ff.
It may be, as West has suggested,
Mastrelli has suggested that F
was kept in Lesbian in these fonns 'probabilrrente per ridargli un poco di
as well to discuss the pronoun and possessive adjective of the third
consistenza fonetica e per evitare confusione con omofoni' (xv), but this
person, where it has been argued that the initial digarrrna may have
is unlikely, once the digamma had been generally lost elsewhere.
1cf. Cifm;&p in a pentarreter (Schw. App. I.2 [p. 383], Athens VI rned.;
2
cf. Edwards 138 n.48; Hoekstra 43f.
cf. IG 1(2).1012, ca. ?550); afu"t5 in an iambic line (Schw. 760, Naxos VI).
3
van Leeuwen 124 actually used this exaJ1l?le to prove that the digarrrna had
survived in the epic dialect.
On Hoekstra, see further Kirk's review, 738.
T
._,
- 74 that after the digarrma had ceased to have any effect on the metre it
continued to be pronounced as a stop, but even so, this would not
account for the Lesbian evidence.
1
- 75 -
I
Source: P. Oxy. 7, 3rd. cent. A.D.
I
obviates hiatus.
Metre: Sapphic stanza.
Digarrma
2. Sa. 99.ii.2 <~Ale. 303A.c.2V) jF •• nn[ (FWv ?)
P.Oxy. 2291, 3rd. cent. A.D.
Metre unknown.
Looking at the matter in a wider perspective, one would expect a greater
it
3. Ale. 147.2 ·
usage of this digamma in the rest of Greek poetry, if it had really
survived in epic recital
, pronoun, diganma is usually placed "Where it is metrically effective,
but only in Theocritus does it actually make position; in Attic, this
I
In all other words the digamma does not count as a consonant ... in
iambics .•. in dramatic lyrics ... and in Nonnus.... I t may have
consonantal force in same poets, particularly ... Ibycus, Pindar,
Bacchylides, Epichannus, Callimachus (rarely), Theocritus. But
in none of these writers is this obligatory. (Maas 82f.)
ii. Attested in grarrmarians.
1. sa. 164
I
I
rule does not apply.
Metre and function unknown.
In all three cases, the digarrma is clearly written F.
only in Aleman and Corinna does initial digamma always have the force of
In the third person
,!'
F. [
P. Oxy. 2295, 1st. cent. A.D.
~d even gone into Homeric texts. 2 As it is,
a full consonant "When it stands before a vowel.
]~~;;·
i
•ov
Fov
nn~5a x6AE~
Ap. Dysc. Pron. 1.107.llff. (Schneider)
I
in a discussion of
demonstrate the contention that ALOAE~G ~·a •oD F
yEVQG.
The rretre is uncertain.
as,
xa•a n5oav
£6~;:,
n•Wa~v
to
xat
Gallavotti (SLG 106) argues for the
Sapphic stanza, since he thinks that all Apollonius' s examples were taken
principally from the first book of Sappho's poems and also from the
One may say,. therefore, with sare ·confidence, that the digarrma was
no longer pronounced around 600 either in Lesbian or Ionic speech, or in
Ionic epic recital.
second.
1
If he is correct, the digarrma is making
position~ Otherwise,
the ·fragment could be the start of a glyconic line xx-uu- ••••
The presumption must be that examples of this letter
in Lesbian verse are archaisms preserved in a native poetic tradition.
To the evidence for this, I now pass.
'Ap. Dysc. Pron. 1.82._14ff. on o't: AtoAE~G aW •w~ F.· The metre could
again be the Sapphic and the digarrma would be obviating hiatus.
not clear "Whether this fragment is really distinct from Sa. 31.1 qnLVE•aL
A. Initial.
i. v1ritten F in papyrus texts.
1. Sa. 5.6
It is
HO.t
~LNo~a]~ Fo~a~ x~ YEVEo8a~
lwest, Theogony 442 on the accentuation £cir.J ot.
_/
2
That it went into the earliest Hamer texts is argued by Stanford lvi f.
].10~
xf1VQG, though it should be noted that Sappho does repeat phrases
1Gallavotti makes quite a good case, but in soiue cases he has to go to
same lengths to make the quotations fit his theory, especially with
Sa. 129, which must be emended and divided between two stanzas (for other
possibilities, cf. LP and Page,
SLG
155).
~
\\1;
g
- 76 -
- 77-
from poem to poem (Bowra, GLP 232) .
3. Ale. 349a
i
l
There are two further examples where the digamna is not actually
written, but where it might still be read.
.•• &'x:n:E a£wv U11c5' E\1' 'OA.UJ.l1tLWV
A.fu" a:re:p rtae:v
6. sa. 1.19
Ap. Dysc. Pron. 1.76.32ff. ~~ 5•L xat
xa•a
•o
•PLLO\I npOa.nov rrpoavE)J.E•m.
•o A(oA.Lx0\1
6~y~~
xat •ot~
The MS (cod. A) reads A.ooe:a.•EP
presence of the letter.
1
and Apollonius' s q::mrent guarantees the
is unlikely, because of the hiatus; Edrronds's A.fu' a:tEp 1 printed by LP
-~L
1
The papyrus appears to give • ] ..
oavrivEaoav or xaL r:xcdlvEaoav.
AorH,
I f the line did
begin ChiJ a' O:vnv, which is cx:mpatible with the traces, then Edrronds's
E:~
Heyne emended A.ooe:a.•Ep · to A.Oaa.L chEp 1 but this
q'aynv E:~ Fav ~LA6•a•a
This is a much discussed passage.
then the MSs··offer
yE8e:v: yE8e:v is easily corrected, since digamna is often represented by
gamna in the gramnarians',
~
Fav provides s:inple sense and is an easy correction. Fav would then
stand in indifferent position.
An uncertain case, which dces not affect
matters a great deal.
and Voigt, gives gl 2c rretre and the digamna would be making position.
7. Sa. 137.1 aEACil
.~
,· ECnnv
4. Ale. 358. 4V oouu y® xe:qrlA.o;v xa•C-
.il
-,:
Arist. Rhet. l367a9.
Demetrius Lacon, Poem. 2 cal. 64 (p. 93f. de Falco).
•ov
M=tre: 2gl ia (Voigt);
F- stands in indifferent position at the start of the second glyoonic.
'i
The ,· might stand for a diganma here, but it
I
•I
could equally well be an enclitic (Page 105; cf. IDbel, AM lxxxv).
There
is perhaps little need to change the text.
i'IlI
5. Ale. 363V v00\1 5€ ra.Uuu I~ aEfJPEL
Ap. Dysc. Pron. 1.80.15f. discussing fo:rins such as
I ~I
eu'
The only words in which the diganma is certainly written, therefore,
aULaL: O,U..'
E:]Jd.xE•o •6· v&u 6' E:a.U•w mll.mav aEPPEL, &te:p 6oUvr]aE~ E:v c'xrtA.6U]n
•o e rrpoo~EL\1. 'Credideris apud Ap. Dysc. One:p 6oUvr]aE~
\.11i ouxt •o f rrpoo~EL\1 scribend., ut rronet Bergk, n(l!ll sic
omnia evadunt' (LP) .
il
wi oUx.t
are the third person pronouns and possessive adjectives.
Parry (402)
E:v c'xrtA.6"tlln
suggested that this might be because the editors were following Apollonius,
luce clarius
who only dealt with these 'iKJrds, but P.Oxy. 2295 (1st century A.D.) pre-
Ahrens is probably right to correct to Fa.U•w.
v6:u
is obviously wrong, and Bast's v6ov gives Sapphics and the digamna avoids
'I'
dates him, so that it is possible to take this as a genuine feature of the
text of the Lesbian poets.
hiatus.
~arry (401) explains this ganma as the result of the discovery of or report
B. Intervocalic, written u.
about an Aeolic dialect in which the diganma had been velarised, which the
'.1
Alexandrian editors (and Balbilla) read back into Sappho and Alcaeus.
1. sa. 22.5
Jy aUiBnv
However, no extant dialect shows anything like this, and the ganma is
~or a corrprehensive list of emendations, bibliography and discussion,
\I
prestmably the result of the similarity in shape of the two letters (Buck 47).
cf. Saake 54ff.
I,I
'I!
~ i!
- 79 -
- 78-
On the other hand, there is a dcu1ger with such arguments of basing
.
2. Sa.99.ii.22 (=Ale. 303A.c.22V) auaoEc(
oneself on the premise that any feature in Sappho and Alcaeus which stands-
3. Ale. 259a.ii.ll (=IA 34a.llV) auOoEEC(
In none of these cases is it certain whether the first syllable is a
diphthong (Voigt) or equivalent to 6.F- (LP).
In number 2, the first
syllable of the other extant lines is always long, but we do not knCM
alone should be considered corrllpt: it is not
unlikel~
that such an
archaic form should have survived, especially as this word is one found
much !lOre in poetry than in prose.
Further=re, Hiersche is too ready
h
:j
,,
to take the poems as evidence for the spoken dialect: by omitting the
what the ·metre is.
possibility that the poems might contain archaisms, he begs the very
question that needs to be answered.
4. Ale. 70.12
6.ua:rav
5. Ale. lOB.7
)aua•aLa' w(
1
Finally, it is noteworthy that the
granrnarians have not introduced the digarnna wholesale into the Aeolic
~. lI
poems.
6. IA 25B V (om. LP; cf: Voigt ad lac.) 6.txhav
1:
I'
,ill'
Given the uncertainty surrounding 1-3 and the fact that we do not knCM
the etyrrology of
a.u66n~,
I shall concentrate on the exarrples of aua•a,
where there is rio question of a diphthong.
pounded tO explain thiS Spelling
atxha repondant
a att.
o
Two theories have been pro-
Lejeune writeS that
;~, toujours scandee
I
la fOrtre eolienne
uu- chez Alcee et Pindare, ..
parait n 1 etre qu 1 une graphie des papyrus et manuscrits pour 6.Fc:ha (sans
gemmation)
1
(182 n.5).
dass die Forrrel
I
d~
1'':
By contrast, Hiersche, whilst allowing that
aua•av :ihr Vorbild in der 1!.olischen Lyrik gehabt
haben kann [sc. for Alcmim.], muss deshalb nicht bestritten werden 1 (46),
seems more inclined to follow the suggestion of Harrrn (23), that the
form is due to later editors.
Since there is no good evidence for inter-
l!i
I prefer, therefore, the view, that the upsilon represents a
I'
l
phonetic rendering of the digarnna, and was used perhaps on analogy
with the upsilon found in words with a diphthong from original -sw- (alx.u!;;,
vaUo!;, etc.).
If aua•a is a genuine case of the preservation of the
intervocalic diganrna in Lesbian poetry, then once again we have an archaic
feature for which there is no precise parallel in Haner.
are only OfJv:J, aaa•ov,
a~.
In epic, there
Intervocalic digarrrna does appear as upsilon,
but always in a diphthong: a6(axoL (<*6.F(FaxoL, Il. 13.41, hapax),
f}A.Eoo•o, btLoEun~, etc. (cf. Chantraine 159).
~XEUE,
Iri many cases in Harer,
a form without the diphthong would not fit metrically.
vocalic digarrrna elsewhere in Lesbian, he wonders whether original Lesbian
C. Initial digarrrna
*6.cha may not have becane 6.u:ha (a form found, for instance, in Pindar)
frequent use of the diganrna.l
After a review of the ancient evidence, he concludes
1. Trypho, Pass. ll (=Ale. 410) npoar(8nm •o o(yawa rrap6. -rE
1
allem Anschein
nach ist der Angabe der Gramnatiker "1!.olis~" bei Wl}rtern mit au vor
Vokal mit Skepsis zu begegnen 1 (47): cf. Wathelet 150 n.ll3, who takes
the form as a hyperaeolism.
r
i. written as u
because of a theory held by later grarrrnarians that the 1 Aeolians 1 made
1
+
1
cf.
Ic<XJL
h':LS claim that initial digarnna before r was preserved in the spoken
language.
Against this, see belCM and Hooker 27ff.
'.,
I i
!
--
·:~
~.
'•¥
~~
-so-
- 81-
Kat AtoA.e:ucn.... rrpcx:n;We:aOL 5E l:O'C!; 6Jt6 QXIJVllEV"tWV
nop' AAxaCw~
•o PilE~~::
oGpnE~~:: e:Cpn•a~.
C. Lascaris and Blomfield errended to
OoXOJlEVO~!::·
0rra& OE
(The MSS also read pnE~~::, qpnE~~::l.
FpfiE~~::,
3. Sa. 102.2 nai:Oo!;; Sp:t.OLvav
(so MSS).
Ia gl ba; no function.
which is presU!TI3bly what
Alcaeus would have written i f he had J.llarked the letter.
It would thus
~ OO!J,av
4. Ale. 129.22
6».0. SpmoCWG
Alcaic stanza, line 2; digamna makes position.
(so pap.)·
Contrast Ale. 34a. 7 Ma.
1
.[
constitute an interesting exarrple of the digamua being written phonetically,
beside the use of beta in the rest of the gramuatical tradition (see
below) .
Why Trypho shoul<f have preserved a different fonn is not clear,
5. sa. 57.3
.
o'lm tmcrtCX!llva 1:a Sp:ixe:' (so MSS) .
Gl 2c; 1uakes position.
Cf. od. 14.512 1:a
oa paxe:a.
but there is no reason to doubt its authenticity.
6. Sa. 96.8
2. Ale. 179.2
P. Oxy. 2295.
e:GpnEe:
owl:OG 6. SPcOo&lx•uA.ob (so pap.) ·
Cf. od. 5.121 £A.e:1:o ~1:uA.cx.; ··HW!;.
Gl in cr 3gl ba; no function.
Cf. Hcxteric EPPnEe: (Chantraine 177).
1:e:~~o~
7. Sa. 96.13
3. Ale. 350.4
e:(Jptx:xm
6E l3p66a
(so pap.).
Metre as in 6; makes position.
This is Lobel' s correction of the MSS
plxxxaea~
, with inverted word-order.
8. sa. 55.2
Cf. Hcxteric EPPOOal:O.
ne:oexe:~~::
End of gl 2c; redundant.
These last two words have a parallel in the following fonns in Hcner,
Sp65wv.
In fact, the MSS read s:ilrply P6fuN and the editors
add the beta.
which are fairly certainly Aeolic: "taAa4;:nvQb (< *•aAa.Fp-), 6no'\)po.(;,
l«lA.a.Upona, though· as the Homeric forms quoted beside the Alcaic ones shew,
when the word is part of a rrorphological system, the Ionic version is
used in epic (cf. Chantraine 158) .
Kat SP[60wv
9. Sa. 94.13
(so pap.).
start of gl; no function (the supplement is Schubart's).
~Cvwv, J3p65o~o~.
10. Sa. 2.6
Sapphic stanza, second line; no function.
ii. Written as 13
1. Sa. 115.2
has MAI\IA'IBPOIDIE.
0pnax~ SnoBLVW~
2
Pher d; digamma makes position.
Reading as in LP; the ostrakon
(so MSS).
11. sa. 53
Cf. Il. 23.583 tx€
2. Ale. 304.ii.9 (=Sa. 44A.b.7V)
13Paf>Cvo~~::
PaB~vnv.
E:ne:S.[ (so pap.).
SPoOoruixe:e:~::.
Gl2c; start of line.· Again, .the beta is an editorial addition: the MSS
have Po&r (Schol. Theoc. 28, p. 334 W).
2
?Gl d; initial.
The rrost recent discussion of this feature is by Hecker (27ff.) ·
jl
- 82 He notes that this beta "is not found in all cases of words with an
I
original wr- (cf. Ale. 129.20 puE68o.L etc.), and that there is no trace
of it in the inscriptions.
tI
He therefore follows Ahrens (33ff.) in seeing
- 83function oould either be, as Hooker says, false extensions of the beta
or true archaisms sinply used to no purpose other perhaps than giving
a poetic flavour to a passage.
1
it as a purely scribal featlire, which was u5ed originally to mark the
lengthening of a preceding syllable, and was then erroneously extended
to words in positions where it was not needed.
A further problem, of oourse, is why beta is used and not the actual
In Sappho and Alcaeus,
digamna, as in the papyrus texts.
the beta makes posL lion in four of the nine relevant cases, and is
Lejeune interprets it as a represent-
ation of an actual labialised pronunciation: 'la notation ~p- (fr9guente
redundant in five, though in only three of these do the MSS have it.
1
dans la tradition des poetes lesbiens et dans les gloses eoliennes)
indique une prononciation vr-' (157; cf. 178).
Hooker takes the lengthening of a syllable before
(w) r-
as an
I
exploitation of the possibility of treating initial r- as a double
consonant, which is found generally in Greek poetry (cf. Maas 80f.).
In the light of what has been said about the diganrna so far, one might
2
This is unlikely,
since it is odd that such a prpnundation is only found in a few words:
e;\Jpn[;E, e:(JpUooo do not suggest a labial.
Furthenrore, to accc:mrrodate a
labialised sound, one would have to posit a unlikely sequence of sound-
rather suggest that the cases where beta makes position are actual
changes for a period when the digamna had been or was being eroded in
3
the rest of the language: /wr/ > /vr/ > /wr/ > /r/.
I prefer to take
archaic fonns, which would originally have been written with the digarrma.
the beta as a scribal feature, but it is only possible to guess about its
Such a view would explain why it is that, when initial rho is treated
l.rbe words involved are: 13PaL6Cux.;;, ~p66ov, !3P&xe:a, i3P&OL\IOG; ~U"t"<oP, ~puU)p,
as a double consonant in other poets, it is only in Sappho and Alcaeus,
~unG, ~Cl:a, ~G: cf. Chantraine, DE and Frisk s.vv.
Most
uncertain are ~G (a fictious example? cf. the Compendium's list
that a letter is used to mark the fact: this type of lengthening is
of -e; vocatives for nouns in -ng: lli»q::a1:e:, 'l\pLOLOqnvE, An].J.6afu:ve:) and
fairly uncc:mron in Pindar
(cf. Snell-Maehler· 2.174), but the MSS do
not have any special sign for it.
~pjDLvQG (cf. Hsch. ~pafuvC(:EL • pmC6e:L, nv::loae:L).
It is also worth noting that, although
thP.re are uncertainties about· the etyrrologies of the words which have this
~uU)p, i f oonnected
with gpUJ>, had a digamna (cf. Horn. auepuoo;v), but H with ~pU].JO.L, there
is a problem, since this word appears to have had a digamna, but there is
no trace of it in Greek.
beta in the poems and the granmarians, the beta appears not to be added
to any word which certainly did not have an original initial digamna.
If
2Cf. Buck 51: • Fp appears as ~p, indicating a pronunciation vr, in Lesbian
words quoted by grammarians and in our texts of the Lesbian poets.··, though
this is oorrect, it would further suggest that these exanples of rretrically
this has become sinply p at the tirre of our earliest inscriptions'.
effective f3p- were genuine archaisms: those cases which have no metrical
this, cf. Ahre11s 3::Sf. , Hoffmann 460f. and Hooker 27ff.
1
cf. for the ancient evidence Meister l06ff. and Hoffmann 459ff.
3Agaii'st Meister • s argument for a labial pronunciation fran th~ Lesbian
'rhe la·tter
lists all words with this initial f3p-, even When they are not ascribed to
any particular dialect.
toponym Bpfiaoa., cf. Chantraine,
DE
s.v. ~f]ooe;Lv.
i'
Against
I
I
I
I
I
I~
II
- 85 -
- 84 origin.
Beta is used for the digamna elsewhere in Greek,
(i) in La=nian
alternative is, with Boivin and LP, to read the rare epic word &Ka:v,
fran the fifth century, and Ln Cretan, Argive, Corcyrean and Elean (Buck
which can be extracted from cod. P of Longinus.
47; cf. Lejeune 55, 178), and (ii) before initial r in sane words in
however, is the hiatus, which led Page (24f., after Lobel) to reject the
Boeotian (e.g. Bp:xvC&:x.!;, 13Pil.LLG).
reading.
Neither of these is any help for
1
What concerns us here,
On the other hand, the MSS are in favour of it: P and the
~a;ye;
Lesbian, unless we are to =nceive the gramnarians using them as an
apographae of Longinus give y/-.&:xxJ.
analogy to represent a somewhat unfamiliar letter in their texts of the
virt. 8ld) read yNJ:f:xXJ. ye; A.e:n:-cov, from which the EA =uld have been lost
Lesbians (sarrewhat unliKely, perhaps) .
by haplography.
Not much rrore likely \'.Duld be
and the MSS of Plutarch (Prof. in
Hiersche (5) suggested that YAWaoa Eo;ve niight have cane
the suggestion that they used beta on analogy with the Sp- that is
from a non-Haneric, Aeolic epic tradition on the basis of HSd. op. 534
characteristic of Aeolic for words with original *mr- (13pcrc6!; etc.).
viil-ca
It is no doubt better simply to note that, if the grarrmarians were not
fonn preserved after the loss of the digarrma in the spoken language by
going to use the digamna itself, then beta was the best substitute: the
the sane process that led to such hiatus in epic.
~aye; •.
One might simplify that and say that it is merely a poetic
2
alternative upsilon \'.Duld have appeared to add a syllable to any word it
appeared in (**tJpO<Sov etc.) .
1
2. Sa. 94.3
-c65"
~e:Ln.[
Similarly, the use of beta with the third
'Alrrost certainly not rightly read' (Lobel,
AM
xlviii); but there is no
person fonns studied above would have produced the equally barbarous
doubt about the papyrus reading.
**i3ov, **13e:8Ev, **13m.
For another exarrple of hiatus in this
As a parallel to the use of different letters to
verb, conpare
represent the sane sound, one may canpare the Latin /k/ represented by
3. Ale. 120.4 a]nue:Cnn[
C, K, Q.
and, for hiatus in canpmmds and after an augment
4. Ale. 129.17
EnLE~OL
D. Hiatus: digamna not written.
5. Ale. 356
Ea.\IClOJe:
In the light of the above, one may look briefly at places in the
texts where a lost digamna has left a hiatus: these are often emended
or attributed to epic practice, but they =uld equally well be native.
1. Sa. 31.9
aAAU
The following Sapphic example provides an interesting contrast to
Alcaeus's &loae:L (ll3.5); the orthodoxy would lead us to expect Sappho to
have the fonn without the hiatus:
~ ~E\1
YAWaoa
~aye:.
6. Sa. 73a. 7
A celebrated crux, with problems both at the start of the line and in
the hiatus.
At the start, the MSS readings point to
6).)..h. ~ ~E\1;
the
~ere is in fact an isolated example of upsilon for digamma in uepywv
on a third-century Cretan inscription in prose (GDI 5072b.5, 8).
] .€\Ia fuoa[
~age also disliked the use of xa.-ccl;yvUJ.LL to mean simply 'break': but:·.Lesbian
may have used the conpound differently fran other dialects (cf. p. 143).
2
Nagy takes the phrase as onanatopoeic: 'hiatus is the very factor that
creates the special effect ... the fonn is arranged in such a way that it
symbolizes what it means' (45).
The hiatus is now
~efended
by Ford-Kopff.
r
t
- 86 7. Ale. 347.1
Me:Uirovc.
oC'\.\:U~
- 87 that the forms with the digarrma do not appear to have depended on epic
Both singular and plural are well-attested in the MSS, but the singular
means that a native source is possible for other archaisms which we
is Irore likely to have becane plural than the other way rmm.d (Parry 403
knCM to have existed in Aeolic.
n.l) and should be kept.
where Ionic has influenced the poetic language, in order to illustrate
I shall also be concerned to show
tl1e dialect mixture of the poems of Sappho and Alcaeus, and consideration
8. Ale. 357.8
Tq:XDno5'
This is the reading of
uoo
<;:00· -A
~pyav
will be given to the question of how far it was Ionic epic that affected
of Athen. 14.627.
Various emendations have
been proposed, but given all that has been said so far, the neat Tq:XDncn;'
600
~pyav
is by no means ruled out.
1
Ionic vernaculars.
In the various sections, Ionic features will be
discussed first, then the Aeolic ones.
This lengthy discussion of the digarrma suggests that Lesbian poetry
retained certain archaic uses of it, which were quite independent of
anything similar in epic.
the language of t.'Ie poems and heM far it might have been the spoken
Since the digarrma seems to have lingered
longer in Lesbian than Ionic, this is not surprising.
Discussion of these is rendered problerratic partly by uncertainties
over etyrrology, and partly by the effects of analogical pressures within
Of the various
categories, the third person pronominal and adjectival forms have the
best claim to being genuine Lesbian archaisms, with the words in i3pa close second; 6.ua:ro. is also a likely candidate.
2. The Labio-velars
These archaisms, then,
oonstitute the Irost important piece of rrorphological evidence that not
all the poetic features of Lesbian poetry carne from epic.
related groups of 'NOrds.
Broadly, the developrrent of them in the Greek
dialects is labials before a , o and consonants, and dentals before front
VCMels, except in Aeolic and Cypriot, where labials are also found before
the front VCMels.
1
The labio-velars have not been assimilated in
Mycenean, which leaves little time for Garcia-Rar!On 's theory that the
assimilation to labials took place before the Aeolic group split up (6lf.):
there is no reason why it should not have happened separately in proto-
In what follCMs, I shall discuss the phonology and Irorphology of the
Lesbian poems by category, in an attempt to disoover how many elements,
which are usually referred to as 'alien' or 'epic', might have belonged
to a native poetic tradition.
In Irost cases, these features can be
paralleled in Harer, so that certainty is not possible.
However, the fact
Boeotian and proto-Thessalian.
Lejeune (50f.) dates the palatalisation
in the other dialects fairly late: even in the fifth century, Arcadian
has a special sign (lA,) for palatalised *kwe-.
For Rix, the development
is as foll<:Ms:
~fore
u, the labio-velars give a yelar stop, but we shall not be ooncerned
~ooker (25f.) would keep &rrO, arguing that Urul. is a. gramnarian's creation,
with this aspect.
on the analogy of xo:rci: cf. UriC. in W. Greek and Urra.C in. Haner.
of his 'mittlere Merkmale' of 1200-900); Wathelet 63ff., Lejeune 43ff.;
However,
I do not see why they should have wished to create such .a fonn: xa:rci is
not regular Lesbian and thew. Greek fonn is hardly to the point.
theless, Alcaeus oould have used both
al fonn.
um
and
un6,
None-
which is. the iriscription-
In general, see P.eichelt; Risch,
wyatt, ARLH; Szemerenyi, LV; Arena, CLV.
GGD
97f. (they are one
- 89 -
- 88 Die historische Entwickhmg l&sst sich vielleicht so denken, dass
sich in Griechenland gegen Ende .des 2.Jtsg.s v. d!e Palatalisierung
der Labiovelare vor den palaten Vokalen /e/ und /i/ bei deren
gleichzeitiger Labialisierung in den Ubrigen Positionen ~usbre~tete.
Diese Welle erreichte die 1:\.ol. Dialekte erst, als dart d~e Lab~o­
velare schon (fast) alle labialisiert 1.>1aren. (88)
Given the uncertainties about date, etymology etc., one cannot
derived fran *gwer-toJa (cf. Skt. griva, 'neck', Russ. griva, 'mane, crest',
Lett. griva, 'stream outlet').
Chantraine points out that such a derivation
leaves Lesb. oE:pa. for *13E:pa unexplained, but i f the dental is not due to
sane analogical process nCM lost to us, it could be that Lesbian poetry
borrCMed the word from Ionic as oE:pfa, which would explain the co-existance of the Ionic dental and Lesbian treatrrent of -n1- in the sarre word.
1
sinply say that all dental treatments in Sappho and Alcaeus are due to
Ionic influence.
;,!
Hamn (15) lists the follCMing as possible dental fonns
in the Lesbian poets , but the presence of labio-velars in sorre of them
is far from certain: l ·ce:ATHJ.L , l:EAQI;;; aEAu.l l aEA.yw l OEpa; l:E i aEp]-I.OG i
aoeM(JE-; n!;.
5. -.e.
The dental here is panhellenic, so we could have a case
where 'un mot accessoire connait un traiterrent phonetique special'
(Lejerme. 49). 2
In the last four, a labia-velar is fairly certain, and one
may add rrepvtE:Ue-.m; in the others, it is less clear that a labia-velar
6. Ale. 143.10
aEp~v.
This too has a dental in all dialects (cf.
is involved.
Boeot. ,'Jep(&:x.l) , so that Wathelet' s suggestion of epic influence is
1. -.E:A.n~L, -.E:Ao!;.
Myc. te-re-ta, l:EAEOLUG suggests these words should
unlikely.
be connected with the root *tel-(a) - 'carry', so there is no labia-velar.
2
2. aE:Au.l.
7. aoeM(JE-.
A labio-velar is a possiblity here, but no dialect shCMs
a labial in this word, so that it is inpossible to draw any conclusions
I t would be terrpting to call this an Ionic borrCMing 1
not only because of the dental, but also because in the Thessalian
inscriptions (e.g. Schw. 617g, Larisa II) and in the Lesbian (Schw. 6320.
19, Eresus ca. 300) the fonns WULYVELL"-/xamyvn-.- are found.
On the
from it about poetic Lesbian.
other hand,
Me~
.etc. are part of the IE kinship tennino],ogy and so
1szerrerenyi (LV 50) is sceptical of the idea that Mpa was a borrowing.
3. aEA.yw.
Etyrrnlogy uncertain.
In the historical period, the word is mainly poetic: outside Hdt. 1.51.5,
2.76.2, 3.109.1, it is formd in Arcadian (Schw. 664.14, Orchanenos 369).
4. Mpa.
This word may have had a labia-velar, i f it is to be
2A different theory is put forward by l>bralejo Alvarez: groups of stops in
l.rhe etymological infonnation here is mostly from Chantraine, who may be
Greek must end with a dental, so that when *k~1e was added to a final stop
consulted for details.
other than a dental, a dental would have arisen by analogy, as in *ek **pe
In the discussions, where no reference is given
for a word, it or its root is found in both poets.
also Wathelet 75f.
On Hamn' s list, see
I agree broadly with him, though I would not accept
Hamn' s attribution to epic of labial reflexes shared with Harrer (,'Jeorreo(a,
> *ek te; *te
els~ere
would then also be an analogical fonnation.
HeM-
ever, it is rrost unlikely that Greek had sufficient final stops at the
tirre of the assimilation of the labio-velars for this theory to work.
<pfjpa, rrE:A.ov-.m) •
!ii
rt---
- 90are not likely to have beep absent from Aeolic.
Furtherrrore, the
- 91 (cf. dooa, &=.,
= l:L
ana,
ana; 00. JJD;v = l:L J.Uiv [Meg. in Ar.
Ach.
757, 784];
inscriptional evidence is late and very scarce, and Boeotian sh~s OOEAQJEa,
l:U
(Schw. 485 notes, Thespiae III ex.) and OOEAQJL6v (Schw. 537, Copae II).
began to lose its labial elerrent, t..'lere would have been the parallel
The two words originally had different rreanings, but we have not the
evidence to tell whether this was so at the tirre of Sappho and Alcaeus.
1
Again, it would be unwise to draw any conclusions from this example.
[Pi. 01. 1.82] cf. Chantraine, DE 1121).
When the group *kwy-
series *kwis, *kwia, *kyes, *kya, Which would have required same regular-
::
isation in the paradeigm.
1
Dunnet suggests that E. Thessalian regularised
the k-forms, so that XL(; was created on the analogy of *ki (n)es.
If the
Lesbians split from the Thessalians when *ky- had begun to be palatalised,
This presumably is an Ionism, and
then Lesbian might have generalised the t under Ionic influence.
This
is, however, purely speculative and rather a lot to build on a small
number of E. Thessalian guttural forms.
9. n(;.
1
This example is carplicated by the fq.ct that it is uncertain
whether the changes *kwe > l:E: *kwi > 1:~ are parallel, or whether the
latter was the result of pressure from the change of ti to si.
What-
As an appendage to this section on the labio-velars, one may note
that there is little to say of the specifically Aeolic labial reflexes.
ever the truth here, a dental appears in most dialects, apart from Cypriot
In Ale. 130b.l9V axw &onmLa begins the line as does nXfiL &onm(nL
OL(; (Thumb-Scherer 160), Arcadian 11\LVO. (= nvo.), and E. Thessalian XL(;.
nine tirres in Hamer; given the labial in the adjective,
ns
Ionic epic need not be an automatic explanation.
in Lesbian might be another example of the way in which 'en general,
borr~ing
from
les traitements de *kw font difficulte dans les mots non autonames
(enclitiques) ' (Lejetme 45).
On the other hand, the E. Thessalian form,
3. Consonants
if it is not simply part of a 'langue de chancellerie' created later in
1. The preservation of the consonant cluster -A.v- in Ale. 304.i.ll
Thessalian (Garcia-Ra!IDn 31 n.2), leaves open the slight possibility
(= Sa. 44A. a.llV) ntA.va.1:m beside the regular treatment in -A.A.- (uEMLxa
that the dental in Lesbian was the result of Ionic influence.
The
etc. ) , and the fact that the verb is rare outside Hamer, suggest that
guttural form appears in Schw. 608 (Phalanna V), 590.ll, 12 (Larisa 214,
6LEXL
= 6Col:L,
(Larisa II) .
noxx(
= TIP6s
this word was
borr~ed
from epic (Harrrn 21) .
l:L), IG 9(2).515.12 (Larisa) and MD 337.31
Dunnett argues that these are true dialectal forms, not
late creations.
He works from a series of forms from
* k~ y-
1
2. Beside the regular n6A.L!;, n6A.EJ.!Ob, Lesbian verse also exhibits
beside *kwitwo forms in m-, which have been taken as epic borrowings (Harrrn 40):
1cf. the articles by Chantraine and Moreschini-Quattordio.
suggests an epic origin for the
acE~-
words.
Wathelet (76)
~athelet
(64, 75) argues that the regular treatment of unvoiced labio-
velars before i was the dental (cf. Arena,
CLV
21ff.),
1\
r
Sa. 44.12
lWXa rrr6A.~v
- 92 and Ale. SLG p. 156 n-roA.e:).UiCDxe:.
these fo:rms is uncertain.
1
~-The origin of
They are found in Mycenean and Cypriot
regularly, in isolated personal and place na:rres in Arcadian and Cretan,
in Attic na:rres and poetry and also in Thessalian.
2
Chantraine has
- 934. vowels
1. yata.
In general, the i-diphthongs are reduced in Lesbian before
a vowel, either in cases of original hiatus or follCMing the loss of
intervocalic -s- or -w- (Thumb-Scherer 91).
suggested a pre-Greek influence (FN 112, 133; Ruijgh 76); Garcia-RamOn
exceptions to this: Tpo(av etc., Sa. 143 6.~6vwv, which are probably to
thinks both the fo:rms with single consonant and those with double may
be explained in te:rms of the importance of sequences of two shorts in
have existed together in •both East and West Greek at the end of the
any_of the Lesbian rretres; Ale. 42.5 Atax(fu~s would, i f the diJ:Xlthong
second millenium; Wathelet takes them as Achaean fo:rms borrCMed into
were reduced, have three consecutive shorts; Ale. 308b.3 M:l.ta, 387 ACav
Thessalian, but aCm:i. ts that their absence fran the Lesbian inscriptions
may have been preserved for clarity, since there are no extant exarrples
is a problem.
of disyllabic words of. this kind reduced to *caac, though epic influence
Whatever their origin, the distribution of them suggests
they could be old, in which case they could be archaic Aeolic fo:rms in
Sappho and Alcaeus, preserved in a formulaic phrase and a religious
epithet.
It might be significant that epic has no words derived fran
n6A.e:].LOG with the. long alpha suffix as in n-roA.e:).UiCDxe:.
Finally, one should
cannot be ruled out.
Epic influence is alrrost certain, hCMever, in the case of yata
(Ale. 45.3, 355; ?Sa. 168C.2V) beside regular ya.
note a further possibility, which would apply to all Aeolic archaisms
(Schw. 62.136, Heraclea IV ex.) and yae:Wv (Schw. 313.II.83, Halaesa I)
that are found in Harer and the Lesbians, that they were mainland Aeolic
= 'tumulus' appear in Doric.
fo:rms in Harer which the Lesbian poets then 'borrCMed back'.
second term, 'les exenples les mieux attestes figurent dans 1' ionien
There is
Even in canpounds the word is rare: as
naturally no way of getting at the truth about this, but there was no
d'Hdt.' (Chantraine,
doubt constant interchange of this sort between the two traditions.
Foxos (Schw. 12.9, SpartaVrned.), ymaoxOG (Schw. 216, Thera .?ca. 600)
1
cf. Chantraine,
DE
946 (with references), 926f., 876; Lejeune 37ff.;
Ruijgh 75f.; Garcia-RamOn 49f.; Wathelet 92ff.
I'
Simple yata does
not appear in any dialect outside poetry, though the derivatives ymW\1
DE
of Poseidon (cf. Horreric
I1:
Harrm (28) lists a number of
2
Arc.
TI"toA.~s
in Mantinea (Thumb-Scherer 125); Cret.
TI-roA.(o~xoG,·Epaa~­
n-r6A.e:]J.OG (Thumb-Kieckers_.l58); cf. II"toA.e:1JQ.LQb in Macedonia.
For Thessalian:
2. Al,c. 34a. 7 pf.a.
219); as first, there are only the Doric yma-
ya~noxos) . 1
'Pfja ist Ubernamnenes oder atlsserlich aeolisiertes
han. ofja oder pe:ta; die echtaeolisches Form war *Fp(ia oder kontrahiert
*Fpii bezeugt als [3pii' (Leurnann 18 n.lO).
That tile form is Ionic is, as
I,
•• pa •• ~oA.e:~~ (iG 9(2) .730, Larisa), ot "t"toA.(apxo~, 6px~-r-roA.~apx£v-rQG
he says, made clear by the eta for original alpha, but in the light of
l.i
(Schw. 613, Phalanna III), TTuA.LXVOG (B.C.H. 1970.21, ·Matropolis III),
what has been said above about the digarrma before r-, the Aeolic form
•,.
·I··
ToA.e:1JQ.'COs
(initial in Schw, 593A, B, Larisa III).
with the single consonant are rrore conmon.
Otherwis-e, fo:rms
~e origin of yata is uncertain: apart fran the etyrrological dictionaries,
cf. Lesky, Aia 39ff.
:c
I
.It: Ii
I
'
T
- 94 need not have had the beta in all cases: here, for instance, the word
j~
IJ,(I
- 95 *glukeyya, where the other dialects, where -yy- was simply 'the phonetic
If
{:
stands at the beginning of the line.
1
realization of an underlying phonological intervocalic /i/', had
*gl!Jkeia (Slings 250) .
3. Prevocalic *-ewy-.
that in the poems is -n- ( EUpno:v, etc. ) .
-£~-
(•at~ tpE(a~~)
The fact that such fonns also
appear in Aleman led him further to suggest that I Ida Alkman alter als
Sappho und Alkaios ist, rn!.lsste er die Erscheinung dann von derer lyrischen
VorUI.ufem tlbemorrmen haben' (32).
This difference was then :inportant when -y-
became -h- 1 since B1is did not affect intervocalic -i-, but Aeolic -yy-
'In a detailed study, Forssman showed that,
while the reflex of this group Ln
· the inscriptions was
I
''
,
became -hh-. (so *glukeh-ha).
Next,
when Lesbian lost /h/ in turn, the seoond /h/ left no trace, but the
first one, being tautosyllabic, did to the preceding vowel exactly
what the laryngeals had done a millenium or so before: it caused
corrpensatory lengthening, the ITDre so because assimilation (the
nonnal Lesbian way of dealing with troublesome clusters) was
:inpossible here. · (250)
No t'1ng that the reflex in Mycenean
was ·also -ei-, Hooker took this as an ancrnalous, pure1y l't
1 erary feature,
which further contradicts Lobel's thesis (5lf. ) .
This is a neat solution, but there appears to be something of a
problem with the chronology.
i!
The first compensatory lengthening is
ITDst probably a late- or post-Mycenean feature (Lejeune 154, 368), but
By contrast, in a complicated argument, Slings (248ff.) has claimed
that the eta was the correct Lesb4an
~
"-'"onn.
It J.s
· surprising, he says,
that Lesbian, which has such frequent gemination, should have lengthened
a vowel originally preceded by -wy-, whilst Ionic-Attic has a geminate
sonant (yy], that is, a diphthong in -i- (E(jpno:v :
EUpE~o:v).
He seeks
the explanation for this in the results of the first corrpensatory lengthening in Thessalian and Lesbian, whereby those dialects produced geminate
sonants, whilst the others used long vavel plus single sonant (*esmi >
EUU~
: ELUL).
Later. sound - changes then reinforced these geminates (e.g.
*bol-na > SoAAa).
the change of
y to
i
h is dated by Slings for Mycenean to 1400-1200 (250
n.32 after Lejeune 167ff.).
It looks, therefore, as though the compensatory
lengthening which provided the Lesbian opposition RR : R into which -yywas fitted is likely to have taken place later than the change of y to h,
which led to the long vowel.
FurtheriTDre, if t.."1e view of the Aeolic
dialects that I have adopted is correct, then there is a problem in
talking of specifically Aeolic developrents much before 1200.
In the
case of this item, it rray be best to leave the question open, not least
because features of this kind are open to the problems of spelling-
In Aeolic, therefore, these geminates became phonemicdeforrration: Sappho, after all, wrote
EYP~~.
1
ally opposed to the single sonants, as in SQAAa, •advice • : *Soi\a., •throw' ,
and when palatalised -ss-,
-wl'r-
were eliminated, the resulting -yy- was
fitted into the opposition RR : R, so that "'
"eol4c
had , for instance,
~
1
Cf. also SLG 286.ii.l0 (inc. auct.)
ovncp,
from a Lesbian poet' (Slings 251 n.36j.
'probably an adapted epicism
4. tpo~/tEp6~/tap6~.
Little that is certain can be said about these
different fonns (cf. Lejeune 239- n.2).
The regular Lesbian fonn in the
poems and inscriptions is tpo~, etc., but at Sa. 44.6 there appears the
phrase
eiif3o..G E:E t{;pa.~
I
which I on the basis of Il. 1. 366
ensnv
tEp~)V n:6A.w,
1cf. the Appendix on Spelling, belav pp. 137f.
,)
'Ij!
I
II
·1,'1
'I
- 96 is usually taken as an epic borrowing.
dialects js orn,;vocal.
-,.~
;I
II
The evidence fran the other
. .
.
~-Je-ro, ~-e-re-u etc. appear in Mycenean and
LEpO(; is the E. Greek fonn.
,,_:
- 97 -
In Thessalian, apart fran the isolated
tapou-m'C(; (Schw. 578.25, Crannon II), tEpo- is regular, but all the
inscriptions date from the late third or early second centuries, so
is not contracted either in the poems or the earlier inscriptions.
evidence is fragmentary, but clear.
Ale. 249.6
Eli. y06
XPn
The
Fran the poems, there is
npo(onv nA6ov
and, less certainly (reading as in Voigt)
Ale. 395
O"tEVW. [ .. ]8civ&J P<)[Ob) EG MA.oaoav Cu.a.vE
:11
these fonns
/'I
could be
due to the Koine.
Boeotian has
tapo-, but this
As it stands, 7:po(; is unlikely to have
could be due to N.W. Greek.
II
The inscriptions provide Schw. 630.14ff.
1:o'CG aEoLoL 1:a
XE ouvtEA.E:n 6. xE:MnaTIJG
tr:a, oC&uv a.\hw xat Eli.y6voLOL (o) d lJOLPL Jav xat crlpxa
an[o
been a native Lesbian fonn, since one would expect *tppo- from *isro-
TIEV"tciJ.LvaLOV
(cf. above PP· 53f.) ·
(Assos IV/III); cf. 620.31
I f LEpo- was the Aeolic fonn (so Garcia-Rarr6n
trr.E.:
"tOO
e.J6ob
"tOO &.Jo].ltvw (Methymna, III extr.); 640.6 T\l.l.LXOOV
6)~EV"tE(;
(Mytilene 324/3).
54f.)' then it is possible that trisyllabic fonns were preserved as
that the Lesbian evidence is fairly late does not matter, since any Koine
archaic fonns in such dactylic metres as gl 2d.
influence would have led to the contracted fonn, which is in fact found
later still: Schw. 646.5, 6 (Cyme II in.) dorr.A.ouv,
5. vOcx;/~.
Lobel (AM XXXii) would have nothing to do with the
uncontracted fonn, but the evidence for it is stronger than he allowed:
Sa. 96.2
96.19
Ale. 43.1
TULOC [v)W\1
~xmoo.
viiJv·r'a[
vW l!Ev x·
~vvrn·
£[
attested than the contracted.
Ill'
The Ionic
inscriptions always shc:m' the contracted fonn (Smyth 238), but it, occurs
but once in Homer (od. 10.240) and once in Hesiod (fr. 203.2), and the
8tA.yEL vOoV
word is usually uncontracted in Elegy and Iambus (west,
Ale. 363.lvl
v6ov 5E: Fatrtw
spoken Ionic may well have been the origin of vW(; in Lesbian poetry.
EUVOOV W].!OV
is thus noteworthy that it is Sappho who has the rrost certain exanple of
129.9f.
SGEI
84), so that
It
this later fonn.
This question is further complicated by
the fact that the etyrrology of the word is far fran clear, though Frame
II
~nA.ouv.
Sa. 57.1
Despite the uncertainties, therefore, the uncontracted fonn is better
I
Here the fact
6. Ale. 119. 13 "tmatml&;.
In this Alcaeus passage, the spelling of
has recently made a strong case for deriving it from the root *nes- (cf.
the word is guaranteed by the metre; this fonn also appears in the papyrus
VEO).IO.L, v6crr~). Whatever its origin, one might argue that, once any
of Chrysippus containing Sa. 56 ("tmau"tav), which is altered by Lobel to
intervocalic consonant ha¢1 been lost, the resulting v6o(; would have been
make it confonn with the regular Lesbian "tEOU"tQb, but since the word
treated in the same manner as words such as PDoG < P6F<Jl;.
2
stands at the start of a gl c line, the metre cannot help.
In this case,
Whatever the
one may be fairly sure that the uncontracted fonn was the Lesbian spoken
correct reading here, hbwever, it is fairly clear that we are dealing with
fonn at the time of Sappho and Alcaeus, since o + o in disyllabic words
an Ionic borrowing.
~or
the text, see above p. 76.
T
-
- 98 -
5. The syllabic liquids
There is little agreement in the literature about the reflexes of
the
it to any particular dialect.
O+J/r:n in Ionic and Doric, op/po in Aeolic and
Arcado-Cypriot is unsatisfactory.
has argued that, in fact,
1
O'Neil suggests that 'as the word is poetic in greek it may be argued
Morpurgo Davies (in Morpurgo, AM)
that it is only a honeric word.
O+J/r:n is the regular reflex in Arcado-Cypriot
this is not impossible'
ii
grades, analogy
O'Neil has put forward a similar argument for Aeolic,
is the use of the verb
Less certain
whose etymology is problematic (cf. Morpurgo,
AM 801).
exarll?les from the Lesbian poems, such reflexes occur before vowels (e.g.
on the grounds that *mar < mr is a feature of that dlalect, wh1le 6.13MI3nv,
Ale. l30b.lV "t"OAaL!:;), before y and w (Sa. 107 E:ml3d:.UolJUL), initially
6ui3PO"t"TJv, (3p6-ro~:; suggest an Aeolic reflex of *bro/a (contrast Ion.
~-ravw).
If *r is correctly posited, it might be Ian1c, as O'Neil suggests
However, despite O'Neil's dlscussion, Ionic and Atti<;: f3A.arnw,
If this is correct, then the appearance of an a-colour will be no certain
(3r:nxu~:;
indication of the dialectal origin of a fonu.
between the dialects.
O'Neil lays down same general rules
indlcate that it is not possible to draw finn lines of demarcation
1
2. Ale. ll9.19, 302.H.19
xOp"t"Epo~:;.
Lobel (AM lxvii) took this as
for the treatment of the syllabic liquids in Aeolic, and it is possible
a possible alien fonu, on the strength, I presume, of the gloss xep-rEpa·
to point to certain words which seem to break these.
xpa-rEr:xl., l.ox.upO. in Hesychius.
For instance, the
If this gloss were Aeolic (so LSJ, without
regular reflex of the syllabic liquid betlveen consonants in Le~bian is
discussion), then
-r:n,-, -A.a.- (6/3MJ3nv, 6.-rpwnwL, i3POxEa, yp&q:W etc.; O'Neil 25), but there
such as SP6xEa,
are three exceptions: Ale. "t"clp{3T]JJ.L, xapc5Ca, Ale. 6.7 qx:xpB,0]..1E8'.
likely that it was a hyper-aeolism, created an analogy with these latter
These
might be explained by IIDbility of the consonant within the syllable
xapB~a he takes as
(Lejeune 197), but O'Neil offers other solutions.
created by rretathesis from Horner1c Hpaf>Cn, by a process which is comron
I!
in words which have cognates of the fonu
)I
xfi~ (18f.; cf. Adrados,
I
~or discussion
Ill
~nw,
In these three words, it
showing that a-colour reflexes are found in all sitUa.tions: to take
II
Ii
qx:xp!;WJ.LEfu he explains as represent-
is reasonably certain that a syllabic liquid is involved.
0
II
li
(25; cf. 20).
invoking ad hoc explanations such as false etymologies,
1. Possible hon-Aeolic forms.
i
As Alkaios is kncmn to use Hcmeric forms
ing the Ccmron Greek reflex *ar < r + ks (16).
(Sa. 121.1 dpvuoo) , finally (Sa. 134 l'Jvap) and between consonants (6/3MJ3nvl .
:I
The sarr:e may be said for -r®I3TlllL, though
(except after w) and that the o-colour reflexes are to be explained 'by
etc.' (808).
",
given the general uncertainties about t.'le syllabic liquids and the fact
that this is a mainly poetic word, it would be unwise to try to attribute
syllabic liquids in the various dialects, but it is fairly clear that
the simple scheme r >
- 99 -
ESL
TER (E) •
·
• 1.n
I
However,
in detail of this question, cf. Bader; Heubeck; Lejeune;
Moralejo Alvarez; Morpurgo, AM; O'Neil; Pajares; Wathelet l69ff.,·
Wyatt, SR.
o-rp6-ro~:;
forms (O'Neil 29).
would fall in with the other o-colour reflexes,
(cf. O'Neil 26ff.).
On the other hand, it is as
Furt.l-ter discussion will show that xOp"t"Epo(; is likely,
for other reasons, to have been Ionic.
th J.S
· case, there is
361 for a different e.<q;~lanation).
xCp-rEpo~:;
The e-grade of this root is found in Lesb. Ji.PE"t"O(;, Ji.PE"t"TJllL and from
the zero-grade one would expect *xp:hEpos, which would suggest that
1
an the gloss l3p<).i.La.L· auA.A.a!3dv (O'Neil 28), cf. Chantraine, DE 192, s.v.
(3paxdv.
On qx:xp~fu, cf, further pp. 126f. below.
----------· ---1
,:·1
¥i
[,
'·
- 101-
- 100HdpTEPQ(;
might have been inported.
corrplicated.
6.
HCMever, matters are in general rrore
Pavese has argued that this belonged to the 'risorse prosodiche
In Greek jXletry generally, HfX1"t"Epc}f; is the fonn used, while
generiche' (27) of Greek poetry and was not a specifically Ionic feature.
in prose (apart frcrn Thessalian and Boeotian, on which see belCM),
l«JPTEpO(;
is regular.
Nu ephelcystic
The evidence is, however, firmly in favour of the idea that it started
The metathesis in the prose fonn has caused concern,
since it does not easily fit into the categories erected by O'Neil and
in Ionic. 1
others.
Stesichorus , Sirnonides, Corinna, etc. - but it is only in the inscriptions
Lejenne (197) explains it sinply as a result of the mobility of
I t is true that it is found in poets of all dialects - Alanan,
the liquid within the syllable, which might gain some support from the
of Ionic that it is found in the early period (cf. Buck 84).
fact that, while
earliest relevant Lesbian inscription, Schw. 618 frcrn Mytilene in the
l«JPTEpc}f;
is used in prose and
HfX1TEpc}f;
in verse, the
fifth century, it is absent: (Jy; QXIDL 6 yp($xL(;.
reverse is the case with the cognates in xpa.-r-, which is the favoured
prose fonn, and in HOPT-, which is used in verse
fin.).
(LSJ, s. v.
xpcl"te(;, sub
Lobel (in
O'Neil, hCMever, preferred Benveniste's theory that Greek had
SM
lxx ff.) gives a table and an extended treatment of this
topic, though his conclusions have been somewhat modified by 1ater
two roots, *krat- 'pCMerful' and *kart- 'enduring', which were confused
discoveries.
The main thing to have ccrne to light is
an
nu used by Sappho to make position, in 30.4 <le:L&:n.v <,o[.
If either of these explanations were correct, then
have been a native Aeolic fonn.
xOpTEpo(;
Thessalian, the root *xpa.-r- is the only one found (O'Neil 34f.).
than
-}ipa.T-
can be quoted for the dialect'
(ibid.);
The absence of
l«JPTEpO(;
2
<P6SaLoL<v> ,'3£]Jtva, which makes: the metre gl c, like that of the preceding
In·
poem.
No other fonns
~Vhatever
the truth in the last example, therefore, there is no
reason to .distinguish between the two poets in their ·use of the nu. for
in Perrhaebian, there
lengthening a syllable.
in Thessalian then, even as late
There is rOCX!l, therefore, for a brief re-examination of this feature.
as the third century, would suggest that Alcaeus had borrowed from Ionic.
Furthernore, the evidence from Lesbian personal-names points in the same
Since t.'le dative plural of the pronominal fonns such as C4LJ.LLV, O!.LJ.LLV
direction: Hodot (125ff.) has shown that names in -XEPTTl(;. in Lesbian
appears to contain an inherited (not ephelcystic) final n (cf. Skt.
it is the verbal fonns -with nu rather than dative plurals which
are late, and occur only after the extension of names in -xpO.TTl(;; there
ta-smin) ,
are no names in Lesbian extant ·in -xOpTTl(; or Kap-r-.
1cf. Kuryiowicz for an ingenious theory of the origin of the nu ephelcystic
in Ionic.
He does not suggest why it should have started in that dialect
rather than elsewhere.
----!i
'·I
l
In 103.12,
his theory to qx)So.Lo{ L} ,'3£]Jtvo., making the metre glxd; Voigt prefers
appear Kpa.TEpa£La (Schw. 611.14, Phalanna IV) and Kpa.TEpa.LOL (Eil2B. 7,
Phalanna III).
example of this
the papyrus reads QJOi3o.LoL{J£]..1£va, which Lobel emended in accordance with
could
On the other hand, in Boeotian and
Thessalian, 'names in -xp:i-rEL(; are very frequent....
In the
- 102are peculiarly Ionic and deserve attention here.
- 103I give below, therefore,
avoid hiatus , and at verse end.
For these, Lobel' s tables may be
a list of verbal forms grouped according to whether the nu lengthens a
consulted: one notes, havever, that cases of hiatus with -i follaved
syllable, obviates hiatus or stands at the end of a metrical period.
by. a vavel that is not i do not constitute hiatus, so that examples
of nu in such cases may well be due to later editors.
1. Lengthens sy Hable
Sa. 30.4
6.e:C6m. v cp[
Ale. 338.2
n:ETTO:va~cr~v
cases where the nu is used to make position in naninal forms:
6'
ve:fu~cr~ v, xe:c!riAaw~ v
357.4
There are two
Sa. 103 .12
cpOf:la~m <v>
Ale. 357.3
~~cr~v xuvCa~cr~
8E:JJ.Eva
357.5
In addition to the verbal and naninal forms, the nu also appears in
2 . Obviates hiatus
the particle xe:(v).
of the modal particle, xe:, xe:v,
Ale. 72.4
one point may nevertheless be made.
76.11
117b.28
ot6e:v, £ •••
119.15
6p6nwa~v aO•a~b
Sa. 31.6
En:•Ocx.we:v
6n:a.6e:6p6]J11H£V
94.2
HUL£A.L]..D10.V£V (end of stanza)
•C3nmv
With this final group may be carpared the follaving exarrples where a
syllable is left open at the end of a line (Hanm 40):
Sa. 15.12
58.15
Ale. 72. 8
n.l25).
1
.
but
On the inscriptions of Thessaly and
Finally, nu appears on
i'iA.8E:
n.O.po~8E:v
~,
in Alcaeus, though the correspond-
never has it; ru]pm8E:v may be
due to analogy with Ell£8e:v, crE8E:v, where the nu is inherited (Hanm 40).
Despite Lobel' s atterrpts to prove the opposite, therefore, it is
fairly clear that there is no essential difference in the usage of the
nu ephelcystic by Sappho and Alcaeus: both use it in verbal and nominal
forms to make position, and both use it in the ITOdal particle.
Its use
may be seen as a metrically convenient borraving fran Ionic.
cpEpoW~
OvELpon:£
7. Prefixes and suffixes
1.
In naninal forms, both Sappho and Alcaeus u5e the nu regularly to
II
av, are carplex and disputed,
was a literary form in Lesbian as in Greek generally (cf. Wathelet 360
ing form on the inscriptions,
31.10
Ale. 58.23
i«XV,
Lesbos, the form is always xe: not xe:v, which might suggest that the latter
3. Final
I
The origin and relationship between the various forms
Sa. 137.5
tp~-, 6p~-.
Lesbian exhibits these two (unrelated) intensative
1
cf. Coleman 78f.; Forbes, and the criticisms of Lee; Palrrer 90ff.
- 104-
- 105-
prefixes in Sa. 98a.9 EPLa&A.TlG, 96.4 OpLYV(lrtm.
~ile
apL- continues
4. noA.L-rOG. (Sa. 5.14, Ale. 130b. 7Vl/noA.La-rQG (Ale. 33d. 7, 39a.6).
to be used in later verse (especially lyric) and also to some extent in
The relationship between these two is far from clear.
I.Dbel called the
prose, E:pL- is mainly confined to epic, whence it probably went into
Lesbian verse.
latter an 'Ionic fo:rm with accorrrnodated vocalization' (AM lxvii); Hanm
1
(64) claimed it as epic, though it appears there but once (Il. 2.806,
final); it is only foUP.d sporadically in Ionic, until it becomes(camron
Certain words in Sappho and Alcaeus could possibly be Ionic on the
in Herodotus.
On the other hand, the root *not..La- is wide-spread in the
basis of the suffixes they contain, but this evidence must be handled
Greek dialects: it is found in Ionic, Cretan, Epidaurian, Arcadian,
with the greatest of care, since lexicons are very open-ended and we
Heraclean and Laconian (Buck 133), so that it is fruitless to try to
know very much rrore about the Ionic than the Lesbian.
ascribe its origin to any particular dialect.
always
2. --a.A.EQG.
sha>~
The Lesbian inscriptions
noA.Ll:Qb and so, since any Ionic influence would presumably
Lesbian exhibits two words with this suffix: 6pyc:lA.E:oG
have led to noA.La-rQG, we may infer that this form in Alcaeus was an
in Alcaeus and Sa. 44.ll 6-q:xxA.fuG.
The suffix is crnm:.:ln in poetry
(especially dactylic) and also in in Ionic prose (Chantraine,
FN
'i
Ionism,
borra>~ed
Homer.
The possibility remains,
perhaps from spoken Ionic, given its infrequency in
ha>~ever,
that both forms of the root
though Debrunner has sho.vn. that even the majority in prose seem to owe
were in use side-by-side in Lesbian and Ionic.
their inspiration to Horreric usage.
1
In general, therefore,
The distribution of 6pyaA.8QG in
i'
the use of particular suffixes can tell us rather little.
,II'
Greek makes it impossible to ascribe it specifically to any'dialect (cf.
Dover,
SA
.I
!!
6-rpaA.fuG, being ari epic word, may.
128, and below p. 146).
8.
Pronouns
have cane from Ionic epic.
1. The relative pronoun.
Alcaeus is that of the article.
3.
-au\Ja,
The regular form of this in Sappho and
Lobel tried to
~d
away an apparent
Though this suffix appears to be an IE one (cf. Skt.
exception in Sa. 112.2 ~XTlLG 5~ rr.dpaEvov, dv dpao, by reading
-tvana-,
Chantraine,
FN
210) , and Sappho has the unepic 6j3poaUva. (58. 25) ,
(AM
WG
dpao
lxiii), but it is hard to see why the corruption should have gone
it is again in Ionic that the suffix is rrost regular: for instance,
in the direction of what the MSS give, when
Herodotus uses it, but not Thucydides.
WG
dpao is in the line
It is very camon in Homer, .where
above. 'Furtherrrore, it can be sho.vn. that this is not, in fact, an
many of the words are
to~,
hapax legomena
there is also Sa. 55.1
(Chantraine,
FN
212).
In addition
~. 2
isolated exarrple..
Fran Voigt' s
Index ver borum,
the following list may
be corrpiled:
lwathelet 358f. follows Ruijgh (135f.) in taking E:pL- as Achaean and not
Aeolic, as the ancients suggested
Mycenean and Arcado-Cypriot.
(cf~
Hinrichs 63ff.): it is found in
MJreschini-Quattorcllo notes that E:pL-/apL-
compounds are fixed in position and formulae, and so probably are old.
2
Cf. Ale. 286b.5 ).6:ruva., 296 .3 )oova.LG; Buck-Petersen 289.
i
253),
1
On noA.La-, cf. Risch,
WHS
35; Schwyzer,
GG
1.500; Szemerenyi,
GPP
20 n.65.
I
+
- 106 Sa. 22.llf. V
nn)x•Lv, ~ OE onO•E n68oG •.[
O!.KPLrr.6•a•aL
'l~
f: I
fl
- 107which could oc= in any dialect.
r
J
I
·'
Ale. 128ab.8
3. Ale. 310 •Ea.
117b.29V
8)~
117.b.26V
~L 6" 5 XE •LG OL6[wL 1
117b.l9V
)Ev ~
n[6pv)mmv 6]J.LA.A.EL (]en:[ ..._] mew LP)
•w[
Although, as is not surprising, all the evidence
is from literary sources, it is fairly certain that this form of the
possessive pronoun is an old Aeolic one.
(pap.: 'AC ut vid., nisi
:Ac' Voigt)
48.8
is OOGi in Honer, both
The regular word in the poems
a6G and •Eo!; are found, and, since the former is
Ionic, the latter must be Aeolic (Chantraine 271).
Kazik-Zawadzka (54) maintains that this usage in Lesbian is likely to be
The only positive
evidence for 1:E6G in Aeolic is Cor. 654.iii.l9 n6G (cf.
PMG
695).
due to Ionic influence, since there is no evidence for the use of these
fonns in the other Aeolic dialects, except for h6(; in a Thessalian
hexarreter
(Schw. 561, Cierium V; cf. Buck 101).
On the other hand,
5G
etc. are the original fonns of the relative (cf. Skt. yah), so that we
9. Prepositions
1. Ale. 42.15
aw·
"E[A.Evm.
This is probably a borrowing, since,
might be dealing with an archaism, preserved alongside the innovative
as Kazik-Zawadzka points out, the use of this preposition with the dative
fonns in Lesbian as in epic (cf. Chantraine 277f., 2.166f.).
with the sane rreaning as Latin 'causa', 'gratia' is very rare, and in later
poetry is always used of Helen (54f.).
2. Ale. 130b.6V •wv6E<.lv.
Hamn (108) suggests this was mcdelled on
Hcmeric •oLa6Eo(ah, but it may be that it was a native Aeolic form, since
In prose, 6+Jql( + dat. is found
in Herodotus alone, though not with this causal sense (6.62 6+-KDL Lf\L
I',
ywa.LXL is the nearest to it). Cf. Wathelet 344.
the declension of normally indeclinable particles is not a feature of
Ionic: •o(a&aL in Derrocritus and Hippocrates is probably an imitation
of Haner (cf. Bechtel 3.167). 2
This feature is found in the later
2. ELG/EG·
There seems little doubt that these two are Ionic elements
in Lesbian generally, since Thessalian and Boeotian preserve the inherited
Thessalian inscriptions: •oLVEOG (Schw. 517.15, Larisa 214), •ouvvEouv
E:v + accusative, whereas an -s was added in Ionic.
(ibid. 17); in Argive •wvEiEWVriv (Thumb-Scherer 350); Attic also provides
were irrported into Lesbian after the disappearance of the group -ns- or
an exanple of the declension of both parts of a corrpound pronoun in 0cn:LG·
before this is not clear.
All of this suggests that this kind of declension is an innovatory one,
consonant, and i f this division is not simply a false picture given by
1
our incomplete evidence, then it might suggest that Lesbian added the -s
'5 liE UG ftlr Cx::n-LG Cr.v', Thumb-Scherer 100, without discussion: it is
I!Dre likely a neuter.
2wathelet ascribes the feature to Aeolic: ' si
in imitation of Ionic.
d:!~
aedes ioniens ont pu en
effet rE!Utiliser des datifs eoliens en -EacJL I ils n' auraient eu 1' idee
d'eteindre la flexion ala particule invariable 6E' (293 n.ll2).
Whether the two fonns
In Lesbian poetry, we find dG +vowel, EG +
This would then have given the following develop-
rrent: first, the co-existence of *E:v, *EVGi then, after final -ns +
consonant became - s , there would have been EG + consonant, .. *EVG + vowel;
I
I~
---------------
-·
- 108 after short vowel+ -ns became long vowel+ -s, EG +consonant,
VO\Vel.
- 109~LG
+
Such a process is perhaps rrore likely than that Lesbian replaced
hand, I have already suggested that words with initial n-r- might have
been in Aeolic poetry for sorne time (above pp. 9lf.), so this could
equally well have been an Aeolic fonnula: Ma-ra is the original fonn.
its single fm:rn *E:v with two Ionic fonns.
The same could be said of the use of the full fonn in Ale. 39a.l0 rr.apcl
In the inscriptions of the earliest period, ELG is used before
~t::pxv,
Sa. 168B.3V (= 940, om. LP) rr.ap(x.
a·
~pxe:-r·.
In general, however,
both consonants and VO\Vels, whereas in poetry it is used generally only
given the blending and interpenetration that must have taken place between
before vowels, with E{; before consonants.
Ionic and Lesbian verse, 'imitation' is perhaps a rather grand concept to
There are two exceptions to
this, both from Sa. 44: 23 Et;; Nn.wv, 26 E{;
aC~~.
For Hamu (41), these
are epic borrowings, though one notes that neither expression is found
in this fonn in Horner.
invoke for the adoption (if it was such) of a metrically useful second
fonn of a preposition.
I would suggest that the use of E{; + vowel was
a feature of Lesbian poetry, for reasons similar to those which produced
10. Declension
this combination in Horner.
There, there is a tendency to use these
prepositions in the same manner as is found in Lesbian, though there are
exceptions, conditioned by metrical convenience: 'in the process of alteration of an old formula or of creation of a new fonnula, the short fonn
1. Sa. 23.1 ~t:XJl"t"O{;.
etc.
The word was originally an s-stem (cf. E:pao-r6{;, EpxvvO{;), but in
Horner has already passed to the o-sterns.
lectio.
(Morpurgo Davies,
DF
163f.).
Such a process may well have obtained in
2
Lesbian, since, in a metre like gl d, phrases like EL{; NIA.Lov with their
shape --ux are much less flexible than those wi t.'l the sport foirn of .the
I
I
I:
I
the line.
One would imagine that Lesbian poets early availed themselves
of such a useful metrical device.
rare (Chantraine 2ll).
Xt:XJl"t"-
is
This Homeric evidence suggests that the· t-fonns
are an innovation of the eighth century, and, since they are regular in
the rest of Ionic (though ~PQ{; in Ib. 286.6, 287.1; Theog. 1064, 1322),
~p:.J-ra{; in Sappho is presmnably an Ionism (cf. further Benveniste 125).
I,
2. - Lfu.
The ancient gramuarians noted it as a feature Of the Lesbian
154 n.4, cf. 60 n.2).
3. KO:ra.
In the
poems, we have Sa. 57.2 aypoCw-rLv, 141.3
The poems and inscriptions of Lesbian regularly use the
oA.mv, 22.11 oo]xnv (cf. 54 xA.c.'qJ.uv) on the one hand, and on the other
apocopated fonn of this preposition; there are two exceptions in Sa. 44.12
Sa. 44. 5 E:A.LMhr.Lfu, 155 IT!MI.JCI.\Xlxnfu, Ale. 143. 8 ne:pLO"t"pCxpLO • .
I
On the
face of it, it would be natural to presume that these last three were Ionic,
I
Sappho' s use of the phrase could be an irnitation of this.
On the ot.'ler
!
II
dialect, that the accusative singular of id-stern nouns was -LV (Meister
I:
!I
For the comparable y{;A.Q{;, ye:A.urr- does not appear, and
preposition shaped u-ux: the fanner could only stand at the beginning of
IIi.
II
The fonn ·~~ appears but twice
(Il. 3.442, 14.294), in each case before a consonant, with ~PQ{; as a varia
previously used in preconsonantal position may have proved a useful
replacement for the long form EL{; which perhaps was metrically difficult'
This stands out against the regular fonns ~po{;
·--~J.·
Ill'
!'1'
[·
1~:
t'
- 111 -
- 110with specifically epic influence in the case of the first.
This may be
do these eta fonns appear (Thumb-Scherer 272, 294; cf. Schwyzer, GG 1.
correct, though it should be noted that old i-stems underlie many id-
572f.), so that there is no good reason to assign them to Aeolic, and
stems, so that cross-fertilisation would be natural, without any specific
Tt6A.nOG is probably an epicism in Alcaeus.
external pressure.
1
1
4. Ale. 283.12 n:6A.EQG.
3. Ale. 41.18 Tt6A.ncx.;.
as a regular i-stern.
Else<Nhere in the poems, this noun is declined
Ruijgh
(OMQ)
as Aeolic, but this is unlikely.
since metathesis to
-~
and Beekes clairred the anomalous fonn
Ruijgh argued that it rrrust be Aeolic,
would already have taken place in Ionic by the
tirre epic poetry was being crnposed in Ionia.
This stands isolated arrong the fonns of
n6A.us which, apart from the masculine and neuter nominative and accusative,
are based upon noMa-, noA.A.Ci.-.
It is presumably an epic borrCMing,
especially since Alcaeus seems to be rerrodelling epic passages like
Il.
6.452f.
HCMever, such a fonn could
I
easily have been retained as a metrically useful archaism after metathesis
had begun in the spoken language, or even been created after the metathesis
as a back-formation from the locative
Tt6A.n~.
Ir
x] am "YVl'l-rwv Tt6A.ea.s . [
Beekes adduced the Homeric
phrase used of Teiresias, l.Jmrrncx.; OA.aoO (od. 10.493, 12.267) as further
evidence for an Aeolic origin.
1'
l
Corrpare the Alcaeus passage (283.12ff.)
r.
He suggested that, if Aeolic had had -nQG,
1,1-!
a fonn like lKlv"1:110b would have helped to preserve the tau in l.J.C).vn!;; from
assibilation, which happened in Mycenean, Arcade-Cypriot and Ionic: that
the phrase was used of the Thessalian Teiresias would also be significant.
There are a number of
Again, h<:Mever, other explanations are possible.
that
lJ!iv~~G
1
anomalous 1 forms in the declension of nouns,
Wathelet (106) noted
could have been preserved by analogy with
l.J(lV"t"€OOlJQ.~,
which have'regularly been taken as borrowings from outside the dialect,
*'\JaV-reU!;.
but which could also be Aeolic archaisms, though it is irrpossible to be
Furthermore, i f the rrorphemic break had been felt to be after the tau,
lrlvnG would have survived. A final argment against an Aeolic origin for
certain, since they usually occur in Homer too.
the fonn is that there is no trace of -nOG in the i -stems in the other
Aeolic dialects: in Thessalian, there is
Boeotian l.J();vnQG,
lJ.~cra::n~cx.;
rt6U~OG
5. Ale. 387 ACav.
This stands in opposition to the epic declension
(Bechtel 181), and in
of the name in -av-e- and to n:O:v-ca (Harrm 155).
(Bechtel 271).
~e transfer to the id-stems is found, outside Ionic and Attic in, for
instance, Eubcean proper names in
-~!:::
Harrm writes:
1
der Akk. At:av
Only in Ionic and Attic do
(Buck 91).
kann allerdings auch von tlberncmnenem ep. ACas oder einem dialekteigenem
AC<ib, bei dem die Diphthongentwicklung wegen Ai.- unterbleiben war,
1
.
Cf. the odd gloss on this word
Tt6A.~OG
(AB
1193) o6K ~crnv ·rwv~xbv 6JJ.."
arro
-roO
yf;yavE xa-c' Ai.oA.~xnv -r~v.
I,
- ll3-
- ll2 erkl&rt werden (so Schulze,
GGA
1897, 898).'
Since
AC~
is not found
however, a number of exceptions, where the short fonn is transmitted
in epic, the second possibility should not be ruled out: as Schwyzer
in the MSS or papyrus for a noun.
addS, 'sie kBnnen aber ebensogut einen 1l.lteren Typus darstellen als
texts of these, but a reconsideration of the evidence will show that,
han.
-~•-"
(GG
1.526).
If this is so, this feature could be another
Aeolic archaism without a parallel in Harer, though Hesiod has e6av
(fr. 236; cf. Pindar, fr. 184
AC~
beside regular
AC~"t"-).
Efforts have been made to rid the
in addition to the rretrically secured <PLAo~G, aEo~G in the 'abnonnal'
Sa. 44 (12, 21), there is a small number of genuine short fonns.
I
shall discuss all the possible cases, except Sa. 100, 151, 152, 160 and
Ale. 356, which are too uncertain to be of value.
6. Ale. 48.15 "AC&:Jo.
Here, the contracted "A.Cfu is the regular fonn,
but the uncontracted could obviously have been part of earlier Aeolic
poetry since, whatever the origin of this genitive (cf.
\~athelet
2 35f. ) ,
a. sa. 2.14 6J3poi:G Athen.: 6~ Bergk, which is confirrred by the
ostrakon' s AKPOE.
it is found in Mycenean (Thumb-Scherer 340), sporadically in Thessalian
(Schw. 557.12, Thetonimn V "Q:>E:m:ao etc., Thumb-Scherer 58) and regularly
in Boeotian (ibid. 35).
Kazik-Zawadzka (4lf.) allowed that it might be
b. Sa. 55.3f. OO].J.O~G qo~"t"0oe:~G codd. A, Tr of Stobaeus, oo].J.OqDC"t"ao~G
cod. Voss.
'There is a slight manuscript preponderance in favour :of
an old Aeolic fonn on the strength of the exanples from Boeotian, but
"Ai.&::J. 56].J.O~G, but, apart from the possibility that xe:LG A. OO].J.O~G is
preferred to see the whole phrase "AC&:Jo OW].ID. as imitated fran epic,
the correct reading, it cannot be held that xClv "Ai.fu 56J..tw~ is in any way
where fx'ii]J.' "Ai.frro, ELG "AC&:Jo 56]J.ouG are found.
ruled out' (Lobel, sM xxxix) .
I
I!
I
:!
It is true that it could
However, I see no reason for disregarding
i
be an Aeolic fonn that was borrowed back into Lesbian verse, but i f Aeolii::
poetry existed, "Ai.&:Jo could have been preserved there.
1
the 'preponderance' of the MSS here, and Lobel's suggestion of xe:Ls "A.Lfu
56].J.O~G is made unlikely by the fact that cpo~1:av implies repeated IIDverrent,
which is inappropriate in this context of death.
7. -ow.
Sa. 44.16
Similar arguments apply to the two examples of this genitive:
Tle:~~o,
Ale. 367.1 t:pxo].!Evmo.
Traces of it remain in
The case for a short
fonn here is, therefore, strong, and preconceptions about the nature of
Sappho's dialect should not be allowed to affect it.
Thessalian (e.g; MD 326.1, Atrax VI 1:oi: &l!.1mo, cf. Garcia-RarrOn 70f. ) .
q. sa. 8lb.l <JU oE: m:e:cr:xivo~G,
8. Dative plural in -mG,
-o~s·
In the majority of cases in the poems
wb.i.xa,
ntp&o5' E:p:hms <!ill3a~o~v.
'E:rxhmG, which would be readily corrupted owing to its proximity to
and also in the earliest inscriptions, the dative plural of a- and o-stems
q:x)j3mmv, is IIDre probably the correct reading' (Lobel,
is -a~o~, -mo~, with -a~G, -o~G in the pronoun/article.
However, the MSS are unaniiiDusly in favour of the reading E:p:ha~G,
There are,
1
sa. 187 :l.IO~oOwv might also be an archaism, but it is not clear whether
this represents Att .. l.J.Ouc:XiN or not {cf. Voigt ad loc·.).
which might also be said to be stylistically preferable.
SM
xxxix; so LP) ·
:i
i
I
i
:I
- ll4d. Ale. 130b.l5V
aw65o~oL JJ..
- ll5-
a\h:aq;;.
Page (208) explains this
There is another view, which is rejected by Wathelet, but which
tmavoidable short form as a ]X)etic licence of the kind sametines fotmd
merits attention.
in Archilochus and Anacreon, where a short dative occupies the end of
in *-oisu, cf. Skt. *-esu) and the short forms (from the dative/instrumental
the line, with a long form preceding it and agreeing with it.
*-ois) continued to exist side-by...,side.
This is that both the long forms (from the locative
Then, when the locative was
absorbed into the dative and the rrorphological distinction between them
e. Ale. 308b.2 -cov
prints Meineke's
tv
xop&!xJ.~o~v
atha.~!;;'
ta.6ya'C!;; or tayva.i:(;; (so MSS):
Voigt
Whatever the correct reading is here, it is
at least likely that same short dative is involved.
broke dcmn, the dialects were able to make their choice between them.
Wathelet rejects this on the grounds that it is strange that Thessalian
and Boeotian should stand against Lesbian, but if the tv.D forms co-existed
until the change of *-vns to *-vis in Lesbian, then Lesbian would have
f. Ale. 333 otvo!;; yap 6:v3p{Jn:m(;; o(orrrpov.
Lobel emended to 6.\13p:!mw,
been forced, to select the longer
f~rms in order to maintain the distinction
and is probably correct, since the silnilar xchornpov usually takes a
between the dative and accusative plural.
genitive in such cases.
of a separate locative in Greek suggests that the breakdCMn in the
The fact that there are traces
distinction between it and the dative/instrumental may have been fairly
In three, or perhaps four of these six cases, therefore, a short
dative is a strong possibility.
The rrost striking aspect of the. a- and
o-stem datives in the Aeolic group is that Thessalian and Boeotian differ
from Lesbian.
this.
A number of explanations have been put forward to explain
The rrost obvious is that Lesbian has tmdergone influence from Ionic,
but the difficulty with this view is that
to Ionic
c-n~m
(-no~).
does not correspond well
Ruijgh (14ff.) is follcmed by Wathelet (243ff.)
in arguing that Aeolic originally had
and Boeotian were influenced by
that Aeolic must have had
-o~o~
-a~o~, -o~o~,
North~west
Greek.
-Eao~
: : 0;vopE!;; : x ; x = O;vopgao~) .
The reason for this is
datives is correct
(A6yo~
:
The short forms would then be
explicable as epicisms in Sappho and Alcaeus.
If this is correct, then the difference between Lesbian and the
other two Aeolic dialects would be irrelevant, since they would by then
have been long separated.
On this theory, the short forms would be
Lesbian archaisms preserved in poetry, perhaps with the support of the
pronoun/article.
The co-existence of long and short forms in Thessalian
would also have allcmed for Wackemagel' s theory about the
-E<JO~
datives
to remain possible.
and that Thessalian
datives at one tine, if Nackernagel' s
theory of the origin of the Aeolic
A6yo~m
-a.~m
recent.
9. Ale. 346. 3
A.a5~xaoEa
(interlinear hiatus) .
2
the enP, of a gl c line, as an accusative singular.
This w:>rd stands at
Lobel (AM 1) emended
it to A.a5~xaoEov for. two reasons: firstly, to rerrove the interlinear
hiatus, and secondly to .rerrove the 'incorrect' form in -Ea, since elsewhere
~athelet w:>uld not place much emphasis on support fran the pronouns: 'il
serai t toutefois dangereux d' attribuer une trop grande inportance · a une
forme pronominale isolee: les pronoms possedent souvent une flexion
particuliere et archalque' (244).
:I
- ll6 in the poems, this accusative has the tennination -nv.
seems to rre conclusive:
rre:r::x4Jo~o
AaB~xaom
Neither
- ll7 -
arg~JITent
could s:i.rrply be an archaism, like "AU:x:ro,
discussed above (p. ll2); the question of tenninal hiatus I
shall consider in same detail.
d. Sa. 112.1 (2 pros or cho ba cho ba) 0pao
I
£x-re:-rEAe:o-r'.
'Attention may be called to the fact that the suspect <'ll:ao is follCMed
in the next line by
£x-re:-rtAe:o-ra~,
genuineness' (!Dbel, SM lxix).
which is certainly not in favour of its
However, dpao is not the only augmentless
form in Sappho (see belCM p. 123) and the MSS are unanirrous.
IDbel objected to the interlinear hiatus in AaB~xaoe:a
I ~~o~v
on the basis of his theory that such hiatus can occur only in lines between
which words may not be divided, and that only when the vowel at the end
of the first line is long.
1
To this rule, there are the following
possible exceptions (cf. Page 66) •
e. sa. 31.2 (Sapphics) -ro~
I
toaave:~
IDbel is uncertain how monosyllables with final elidable
-o~, -a~
were
treated in these circumstances, because of the shortage of evidence (sM
lxx).
He rrerely points to the fact that the MSS reading is
-rm6ave:~,
but this is ITOre satisfactorily errended to -rm Co&:ivEL than to Page's
2
a. Sa. 44.9 (gl d)
I 6pyUpa.
6.&.ipj.JO.-ra,
-rt -r'
to&:lve:~
(21).
b. Sa. 44.26
Since these two are in an 'abnormal' poem, one might disregard them, but
enough has been said by now to suggest that this may not be a valid
procedure.
2
f. Ale. 347a.l (gl c)
m:p~-rtAAE:-ra~,
I
6.
Lobel acconm::>dates this on the theory that polysyllables with final
elidable
-o~,
-m may so stand at the end of the line, but this is the
only evidence for such a view.
c. Sa. 94.24 (gl)
n
n
I
'[pov
is inelidable, which Page claims makes this case fundamentally
different fran the others, though one might wonder whether, if• there
really had been a 'rule' against putting open short syllables at the end
of glyconic and related lines, n
~bel's
should be here at all.
of the evidence, it is fairly clear that terminal hiatus and even 'brevis
in longo' in hiatus were a feature of Lesbian verse, which would provide
a justification for retaining the form that provoked this discussion,
discussion of terminal hiatus (SM lxvi ff.) is, in parts, based on
a questionable colametry.
Though there remain uncertainties, chiefly through the patchy nature
AaB~xaoe:a.
If this was an archaic form that had been preserved in poetry,
It is not, for instance, surprising that there is
no hiatus between the third and fourth lines of the Sapphic stanza, since
its usefulness as a close to glyconic lines either as a masculine
they constitute in fact a single line (cf. Irigoin, SVE).
accusative or neuter plural may have been the cause (cf. Ale. 5.10 6.dxe:al,
Again, there
is 'no hiatus of any kind within the stanza' of Sa. 96, but, as this seems
to consist of a single long line (cr 3gl ba) , there is no question of there
112.25 ]-rov ~A~aoe:all.
being any such hiatus.
10. IA 11
I'
I
i!
I
MHpwv.
Harrm suggests that this is 'vielleicht eine alte
- 119 -
- 118Form (<*-o(i)m, vgl.
znv
H. <*~e(u)m, ~ <*g~(u)m?)'
(160).
do not show the extended forms, and in elegy there is only O:vtpa (three
The
times: West,
regular form in sare dialects of this accusative is -w (Schwyzer, GG 1.
4 7 Sf. ) , with
-CJJV
SGEI
98; cf. Smyth 431£.).
If mhe:PQG etc. are innovations
in Lesbian, then Sappho' s rul.-rpoG could be an archaism.
in Boeotian and the Doric dialects, perhaps through
analogy with a-stem nouns (Bechtel 271; cf. 67): Boeotian could, therefore,
12. Dative plural of consonant, i- and u-stems.
have been influenced by neighbouring Phocian, and so would be no evidence
for Aeolic.
of problems here: short datives in
We have no other trustworthy evidence for Lesbian: sa. 1.18
-o~
There are two sets
beside regular
-e:oo~,
and the s-
stems.
ne:t:&l, listed tentatively by Hamu (159), is alrrDst certainly a present
subjtmctive, and it is hard to know what weight to give to the ancient
grammarians exarrples of !lr\"t"CJJV (sic) and E<lmpw.
Thessalian.
a.
There is no evidence for
-a~/-e:oo~.
In the Lesbian inscriptions, the dative plural of
consonant, i- and u-stems is in
If "Hpwv were old, it would be noteworthy, since this form
-e;oo~,
but the poems sh<M a number ·of
short datives for both poets:
is not fotmd in Harer.
i. in the root nouns, there are Ale. 39a. 9
11. Sa. 1. 7 rr.O.-.PQG.
ooocn (cf. Ale. 34b. 9
Kazik-Zawadzka has argued that Ale. 130b. 5V
contrasted with IA 16.1
mhe:PQG was an epic form, on the grotmds that 'geni tivi, qui -e;- habent,
rarissime in lingua graeca usurpantur; solus fere Homerus eis utitur' (45);
perhaps Sa. 70.13
Ale.
Greek paradeigm of: rraU]p, rr.O.-.e:p, rra-.£pa, rra"t"pOG, rra"t"pL,
rra-rp&o~.
~~~ALOEOO~
for ad-stem, if 'all', contrast
}TION-re:oo~[;
iii. for the u-stems, there are Ale. 117b.35, IA 25A V
That these are innovations is clear from the ccrnparative evidence, which
TTa"t"EPEG, rra-rEpaG (though note Skt. pitrn), rra-rpi;iv,
, which may be
From
the inscriptions, one can add [8)uyo;re:~ (Schw. 632B.5, Eresus ca. 300).
C~n
x£pa~
n.OOe:oo~v;
contrast Ale. 205(a).ii.6
section and the tmc'3rtain Sa. 44.16 5uya-.pe;c [ , ·the kinship terms in the
suggests a
and in both poets
Sa. lOSe. 2
ii. rrat:m appears in Sa. 95.6 and Ale. 42.2: if it means 'children',
On the other hand, apart fran the Sappho exarrple at the head of this
poems sh<M the epsilon: rr.O.-.e:pa, ].uhe:pa, rr.O.-.e:poG, TTa"t"Ep:.N, 1-11he:p~.
ru?c?"~ v)
qp£o~,
SLG
262.24
Oqp\.XJ~V,
Sa. 47.2
&lxpua~v,
OpUo~V;
iv. in the diphthong stems, Sa. 44.7
va.Uo~v
beside Ale. 385
.'lhe extens-
ion of the epsilon is found in Horner, but these forms are much less
cO!liiDn than the original ones (Chantraine 213f.).
That they should be
These short forms could be explained as 'survivals of an earlier
fotmd in Thessalian and Boeotian is obviously irrelevant here, since the
stage which preceded the period in which -e:am took over corrpletely''
extension was presumably a l~te feature occurring in different dialects
(MJrpurgo Davies,
independently (the inscriptional evidence dates f~ the fifth and third
Zawadzka (46f.) and Wathelet (257), who prefer to see the short forms
centuries respectively: Thumb-Scherer 37, 67) .
FP
184 n.l2).
This view is, however, rejected by Kazik-
The Ionic inscriptions
I
Ill
- 120-
- 121-
as epic borravings, but it is easy to sketch the process whereby they
is generally thought, she presurres that Aeolic simplified -ss- in the
may have been preserved in a Lesbian tradition of verse.
sarre way as Ionic.
The formation
Thus, *genessi would have becare *genesi, which
of the -e:aoL datives took place at t.'1e proto-Thessalian, i f not proto-
would then have provided t.'1e starting-point for the restoration of -s-
Aeolic stage (Garcia-Ram'ln 84), so the migration probably took place at
in the dative-locatives of the thematic stems: the resulting -men would
the tine both datives were in use.
then have been available for the development of the -e:aoL datives, via
As the short fonn fell out of the
spoken language, its preservation in poetry would have been helped by its
Wackernagel' s proportional formula.
metrical usefulness and the fact that it was used in Ionic.
explains the history of the Greek dative-locatives makes it very attractive,
This would
The neatness wit.'1. which this theory
therefore provide a good instance of the way in which Ionic may have
but, as the author admits, there is little corroborative evidence that
helped preserve an archaic Aeolic fonn, without actually being the origin
Aeelic did in fact s:i.rnplify the double sibilant.
of it.
unfortunate that there is no inscriptional evidence fo:!C Lesbian of a
Furtherrrore, it is
suitable date: Em(jXXVEEOOL occurs on a second-century inscription fran
Another example of the short dative may be discussed separately:
Ale. 39a. 8 av6pEOL.
Cyme.
For Thessalian, there is only auyyEVEOOL fran Matropolis of the
second part of the third century (Morpurgo Davies,
Hanm explained this as 'wohl analogisch nach
FP
185f.) . 1
*ruh:pe:m , wo -e:- nach qpEOL fUr <jJf:JC]aL (Pi.) aus dem lllirigen Paradigma
verschleppt ist' (151).
It is perhaps rrore
lik~ly
The other possible explanation is t.l-J.at the short fonns are due to
that we have here the
simplification of the double sibilant, on t.'1e analogy of the s-stems;
the influence of Ionic - perhaps spoken as easily as epic.
Morpurgo
this fonn does not appear elsewhere, so oould be a poetic creation
Davies opposes the notion t.'1at epic influence is involved, on the grounds
peculiar to Lesbian.
that such influence is generally found (i) in certain metrical and
poetic types (the 'abnormal' poems), (ii) in epic formulae and (iii) 'in
b. s-stems.
It is a remarkable fact that all seven instances of
isolated rrorphs which alternate with the "correct" Aeolic fonn and which
s-stem dative plurals show not the expected-e:aoL, but -e:oL: Sa. 31.6,
126, 158.1; Ale. lOB.5, 283.3 a.nae:oL(v), Sa. 2.10
6ve:We:mv.
~oLv,
serve a metrical or stylistic purpose' (186).
Ale. 36.6
She rightly says that the
first two do not apply here, and suggests that 'the regularity of the
It would be easy to take these as simply the result of Ionic
rrorphological fact speaks against' the third.
Two points should be made
influence, especially as it is precisely in the s-stems that such
about this.
influence would be felt: YEVEOOL would be affected by ytve:m, but not
no exceptions oonstitutes a rare unanimity for our material, the possibility
<PUAOxEOOL by <iJI)Aa!; •.• 1 Morpurgo Davies, havever, has argued that the
of c.'lance should always be tak<>...n into account.
short fonn is proper to Aeolic for these stems.
oonsiderations are in fact rrore important here than Morpurgo Davies allavs.
1
In opposition to what
I ave help on this point to Dr J. Chadwick.
Firstly, though seven instances of a particular feature with
Secondly, metrical
\nrpurgo Davies's theory is also apposed by Garcia-Ram'ln 83f.; cf. her
cc:mrents in
I
FP
187 n. 24.
- 122 -
possible in the metres of the
Ale. lOB (Ionics)
Ev crrnaBoo~
poe!lE
in which they are found.
!f~
11. The augment
Thus, in
2
could not be used, and in Ale. 36 (if gl d
like the other poems on that papyrus) ove:'CoE:oo~ would be restricted to
the start of the line.
I
- 123 -
Datives in the full fonn would not always be either convenient or
Nor does the use of the short fonn where the
metre would have accarmodated the long fonn tell us anything, since Lesbian
elsewhere uses an Ionic form where a native one would have done as well:
I il
Blumenthal has demonstrated that the omission of the augment in
f' ~ ~
~
Greek is not a poetic licence, so much as a feature of the history of
-I
~ 1..I
II
the Greek language: 'there seems-to be a sufficiently clear set of
!''
trends in the oc=rence of the augment to indicate that it is in overall
terms linked with the age of the various forms affected rather than a
manifestation of an IE poetical language' (76, on Rorrer) •
cf. Ale. 50. 4 {.fx:l:::m.J, where {.&iii«J.v could have stood.
In Sappho and Alcaeus, the augment is anitted in the follc:Ming places.
In view of the uncertainties about how intervocalic -s- was restored
in Greek and of the fragrrentary nature of our evidence for the dative
plural of the s-stems in Aeolic, a solution to this problem is not yet
possible.
a. The syllabic augment: .sa. l05a.2, 3
A.e:~·m,
E:xA.e:A.&aovm; ·Ale.
42.13, 308b.3, 327.2 yE:vva:m; 349c V (= IA 8 LP) yE;At:J:.J, 283.9 ne:La';
332.2 wi•3ave:.
Cf. also Sa. 98a.l a 6~ ~Evva[; Ale. 205.3 1tEA.•'a[
The fact that Lesbian created avc5pe:OL shows that in poetry
b. The temporal augment: Sa. 44.ll av6pouae:, ?23 ()pjJa:raL, 26 [Ka\le:,
the sillplification o:f sibilants in the dative was a feature of the
tradition, but until we have ll'Ore infonnation, it is not possible to say
31 E:A.E:A.ua6ov, 94.6 a~LSo~, 112.2, 3 0pao; Ale. 255.5 {.A.e:, 336 EA.e:•o
whether this was in imitation of what the poets heard in Ionic or whether
(cf. further Hamm 161).
it was a native element of the dialect.
Since the use or anission of the augment is a feature of Corrm::m Greek,
we may presume to add these to the list of possible archaic features of
There is a final example of -e:oL in Ale. 315 (4.qJ.e:mv, for which there
Aeolic origin in the poets.
is no Horreric precedent and which stands against the regular (iw.L (v).
This could have been created on analogy
even of the s-stems.
with~
(Hanm 107), or perhaps
Wathelet (289 n. 76) rightly says that 'son triple
caractere eolien' is against Kazik-Zawadzka's suggestion that it is due
to epic influence (48).
1
Blumenthal ccmrents that, though the use of the augment is a feature
of language rather than poetry, 'the formulaic system of crnposition
means that allc:Mance must always be made for the adoption of convenient
forms from the speaker's c<:::npetence' (76).
In the light of this remark,
it is interesting to consider these unaugmented forms in Lesbian verse
1
Alc. 357. 2 Opf.l remains a problem.
This disyllabic fonn oceurs only thrice
in Rorrer, twice before a vowel (so ?"Apr]' (L); cf. Chantraine 229).
The
from the point of view of tl1e rretres they appear in.
In Sa. l05a (hexa-
rreters), *E:A.e:A.iillmno, *E:Ee:A.E:Aafuv•o would be intractable.
All the exarrples
absence of Thessalian evidence and the many different suffixes found in
11:
J1:
this name in Greek (Perpillou 238) make it illpossible to decide whether
of the anission (or non-adoption) of the terrporal augment oc= in rretres
Alcaeus has borrowed fran Harer (cf. Harnm 159 for a suggestion on heM this
with a dactylic rhythm.
could be an Aeolic fonn) ;
l
l.~.
I'
2
1:1;
I'
~!
In gl d, verbs beginning with a short vowel plus
1'',
1.' I
1·1:1·1
I
' I
1:
- 125 -
- 124 t~
consonant with a shape u-- (6pow,
etc.) are transfonred with an
augment into the shape --x (!\'pJl.XJO.) or --ux
only fit at the start of the line.
(cipo~),
(53) .
This and the fact that athematic forms are regular in Thessalian
(Thumb-Scherer 69) suggest that the thematic forms in Lesbian are due
which would
It would have been natural therefore
to Ionic, though one might wonder if epic rather than spoken Ionic
for the Aeolic poets not to have adopted this augment in these netres,
was necessarily the origin of exanples like 6vxaMov•e:~.
a practice to which Sappho and Alcaeus would be heirs.
also be the origin of the later thematic examples on the inscriptions:
In this same
1.1
:1'
netre, augmented forms of, say, E:A.e:A.Ua&,:, are similarly restricted, and
a fonn ~LI36lJ(lV would not' fit the glyconics of Sa. 94.
Ionic will
i
Hoffmann 130.5 TTOpKClAEL 1 IG 528.5 'KOA.EoL[OL, !!ilet 3.152.88 ~V,
(
~~
It is unlikely,
t1
therefore, that epic influence is involved here, since, if there had been
Aeolic poetry before Sappho and Alcaeus, it would sirrply not have adopted
2. Ale. 334.2 E:01:1.XPEA.L!;e:.
Sa. 100 E:nUitaaoe:v and the evidence fran
the inscriptions (xa"t"e:5Cxaaoav, Schw. 632A.31, Eresus ca. 300; xa]•e:-
the augment where it was netrically inconvenient.
OKEUrocre:
1
1:
ill
63411.19, Nesus 319/7 etc. , cf. Thumb-Scherer 104) sha.v that
II
;_i
jl
the regular suffix for the future and aorist of verbs in ~ ~w < -UJ-yw,
1
12.conjugation
afryw was
l. Sa. 44.33 6'\/J.!OA.E:ovte:~, Ale. 322.1 TIO"t"EOV"t"aL.
Lesbian regularly
conjugates verbs athematically, which elsewhere tend to be
verbs.
1
The above are two exceptions to this.
1
contract
beside
'KOA.e:tiv"t"e:~
nEL"O~L,
do occur.
epic suggests that E:<JLl..XIlEA.L!;e: was an epicisrn (so Kazik-Zawadzka 51) .
Hanm declares the first
In
Thessalian, both sibilant and guttural fonns are found, but the latter
are most probably to be put da.vn to North-West Greek influence (Ruijgh
73, but cf. Garcia-RamOn 95).
TIO"t"EOVL"aL is, as a rrore poetic verb
most likely to be epic: cf. Od. 24.7
"t"pC~ouoaL
TIO"t"EOVL"aL,
Il. 19.357 E:KTIO"t"EOVLO.L.
3. Sa. 142 i'ioa.v, 154.2 E:m:ci5r)a:r.v; Ale. 50.4 ~&xxl.v.
The suffix -oa.v
is ~haracteristic of Ionic; it has no IE counterpart and appears to have
been taken over from the sigrnatic aorist.
On the evidence of Mycenean2
Cypriot, Garcia-Rarr6n argues that
11
1
epic because it appears in a dactylic poem: Homer does not have 'KOA.Eov.•e:~,
but 'KOA.Eoucn,
-=/a.. This and the fact that the word is most canrron 'in
E. Thessalian, Lesbian and Arcade1
la flexion athematique constitue un
archaisme du grec ccmnun en face du type thematique innovateur qui se
generalise en beotien, en ionien-attique et dans les dialectes occidentaux 1
Though Thessalian has quite
a number of aorist endings, -oa.v is not anong them
(Morpurgo Davies, DF 145ff.
and add MD 205.1, Pherae V; 213.3, Pherae n.d. (E:]56(x]aLe:vl. The
examples of t.~e suffix in Lesbia'l will be due to Ionic, therefore, which
gains confinnation in the case of -i'ioa.v, since the inscriptions sha.v E:ov
1 .
.cf. Hock, Wathelet 298ff., Hanm 17lf. (with n. 73 for other, probably
erroneous forms from the tradition).
2
Adrnittedly rather tenuous: te-re-ja-e ?"t"e:Ae:LOhe:v; cf. M:Jrpurgo, MGL s.v.;
Baumbach 181 for discussion.
(e.g. Schw. 644.12, Aegae .ca. 300).
Bechtel (92) quotes Od. 8.131
E"t"Epp8r\oa.v, and ~cn:noa.v as epic parallels for E:<n:6.{1noo.v, but specifically
fl
~'
- 126 epic influence is urmecessary.
Of
- 127 -
{!;&x:KJ;v,
Lobel wrote:
456); they also appear in the text of Herodotus, though the Ionic
that {!;&x:KJ;v is a genuine Lesbian aorist is made pretty certain not
rrerely by the fact that it occurs in a place where its enployment
affords no particular rretrical advantage over {!;&.JH.av, but that
Sappho' s E:crrcilinoov shCMs the same fonnation. On the other hand,
there is evidence that the -'It- forms of the aorist {!;&.iJ'Ka, {!;&]ua
had already spread beyond the three persons of the singular active
in Sappho' s m:pe:arl'KOO which supports {!;&iJJ«J.v. (AM X'xx)
He concluded that both
{!;&x:KJ;v and {!;&.JH.av
were proper to Lesbian.
is unlikely: the poets and inscriptions both exhibit
not
{!;&x:KJ;v;
inscriptions prefer the short-VCJW"el forms (Thumb-Scherer 280) ·
the long-VCJW"el forms are innovations and are found in Ionic,. q:ap!;~fu
1
is presumably an Ionisrn: there is no evidence yet for Thessalian.
but
E:crrcilinoov does not support the argument, since the fonn of
the aorist passive on the inscriptions is in -8e:v (Bechtel 92).
and later long vCMel forms were also introduced.
The follCMing forms
are transrni tted in the poems:
Ale. 38A.ll
5. Ale. 36.10 E:oC'Ito-re:~;;.
It is a feature of the Aeolic dialects that
they use the present endings for the perfect active participle.
is just one exception. from Alcaeus , E:o C'lto-re:~;;.
There
In general, the Greek
70.10
xo.A.6s:Jao]J.e:v
167.20
EpUooo]J£V
plurals: Wathelet 327).
The dental found in the tennination of the
historical Greek dialects is paralleled in other IE languages , but seems
to have been an independent developrrent in each, rather than a feature
6J30,ao]J£v
sa. 60.6
fu::A.narw;;
of the parent tongue (cf. Szerreremyi,
I
}((1).\fue:~
I
arro-rdae:~
342
qxn;e:fun ~G
361
-re:Mon ~
endings, it is rrost likely that proto-Aeolic si.rrply replaced the inherited
1
_
arrone:p:ioat;~
(Schw. 646.14,
(cf. Bechtel 94 and Aeolica 1).
o(?h)-, -wo(?h)os with the present endings, rather than that they went
11
of the short forms in spoken Lesbian, but they are a little too late for
II
II
i
that.
In these circumstances, E:oC'Ito-re:~;; would
be an i.rrport and not an archaism.
If one
could trust the spelling, this would be good evidence for the preservation
I:
The Mycenean evidence
Garcia-RanDn 63f.), and, since the Aeolic dialects all have the present
through a stage with the dental.
The epigraphic evidence is late, but gives
Cyme II in.)
PPA).
suggests that the introduction of the dental is post-Mycenean (cf.
58.12 6.e:Carw;;
The adjective E:n-rop6yu~o~ (Sa. 110.1) may be ascribed to Ionic for
the same reasons (Harrm 92).
It is a parody of epic E:vve:6pyu~o~;;.
The short-VCJW"el forms in the poems are metrically secured, but the
status of the long-VCJW"el ones is uncertain.
The second and third person
examples cannot safely be used, since Sappho and Alcaeus wrote E, which
could represent either -n-or -n-.
This leaves only q:ap!;W!J.e:fu.
In
6. Ale. 72.10 na-rci.ye:O'K(e:). _Greek inherited fran IE a class of verbs
~e -aa- of xaA.cla:Jo]J£v, E:p6aoo]J£v is a metrical featm·e, on analogy with
the s-aorists.
xaA.Oool.ie:v'
Homer, long VCJW"el forms are found and are confinned by the rretre (Chantraine
1
-re:A.e:OOT] Ap. Dysc. cod. A, -re:Mon~ Koen, Bekker, -re:A.E:on Ahrens, -re:A.E:ae:~ Lobel.
lt
I
I;
~
dialects have the endings -(w)os -, -(w)ot-, though Mycenean has -wo(?h)-
This was originally marked by -a e:/o
,I
1
< -wos- (all the evidence is from the masculine and neuter nominative
4. Sigmatic aorist subjunctive.
t
;·f:
liqi
This
{!;&.JH.av, {!;&,J«l\1 1
Since
(AM
Lobel muses on whether *xaA.Oall]J£V 'might have represented
J..xx) •
I f our view of Lesbian poetry is right, the answer is
Yes, i f uu-u is required, but enphatic *xaMoo~e:v at the start of an Alcaic
·
f onn. Th~s
'·-"uld
further· shCM the poetic
stanza requires the double s~gma
~
"~
nature of the language.
!
- 129 -
- 128in -sk-, which had an i terative-durative force, such as qx)owu.
It was
only Ionic, hCMever, which fran these created inperatives and aorists
with an iterative force, e.g. weuyeoxov (cf. Schwyzer,
GG
1.710).
Of
this latter class, Homer has some 12Q-130 examples, occurring in some
250 places, many of them being hapax legomena.
After Homer, such fonns
are rare in poetry until the fifth century (West,
SGEI
105; the two
in Aristophanes appear in a' mock oracle [Pax 1070] and a paratragic
passage
[Eq.
1242)).
Bechtel (85) posits an epic source for the Alcaic
exarrple, since this is the first non-Ionic usage of this feature.
(IG
514.3 xa-roLxdouv0L) and Boeotian (Schw. 528.14, Orchorrenos
II p. pr. c5auLWoV-rEG, 491.8, 7hespiae II? EnLa-rE~].LEV etc.; cf.
Garcia-RarrOn 7lf.), as well as in Arcadian and sorre of the 'l'iest-Greek
dialects.
GG
They appear to be back-forrrations f=m -nau, -naa (Schwyzer,
1. 729f.), and are no doubt independent creations in the various
dialects.
There is nothing of this sort in Ionic, and in Homer, apart
from a number of fonns in
-Ow,
"""'CWl
(chiefly the result of 'diectasis':
Chantraine 75ff., 361; Risch, rvHS 322ff.), the only examples of this type
are XPE~\!Ob,
)(PEL(JJV.
The two examples in Sappho, therefore, are by no
On
the other hand, neither na:rayEOHOV nor na:rayiii appear in Homer, so that
Alcaeus may have created the fonn hilnself on analogy with Ionic verbs
of this type: Curtius (22) notes t.l-J.at many of the exarrples in Horrer look
like experirre.11ts by the author.
Thessalian
In Alcaeus, this iterative provides an
means anomalous, and the desire to remove them seems to have been mainly
grounded in a desire for hoiTDgenei ty in Sappho' s dialect.
Furthennore,
the corruption of an originally correct aoCxrpL to aoL"KnEL posited by
Meillet is most unlikely.
excellent onanatopoeic sound for t.l-J.e ringing of the pitcher on being
struck by the ladle, and is evidence that the Lesbian poets were alive
to the stylistic possibilities of fonns fran other dialects.
8. -afu.
According to the ancient grarrmarians, the use of this
termination in the second person singular of the present was characteristic
of Aeolic (cf. Ahrens 129).
There are the following exarrpleS in Lesbian
poetry, most of them fonning doublets with ;the regular 2nd person fonns:
7 · Sa. 1. 21 aoLxnEL, 36 TtdJTiw.
under this heading.
fonns quoted.
Here I turn to the Aeolic fonns
Harrm is sceptical of the authenticity of the two
They can be rerroved by reading ODLXYIOL (Meillet, accepted
by Voigt into her text) and n60rn.L(J.L) L (Lobel, on the grounds that 'the
spheres of -J.Q..LL and -nw do not overlap, but are mutually exclusive' (liM
xliii], though there is scarcely enough evidence to make such a claim).
HCMever, there is evidence that the transmitted readingS may be correct.
Sa. 96.23, 129.1
~XnLaSa
(: Ale. 72.11 etc. ~XnLG)
Sa. 129.2
~CA.nLcr0' (:Sa. 3.4 A.UnnLG etc.)
Ale. 45.2
8Et:[ncr0'
Ale. 50.6 ~tcr0'
(: Ale. ll7b.6 6nCncl
(: Ale. 340 ?~L; cf. Schwyzer)
Ale. 58. 29 -rt:11i-Jafu
Herodian quotes xa.A.Tiw for the Aeolians, and the stones p=vide a number
of exarrples: rrapc:D«X)..dmcrL (Keil 52.16 from Magnesia) ; c5Lm-eA.doLOL,
auv-rEA.ELOJJEVW (Thtmlb-Scherer 103, though these may
from --reA.dw, as in Homer: Bechtel 89).
te
regularly fonned
Such fonns are also found in
This tennination is found also in Doric poetry and in Homer, where
its use is fairly restricted: of the 33 examples listed by Curtius (34ff.),
only 8at':>..nafu is at all ccmron, appearing some 16 times.
In Ionic, it
- 131 - 130-
vocalic sigma in the sigmatic aorist.
occurs only in verse (Arch. 172.3, Theog. 715, 1316).
Lobel concluded
then be the result of the proportional formula (E) A.Mnv : (E) A.uaa. =
that 'we have no rreans of telling whether or not the extension of its
sphere of enployrrent was a dialectal or "literary" innovation'
(AM
(E)l:EA.E:au~v: x (x
xl),
'trait de langue'·
-oea.
in the present might constitute a
In the natural absence of inscriptional evidence, it
(E)l:E:A.Eaoo) (cf. 192).
She concludes
(:
i[l
'it'
l
/I
1,1
The argument here is perhaps slightly less econc:mical than in the
is scarcely possible to decide this question, but since part of the
case of the s-stem dative plurals, since Aeolic must lose the double
reason for the spread of this form was to obviate confusion between
sigma, regain it, and then extend it in 'non-etymological' cases like
second and third persons in -si in dialects which changed -ti to -si,
it may have performed that function in the Lesbian vernacular.
=
we may also suggest that alternations of the type l:EA.Eaoa.L/l:EA.EOOV need
not be due to Horreric influence (though this cannot be excluded)
but may also be archaic features which were eliminated in the later
phases of the dialect. (196)
but Wathelet (312) tentatively suggested that, since the perfect participle
has present endings, the use of
The forms with double sigma could
xOA.Eaoa.L •
1
This is not an illlpossible process , of course, but until we
knCM rnore about the treatrrent of the double sibilant and of the restoration
of intervocalic sigma in Greek, it is perhaps safer to treat l:EAEOOV
9 · Aorists of s-stems.
Similar· problems attend t..'lese as did the
etc. as the result of imitation of Ionic.
1
dative plural of the nouns with the sarre stem (see aboV;e pp. 120ff.,
and for a thorough discussion, M::>rpurgo Davies,
FP
192ff.).
In the poems,
This concludes the sections on the phonology and morphology of the
EOOOJJaL always has the double sigma; l:EAnJ.LL provides both single and
Lesbian poets.
I
double sigma, most notably in
For completeness sake, I
nCM
discuss briefly questions
concerning the borrCMing of lexical items between the dialects, and also
Sa. 1.26f.
the various rretrically conditioned forms in the poetic language.
\
cf. Sa. 17.5 EXl:EAEODaVl:EG, 60.3 -.E:]A.Eoov?, 76.2 l:E)A.EOELE; Ale. 361
l:EA.E:aEL (? cf. above p.l26 n.l).
368.1 "l«iA.E:aoa.L •
There is also an analogical form Ale.
I
In the inscriptions, the double consonant is regular
I'
r
13. words
I
I
OWing to the scarcity of evidence, it would be unwise to attenpt to
I
I'
(Thumb-Scherer 104, l>brpurgo Davies,
FP
193).
While admitting that the
case cannot finally be proved, M::>rpurgo Davies suggests a process whereby
a form *(e)telesse
in proto-Greek or proto-Aeolic becarre *(e)telese,
wh'ch
. turn proVl.ded
.
1.
1.n
the starting-point for the restoration of post-
~e termination is rare in Attic: cf. E<Pil<J{la.,
I
"I\L6rp8a. and Pl. Euthyph.
isolate elements in the vocabulary in the poems that might be Ionic on
I
\
\
4B btr'!LELa8a., Tim. 26D 6vrhELa8a.; Aristophanes puts it in the rnouth of
any scale (cf. the problems faced with the suffixes, above pp. 104).
HCMever, there are two words which do appear to have been of Ionic origin:
Sa. 30.8 "1\n:Ep, Ale. 129.3 !;Ovov.- The first is generally confined to
epic and to Ionic prose (cf. Denniston,
GP
487).
Sappho's poem is the
1Another problematic form is EYEVl:O (Sappho) , on which cf. Szerrerenyi 168ff.
his Megarian at Ach. 778: OU XPfia8a.; OLYf1LG, i:) l«:lxLcr'c· anoA.ou).Lf:va.;
I
i
i;
T
- 132 -
- 133-
only place in Lesbian where ne:p is used as an enclitic; since n:£p is
diganma had led to a short syllable in the spoken language: Ale. 345.2
regularly used as a preposition like ne:pi., one presumes that its use as
n:o~H~AOBEpo~, 283.5 E[e.]varui•a, 345.1 n:Epi,wv, 72.9 ovvWpLve, Sa. 44.26
,;I
i
I
';I
'II
C~]ve, 111.5 raa>; (?).
an enclitic did not develop.
:1[1
l
The word for 'corrmon' in the inscriptions is Ho'C\10>; (e.g. Schw.
622.16, Mytilene 222); it does not appear in the poems, but Alcaeus
has the synonynous
EOvob, a word found in Haner, Ionic prose and lyric
The cases of 'true' metrical lengthening can be divided into those
which have parallels in Homer and those which do not.
have parallels: Sa. 143 (hex.)
XPUae~o~, 110a.2 (pherd) n:e~~na, 44.34 (gl 2d)
fu:oLHEA.o~>;, Ale. 45.8 (Sapph. adonaic clausula)
poetry, but not in Attic prose.
The follaving
2
U&.,:p, Alc.39a.8 (gl c?)
ye~vo[uev-, Sa. 65.10 (~hipp2 c?) E:vv, Ale. 44.7 (gl 2c?) E:vv]aAi.av,
~VVEHa, Ale. 117b.31 (ia gl
14. Metrically conditioned forms
Sa. 105c.l (hex.)
The absence of Lesbian poetry before Sappho and Alcaeus and the
small proportion of their output that is available to us makes any kind
II
glc
x
WpEcr~, Sa. 155 (cr
passim
2) ~~v[av, Ale. 181.3 (?) apeo~;,
I
~hippd or cr
I
~gl) ~uavax•~6a.
Again, havever, were these borrONed by Sappho and Alcaeus, by some earlier
Lesbian poet, or were they independent creations in each tradition?
of certainty :imp::)ssible, when one atterrpts to detennine the ' origin' of
forms which appear to have been acconm:x:J.ated to the metre.
The main
treatments of this question, by Lobel, Hanm (4lf.) and Kazik-Zawadzka
(23ff.), have all turned simply to Homer to explain such features, but
if there had been poetry before Sappho and Alcaeus, one would expect
there to have been generated peculiarly Aeolic metrical practices in
response to changes in the dialect.
Furtherrrore, the posited long
period of contact between Ionic and Aeolic poetry, and the close structural
similarities between sane of the metres, might even be said to .render
the question 'Ionic or not Ionic' irrelevant.
Thus the lack of corroborative evidence means one cannot really
tell whether the follaving are simply imitated from Homer, or are archaic
forms preserving the effect of the lost digamma; indeed, both processes
might be involved, i f the lengthening in Ionic had helped to preserve
the possibility of making the syllable long, even after the loss of the
These have no precise counterparts in Homer: Ale. 204.2 (Alcaics?)
E:n:i.AA.cyov, Sa. 44.9, 10 n:q;xpUp[a], 6pyUp(i, Ale. 72.9 (Alcaics) 6v~LVE,
130b.l2 (glc) 6vv£Anv, 423 (?) •e~vno~;.
In some cases, the force of
analogy from Homeric forms mght be invoked: the use of continuants
as double consonants (where no initial s- is involved) is virtually
confined to epic (Maas 81; an exarrple from choral lyric at Bacch. 17.90):
En:i.AA.oya>; might therefore have been formed on analogy with CiA.A.cxpo~;, n:oMM~a.a>;.
By contrast, the doubling of nu in preverbs seems to be as much
a Lesbian feature as a Haneric one (cf. l\1aas 79), compare Ale. 67.2 (gl)
E:vvaAi.av.
The last three could have been imitated from Homer, so may
\'
For the first two, there is Haneric otivex£~;,
I
be left out of accormt.
though it only appears twice (Il. 12.26, Od. 9.74).
OvvWp~ve,
6vv£Anv
are remarkable for the doubling of the nu of 6v- for which there is no
- 134 epic precedent.
ruSA.nor;;'
(AM
- 135 -
•e:wtvnor;; is , for Lobel, 'transparently ITDdelled on
xaL.
lxix), but the rarity of that form might make one look rather
verse independent of Ionic, though it is noteworthy that I!Dst examples
to the masculine genitives like f3ooLA.T)or;;.
J.
~
are to be found in Sappho's hexameters: 44.5 (g1 2d) OU\Icl:aLpoL
ayoLo ,
H
Metrical shortening is, as Chantraine says, a I!Dre problematic
subject: 'en realite on n'a sur ce point au= fait decisif ni auC\IDe
regle generale comparable'
rnetrique' (105).
a celles
This would suggest that this could have been a feature of Lesbian
que l'on observe pour l'allongement
There is a very small mmiber of ca:ses in Lesbian that
may be considered under this heading.
Ir
105a €pEU5El:a'i: OxpWL €n", 108 (?)
toor;;, 142 <PLA.a'i:
noaY,
~
0
i:i, 111.5 (? not hexameter) EPXE"t"a'i:
143 EpEeLv8o'i: €n".
The accusative AXLA.A.Ea (Ale. 387) is noteworthy as not being found
in Homer, though it could presumably be explained as created by analogy
with other names with long and short vowel forms (IInA.fior;;, IInA.Eor;; etc.;
Ale. 366 oh'Or;; i:i q>LAE rra.'C xa.t OA.0.8Ea contains two notable features.
Firstly, -EL- before a vowel is not normally reduced (Lobel,
Harrrn 28), and so Lobel, Harrrn and Forssman (28) take
~a
AM
liv ff.;
as a neuter
for Lesbian cf. Ale. 42.7, ll NnPnor;;, NnPEL&..lv).
Again, i f we accept
·the notion of Aeolic epic, it is quite :irnpossible to attribute this
form to either dialect specifically.
plural, though it is clear that many ancient readers took it to be a
feminine singular (cf. GeM on Theoc. 29.1).
Though
~a
does not
appear in Harrer, the reduction of -ELa- to -Ea- in both Homer (ci»f.{:a,
• FpJJlar;;) and the Ionic inscriptions is corrm::m enough (cf. Thumb-Scherer
253).
It may well be the result of imita,tion, therefore.
The same might be said for the
16.9 (Sapphics) OnAoLOL, 44.8
6p6rn-jEr;;.
~~les
EAL~l:a
of 'correptio attica': Sa.
XPUoLa, 14 oxA.or;;, 105a.2 paA5-
ThEo simplification of geminates, in a dialect which made
considerable use of gemination, is perhaps to be put down to Ionic
influence: Ale. 355 (gl ia) J.Jtom, Sa. l04a.l (hex.)Ooa., Ale. ll2.26
The second feature is the 'correptio epica' in xa.'i: 6A.0.8Ea.
claimed this as an epic device
(SM
Lobel
lx; cf. Page 65), but it is also
found in Pindar and Bacchylides, other dactylic and anapaestic verse and
in the lyrics of tragedy and canedy (Maas 80, Hooker 53, with n.98); it
also appears in Vedic (Allen,
VG
91).
It is possible that all these
(glc) ~EOOY, 69.2 OLOXEALOLs (Sapphics), etc.
By contrast, the fact
that Lesbian metres are frequently built on sequences of two short
syllables that are never coalesced might suggest that examples of
diaeresis were native forms (cf. Hamm 30; not all have parallels in
Homer).
varieties of Greek verse copied fran Haner, but one might rather see it
as a feature of the natural language.
In Pindar and Bacchylides, it is
usually found in the sequence -uu-, which is also :important in Lesbian
poetry, and furthe:rnore, Lesbian regularly reduces the -aL-, -mdiphthongs medially, which may have helped the correption in the connective
For the I!Dst part, then, this section has had a negative purpose:
to show that, i f Aeolic poetry had existed, one cannot silnply attribute
everything anomalous to Ionic, especially where the acccmrodating of
words to metre is concerned.
~·
- 136 -
I
!
15. Conclusion
I
I
Apart
from standard Lesbian fonns, there are Aeolic archaisms which seem to
nativ~
poetic tradition, such as the retention of
datives in
-a~b, -o~b
123f.) and so on.
~a~v
v6ov/viJJ.J (pp. 96f.),
(p. 122)
flm;p (pp. 13lf.).
abov~
(pp. 99f.), -oa.v (pp. 125f.) , EoLMO-rEb (p. 127)
It would not, of course, be possible to draw strict
lines of demarcation between these two kinds of Ionic influence, since
Ionic fonns may well have had a superficial role to play in spoken
Lesbian, and there were no doubt some sub-dialectal variations.
Nonethe-
less, it would still appear that Lesbian poets used spoken Ionic fonns
II
II
~L
+ dat.
(p. 125).
The distinction between 'normal' and 'abnormal'
Of particular
1
6.ypo(cor~v/rrwA.ua.vcXKnfu
f\pEO/Opao (p. 123),
-rw/&:v (pp. l05f.),
~OV/~oa;v
J.tOO~yvn-r-/MeAQJE:av
(pp. l09f,),
o-re([iwo~m/oo]J.O~b
(p, 125), ME/MEV (p, 103)
1
(pp. B9f.).
~
These constitute Ionic influence apparently over and
that which created the specifically Lesbian version of the Aeolic
of the migrations.
E~pEA~~E
(p. 93f.),
interest are the doublets that have been detected in her poems: carpare
There is too clear Ionic influence in fonns like ttpro.;; (pp. 95f.),
M~:>-rEpob
(p. 124),
pna
has been seen t~ be as 'artificial' as that of Alcaeus.
(pp. ll2ff,)
-rma.lrra (p. 97) ,
(p. 91), yara,
poems has proved impossible to sustain, and Sappho's poetic dialect
(pp. 112ff.), the omission of the augment (pp.
Cases also exist of words being ta:Uored to the
(p. 120),
no-rtov-ra~
particular rretres.
(pp. 112),
rretres in ways which do not have precise parallels in Homer: cCXTpare
&vepeo~
TILAva-ra~
and do not restrict t.l-:temselves to particular types of poetry or to
fonns, which, while they are shared with epic, could equally well be
-o~o
(p. 107),
(p. 90),
m;p~­
conditioned fonns appear throughout the work of both Alcaeus and Sappho,
Then there are other archaic
further archaisms of Aeolic verse, such as "AUxro,
-rtAA£-ra~
One can instance
Finally, it is significant that these non-Lesbian and rretrically
the digantna in certain cases after it had been lost generally in the
spoken language (cf. above pp. 69ff.).
In addition to these latter, there are also a number of items
restricted to or Jrost frequent in that genre.
Sappho and Alcaeus, far fran being a pure vernacular with an admixture
have belonged to a
- 137 -
which appear to have a specifically epic origin, since they are either
The preceding sections have shCMil, I think, that the language of
of epicisms, contains a number of different linguistic strata.
,-
which were not regular in their own spoken dialect in the creation of
their special poetic language.
This can no doubt be explained as a
result of the prestige enjoyed by Ionic as a dialect of poetry and as
a vehicle for other intellectual activity.
APPENDIX ON SPELLING
Though there is little evidence for the relevant period, it will be
of some use to set d= what may be deduced about the conventions of
spelling that are likely to have obtained in the Aeolis and Lesbos at
the tirre of Sappho and Alcaeus.
1
Jeffery (360) notes only a. graffito
from Mytilene of the late seventh century, which reads ] .<:JOl:E-rLA]J.EV-,
and some dedicatory graffiti from the terrple of Aphrodite at Naucratis,
dating fran 569 onwards.
HCMever, these and some coins fran Methyrnna
and Tenedos tell us little to resolve questions posed by the lyric texts.
1
Cf. Jrost recently Hooker llff.
I~~
I
- 138Taking the Aeolic area as a whole, Jeffery surrrnarises the characteristics
of the Aeolic script as follews:
CHAPTER THREE
1
It used the 'blue' chi and psi , it used neither eta (except inS.
Aeolis at Larisa and Magnesia, perhaps through the influence of
Ionic Phokaia), nor omega; delta, normally t.., is written D in the
early inscriptions of Larisa (seventh (?) to sixth century); both
three- and four-stroked sigma are used; punctuation is expressed
by either two dots (sixth and fifth century) or three (fifth
century) . (361)
THE LEXICON
••• 6ve:L6L6ELV 'WL TIL,,auWL
on •a 6v61-1ma oUu.
ftn:Lm:mo
6p8(;'x; OLaLpe:tv che: Ma8LO!;
r
Wv },!at f:v
qwvfi L [3apl3aj::xiiL
•e:8J:nl-J+.I,EVQb.
Having suggested that the phonology and rrorphology of the dialect
In an addendum (378), she notes that orrega has appeared in a sixthcentury (?) graffito from Troy VIII (-CXJ"l.l]lW).
2
of Sappho and Alcaeus contain
archaic forms of native origin, poetic
This does not, hewever,
forms , borrcwings from outside the dialect and epicisms , I rrove now to
invalidate the general principle that long and short e and o were not
consider the lexicon, in an attempt to shew that this is not different
differentiated in spelling in the early period.
Thus, spellings such
in kind from that of the rest of the early Greek lyric poets.
as Ale. ll7b. 31
~J.J.fv [ ,
Just as
with the 'Aeolic' omega are of no value to our
the Lesbian poetic dialect contains linguistic elements that were for
discussion of the dialect, since they will be the work of later editors.
the rrost part foreign to the vernacular, so its lexicon shews words
As for geminate consonants, there is no direct evidence, but the general
which the evidence from the rest of Greek suggests were
features~of
a
absence of this feature in early writing in Greek suggests it was not
Greek poetic register, or special language, which differed from that of
used in Lesbian.
Though the texts of the poems, and especially the
papyri, give the spelling
oo
the spoken dialects.
The Lesbians, I shall claim, share in
~
comron
for 6 in medial position (but cf. 66.) , the inGreek poetic Koine, of the kind that is often found in traditional (and
scriptions
have no trace of this spelling, which suggests that it is
indeed rrore advanced) societies, and which has elements in it that set it
also to be ascribed to later editors (cf. Hooker 17f. and ZLOvu(mOG)
r
off from every-day speech.
on a sixth-century coin from Phocaea: Bechtel 16).
As I have already
said (pp. 69ff. above) , the inscriptions shew no trace of the diganma,
The Problems of Lexical Study
but Arena (47) notes a spelling AFOE on an 'East Greek (Aeolian) blackfigure' vase (Beazley 15) .
He lists this as Lesbian, but there is
It will be clear that, in atterrpting to study the lexicon of Sappho
nothing to shew that the vase was inscribed by an Aeolic speaker, simply
and Alcaeus from the point of view of the character of the words in it,
because it is in an Aeolic style (of 575-550).
one will come up against considerable obstacles, which require some discussion.
~at
There is, first of all, the general problem of studying the lexicon of a
2
is, X and'f': cf. Jeffery and Buck 17 n.l.
dead language, which has been well-highlighted with reference to the Greek
If this were to be ccmpleted as a verb fm:m, as is likely, then it would
support readings like OOLJ.tt')e:L,
TT.08T'tw
in Sappho (cf. above pp. 128f.).
dialects by Coleman (64ff.) .
In modem dialect studies, the lexicon tends
to receive a lion' s share of attention, but there is a fundamental difference
- 140-
- 141-
between discussing the lexicon of a living language, where finds can be
checked in situ, and looking at a dead language.
So often, in the latter
Such difficulties may seem to throw doubt on the whole enterprise,
but, though they cannot be eliminated, there are at least two ways in
case, one is constrained to work very rruch at a 'diachronic' level, since
which they can be mitigated.
the evidence is scattered not only geographically in each area, but also
of change that may have occurred in spoken Lesbian between 600 and 300.
chronologically throughout several centuries.
Two decades ago,
It is very hard to give
Firstly, one rray speculate on the arrount
one might have looked to ·the newly-developed technique
a picture of a dialect at a particular period, especially in the early
of 'glottochronology' or 'lexicostatistics' , devised by Swadesh to
tines.
provide a kind of 'Caibon 14' dating method for language: it sought to
find a constant value for the rate of wastage in the lexical stock of
In the case of sixth-century Lesbian, this difficulty is accentuated
any language, which could then be employed in the same way as the figure
by the fact that we have no conterrporary evidence for the Lesbian vernacular:
for the decay of the Carbon 14 isotope.
no conterrporary inscriptions to talk of and no conterrporary prose.
method have, however, shown it to be over-s:illlplified and, indeed, quite
What
Subsequent applications cf this
is ITOre, there is a gap of scme three centuries between our poetic texts
inaccurate. 1
and the rrajor body of extant inscriptions, so that we have to reckon with
ways, which invalidates the attempt to create .a set of basic concepts
the unpredictable changes that occur in the lexicon of a spoken language
to use in the calculations.
over such a period.
stock at very different rates, depending on a variety of factors such
With the phonology and ITOrphology, it was possible
Different languages map out the world in very different
I
Furtherrrore, lallguages change their lexical
to provide scme checks on the evidence, because of kncMn and generally
as the introduction of literacy, political changes, the proximity or
applicable rules, but the lexicon is much ITOre fluid and open-ended.
otherwise of prestigious and richly endowed languages, and so on.
Account rrust be taken of the possibility of words that were ccxrm:.m in the
spoken dialect of 600 becoming ·obsolete by the time of our inscriptional
Nonetheless, at a rather crude level, this type of enquiry can give
evidence, or being restricted to use in a single register or context.
sorre very broad guidance.
Again, words may appear on the inscriptions which were used in specialised
backwards, to determine, for instance, when two languages diverged from
poetic diction around 600, but then went into the every'-day language,
a parent tongue, Hockett used it to calculate forwards, to find what
Whereas Swadesh had used his system to work
1cf. the short but danming article by Rea, who concludes: 'the Romance
Finally, there is the problem that the subject-matter of inscriptions
generally is not only restricted in scope, but also little related in
languages have been diverging lexically for close to 2. 2 millenia, and
the figure of 1.08 millenia obtained by the use of lexicostatistics is
too far fran kn= facts to indicate that this method of dating linguistic
content to that of the poems: ' a long ritual or legal text may yield
splits has any usefulness or validity even for the languages upon which
abundant information at other levels but hardly a typical sample of the
it is based' (150).
dialect's vocabulary' (Colerran 66).
1
1
0n the subject-rratter of the inscriptions, cf. Jeffery 58ff.
Cf. further, Hockett 526ff., Palmer,
DCL
27lff.
·--~'1[
IR
~
l
~l.
':i
- 143-
- 142 proportion of the lexicon was preserved between, for instance, Classical
Latin of 50 B.C. and present-day Rumanian, and then between Plautine
Latin and the Spanish of 1600.
The figure. he arrived at, fran these
and other studies, was a retention rate of 81% per millenium.
Though
such 'constants' must be viewed with considerable scepticism, this does
give a broad perspective on our problem, in that it suggests that, even
allowing for natural change and the influence of the Koine on the Lesbian
official language, the rate of wastage in the third of a millenium
between the poets and the inscriptions is not likely to have been
enonnous.
What this method cannot tell us, of course, is anything
about the rrovement of words within the different registers of the language
and the way in which words take on different 'errotive' meanings.
Arcadian and Cypriot, it regularly used words which elsewhere appear to
have becane obsolete or restricted to poetry.
Silk's conclusion about
Lesbian merits quotation: 'Lesbian Aeolic seems in many ways to keep itself
to itself.
However, this isolation largely concerns the phonetic and
gramnatical aspects of the language, rather than the lexical aspect'
(38).
The list of words and glosses at the end of Bechtel's survey of
the dialect does not contain, with one or two exceptions discussed below,
obsolete or 'poetic' words, but rather special Lesbian usages like xcn-
-rWTU.I.L = Cr.\10.-rUrrn.I.L, or words that are quoted for Lesbian alone, like
ooi\.c:xplx; I mEr:xx;.
Finally I in the case of the ear1y Greek poets I we
appear to be dealing with
th~
rrore privileged echelons of society, who
were the sane class who would have determined the official languages
of the inscriptions, so that there is sane little continuity here, on
The second strategy that I shall use is the one on which I shall
lay rrost eJlllhasis.
This is to use as wide a range as possible of
relevant evidence fran the lexica of other dialects in an attei!llt to
give a picture of the Lesbian poetic language.
end of the fifth century, and dialect inscriptions and of prose literature
1
Again, of course, this cannot solve
all the problems, since lexical differences are one of the distinguishing
features of different dialects.
However, where there is carplete or
nearly carplete agreerrent arrong the dialects about the use of a word
exclusively in poetry, one may with sane confidence suggest that the
word was similarly restricted in Lesbian: sanetines there is inscriptional
evidence to corroborate this.
In fact, the picture which will emerge is sufficiently coherent to
suggest that the various strategies used are not wholly without foundation.
I shall compare its
features with those of other early poetry in other dialects down to the
to the end of the fourth century.
the social level at least, though this point cannot bear much weight.
We have little or no evidence that Lesbian
differed markedly in its lexicon fran the other dialects, or that, like
~or the reasons behind this procedure, see Silk 8lff.
Naturally, the view which one takes of a word will depend on the
range of sources in which it is traditionally found: the value of the
different sources merits brief discussion, therefore.
Although, as I
have said, the inscriptions can give us only a partial picture of a
dialect's vocabulary, and, because they are written in an official,
public language, do not necessarily show us precisely the spoken language
of the day, they do n"evertheless, for the rrost part, give us a glimpse
of the rrore prosaic side of the dialect.
1
In general, therefore, I
shall presume that words given on an inscription were words that were not
alien to the 'Urrgangssprache' of the people involved, unless there is
1
On the vocabulary of the ancient inscriptions, cf. Favre, Searles,
Leumann 274ff.
'
';
... ·:rr:
V1
·~t
- 145 -
- 144 evidence to the contrary.
Nonnally 'poetic' words do, of course, sane-
ti.Jres appear in inscriptions, especially in the early period.
On this,
Dover has written:
to a considerable extent, partly because it was the only developed
'Kunstsprache' available to them (cf. Arist. Rhet. 1404a24), and partly
because they were so often dealing with 'mythical' events, which had
although there are so few archaic Ionic inscriptions they so
often present us with words which in literature are kn= only
from epic or early Ionic poetry. These inscriptions shCM us,
moreover, many words which do not oc= in extant literature at
all, but which, i f we found them in a papyrus and not in an
inscription, we should call 'poetic'. Therefore I always assume
that a word found in' early poetry belongs to the spoken language
of the ti.Jre, unless we have positive evidence - as saneti.Jres we
have- to the contrary. (PA 213f. Cf. SA 126f.)
regularly been dealt with in poetry in the past.
1
The same is true of
Herodotus, where elevated or archaic diction appears frequently in those
passages ooncerning myths, and also in technical, religious or scientific
passages.
2
This type of diction is also ccmron in speeches both in
Herodotus and in Thucydides; in the latter, speeches account for the
3
This shONs a wise caution and flexibility, though one would note that
majority of exarrples.
the presence of 'poetic' elerrents in the earlier inscriptions could be
in certain types of subject-matter, but appear regularly in passages
explained by the fact that, in the early literate period, prose-
I
writing had not yet developed as an independent genre with its
=
In xenophon, they are not so much concentrated
aninlees d'un zele didactique ardent' (GautieJ; 87).
4
In general, the
language of the Hellenica and Memorabilia is more Attic than that of the
In Plato, the longer spe~ches,
resources and oonventions, so that, when faced with e<xrposing sanething
cyropaedeia and Anabasis (Gautier 130).
that others were to read, the writer may have looked to poetry as the
passages of description and the myths tend to be more coloured with poetic
natural source of a diction which would be suitable to his task, in the
diction than the more conversational and 'Socratic' passages.
sane way as the early prose-writers did.
Attic orators vary considerably, as one might expect, not only between
The grCMth and developnent of
6
5
prose as a genre would then explain the decline in the amount of 'poetic'
themselves, but also according to the genre they are using.
language used in the inscriptions.
early orators, such as Gorgias and Antiphon, poetic words and expressions
My O'tm
view will, then, be the
In the
1cf. Norden 38ff., Lilja.
opposite of Dover's.
2cf. Aly, Favre 425ff., Jacoby, Leumann 303ff.
Poetic and archaic diction is found in varying degrees in all prose
3cf. Smith on the speeches; Rosenkranz and Luschnat.
literature, and so, in order to be able to dete:rmine the likely nature
of a particular word in Lesbian poetry, it will be :important to note
4cf. Gautier (especially), Breitenbach, Rutherford 160ff.
precisely what sort of prose authors it is found in.
5cf. Norden 104ff.
To this end, I
here briefly review the relevant writers' use of poetic diction.
1
Poetic passages include the parodic speeches in Phdr. ,
the ecphrasis there, Agathon's speech in Symp., the theogonical part of Tim.
6cf. Denniston, GPS 15ff; Blass, Jebb.
In the earliest Ionic prose-writers, this kind of diction is used
1
cf. also Silk's appendix on 'The characteristic quality of various authors'
usage ("nonnal" or "abnonnal''): ancient testimony' (2llff.).
Scherer 304f.
,,
1.
The
Bibliography also in Thumb-
146 -
147 -
were freely admitted; after this, there was sorrething of a reaction
against them in Andocides, Aeschines, Lysias and, to a lesser extent,
I socrates and Isaeus.
poetical language.
In Denosthenes, there is less reluctance to use
Generally, it is the epideictic genres where such
language is Il'Ost frequent (Denniston,
GPS
17f.) .
In the technical
writers, such as Aristotle, Theophrastus and the authors of the Hippocratic corpus, poetic words are frequently used, either in order to
create a technical language (Leurnann 315), or .in imitation of earlier
didactic poets.
6. 4 TTliJG ol»t 6pyaA.E:ov E:mt np(iy].JO.; Cf. Ar. Pl. 1 WI:; 6pyaA.f:ov np(i.y]-1.' E:mCv)
and in Aeschines (1.61 6pyaA.E:QG CN uiv &!JLv), but not in Ionic prose.
Dover (SA 128) takes it· as
a word from the 'Volkssprache': 'die Worte
der Volkssprache k8nnen im Unterschiede zu denen der literarischen
Tradition eine Patina von Altertfunlichkeit haben'.
The evidence remains
inconclusive, hcwever: it almost lcoks as i f the word had taken on something of a mock-heroic nature in fifth-century Attic, but this is clearly
not the case earlier.
1
I cannot, naturally, pretend to this kind of rigorous treabnent in
In the body of this chapter, therefore, words will be cormted as
Il'Ost likely to be poetic if they are confined to verse, or are found in
a ccrnbination of authors or contexts which regularly make use of such
language: a word formd in Thucydidean narrative, Aristotle and the
orators is a less likely candidate than one found but once in a Platonic
myth and in Herodotus.
For instance, in an important article on questions of style,
Dover (SA) has shown that we need to erect more categories than is
usually realised in discussing the style even of an author like Aristophanes, for whom there is abundant ca:parative evidence from contemporary
writers and inscriptions.
On the other
hand, in the cases I have chosen, a fairly clear picture will emerge,
which will enable us to test the hypothesis that the language cif Sappho
was not her spoken vernacular, either at the level of phonology and
rrorphology or at that of the lexicon.
Before Il'Oving to the evidence,
hCMever, I shall review earlier theories about their vocabulary·
This process cannot, of course, be a panacea, and problems will
remain.
the study of the Lesbians, because of the lack of evidence.
This is well illustrated by a word like
6pyaA.E:QG (which appears in Lesbian verse): this word is regularly met
with in poetry fran Harer to Enpedocles, but is not found in ·rragedy;
it appears eight times in Aristophanes, and is found in xenbphon (Hier.
~or Aristotle, cf. Eucken; for Theophrastus, Hindenlang; on the Hippocratic corpus, Leumann 308ff. and Silk 84 (dating and bibliography).
Earlier Studies of the Lesbian Lexicon
There are two major studies of this subject, by Lobel and KazikZawadzka.
1
Lobel (AM xxxii ff. ) based his work on the hypothesis that
• a vernacular or spoken, as contrasted with a literary dialect, has in
principle one way and no !!'Ore of expressing one meaning' (AM xviii), a
l
hypothesis parallel to that which underlies much of his work on the
1111
Il'Orphology (cf. above pp. 6lff.) .
His discussion of gj:oups of possible
I 'li
synonyms was then designed to show that not only were th~re no lexical
'I:
doublet ex hypothesi, but also that in practice there were none, since
it is always possible to distinguish between words that tnay appear at
1cf. also Mastrelli xxix ff.
Gallavotti (75) lists some synonyms in
opposition to Lobel's view, but does not take the matter further·
I'l
lu
Ill
i'.)i~
:i:
- 149 -
- 148 -
oC xa:t EUpnav x(&Sva.] xat ~
Ale. 34a.5
first sight to be synonyrrous.
natoo;v
~pxe:ae·
However, it is equally possible to produce senses in which the two are
One may question the soundness of this hypothesis in the light of
synonymous, as in
subsequent work in semantics, but also in terms of the rigour with which
~crAo~G "tOXT]~ YclG
Ale. 6.14
Lobel applies it.
Whilst it is true that 'total' synonymy is very rare
to a large extent in their meanings, such as 'chair' and 'seat' in
English.
'1.1£Aa.C~ xWVOG
where 'earth' = 'where ,the dead go' and questions of whether or not the
sea is included are irrelevant.
Also, Lobel does not take sufficient account of the use of
xe;(L~VOLG
38A. 9 (of Sisyphus) aCmllL ].l.()xfuv ~xnv KpovC&:x.~G 13a[
in spoken languages, there will always exist v.Drds which, while not
totally synonyrrous in every context or register, nonetheless coincide
0rra.
Again, as the expanse over which creatures
fly, the two words appear synonymous:
s:Linilar words in different registers, such as 'venustus' and 'bellus' in
Sa. 1.10
Latin.
Ale. 34a. 5 oC xa-c e:ijpnav x(a6va.J xat WA.aooa.v
A certain arrount of lexical redundancy is always necessary to
allCM for lexical change.
WxEEG mpoOOo~ ne:pt yO{; )J.EAaL~
In fact, if one examines all the uses of these words in Lesbian verse,
one can provide a parallel use of yo. for every use of x&Irv: that one
The .main problem with a method like Lobel's is that it is too
cannot do the reverse is due to the paucity of examples of the latter,
empirical: the hypothesis is not really tested, but rrerely demonstrated
by pointing to distinctions in rreaning between words in the contexts in
which they appear in Sappho and Alcaeus.
which only occurs in the tv.u passages quoted above and in the one to be
quoted belCM.
Such distinctions can always
be found, not so much because the words have different significations,
but-because the context will always play a considerable role in determining
a word' s precise rreaning.
In the above, I have confined myself to discussion of Lobel's
rrethod in his
CMn
terms of 1927 and in terms of the evidence ava;ilable
at the tirre.
Two fragrrents have subsequently been discovered! which have
obliterated the distinction he wished to draw.
My
objections to this method can best be illustrated by the examination
of one of Lobel's examples, that of words for 'earth' (cf.
AM XXXV
f.) .
His conclusion is that of the two v.Drds he discusses, ya is used to
rrean 'land and sea' (e.g. Sa. 16.2, where annies and ships are described
as
trtt
yw
~Aa.~va.v)
Hebrus thunders h;a
or to mean 'country' (cf. Ale. 45.3, where the
yaL~);
excludes the sea, as in
x&Irv, by contrast, is used where 'earth'
Ale. 249.6
e]x yO{;
XPn
ya clearly excludes the sea.
In the first,
rrpoLCinv rr.AOov
In the second, rather fragrrentary passage
on Alcaeus' s exile
Ale. 130b.l4V
EO~[ •..•• ] lJ.E[~]aL~ EnLI3aLG x36voG
X~L.[.].(.].(.]~ auv65o~crL )J.' aa-caLG
it is possible to argue that the meaning 'country' iq as much present as
- 150in r,:O. yaCa.s in Ale. 45.3 discussed above.
the meanings of words is needed.
- 151 A nore flexible approach to
the inscriptions shcws that, although n:qncrrdxe:Lv (corrupt in Ale. 389)
1
is only found in Haner, Alcaeus and Alexandrian poeti:y, it is unlikely
to be epic, since the simplex is found on the inscriptions.
Some thirty years after Lobel' s work, a second and rather different
In .general,
however, hers is an important study for the sheer number of words that
study was undertaken by Kazik-Zawadzk.a (56ff.), which aimed to shew that,
she instances that are poetic in Greek generally.
far from being just the spoken vernacular of the day, the language of
argue that a conparison of the lexica of Lesbian and epic does not prove
the Lesbian poets conto.i.ned a large mnnber of words which were confined
that the words shared by the two traditions were poetic in the former,
to poetJ:y elsewhere in Greek.
I propose to employ a slightly different method to make the point.
nt::M
Since one could
,,,
With this I agree, but I cannot, as will by
be clear, follew her in ascribing them all to Horner.
She allews
Rather
than concentrating on individual w:>rds, I shall use groups of nearly-
that in later poets words found in Homer and earlier poetry may be
synonynous words which deal \vi th the same general concept or 'semantic
generally referred to as poetic, but in the case of the Lesbians, she
area'' such as ave:~, an•a, n:ve:D]Ja., n:v6a for 'wind' . 1 The usage of these
wants to posit a direct line of borr<Jy/ing from epic into Lesbian verse:
words in the rest of the. Greek dialects will then be used in an attempt
multo sane artior fuit necessitudo inter Hornennn poetasque Lesbios
intercedens; hi enim cum non longe post ipsum Hanennn ceterosque
epicos viguissent, paucissimos solum poetas dictionem epicam
expilantes invenerunt, itaque ipsarn poesin epicarn potius quam earn,
quae ex hac penderet, iroitati esse videntur. Quae cum ita sint,
eadem vocabula, quae apud posteriores occurrentia poetica recte
appellari possunt, cum in poetarum Lesbionnn carminibus adhibentur,
saepissirne epica habere liceat. (57)
to characterise the word for Lesbian: where there is unanimity or mear
unanimity in the other dialects about a word's nature, I shall, for the
reasons outlined above, presume that the same was probably true for
Lesbian.
it is worth noting hew such a view can lead to forced results.
prose and one in verse: I am not arguing that the Lesbian vocabulary
can be divided up into two strict groups in this way.
follews Schindler (12) and Turyn (28) in taking 5-tn + superlative as
the Aeolic form (though it is less comnon), and W!;; as due to epic influence,
1
2
kind of diction, which for convenience I call 'poetic'.
Ag.
872 XfuvOG "t"pClJ.QLPOV XA.ai:vo:v •
on
III,
~
Both expressions are found in Attic prose
Ab.III.lc), but
This brings the
second advantage, that the richness of the Lesbian poetic diction will
Evidence from the other dia,lects suggests W!;; was the
regular· vernacular form.
is to show that Lesbian poetry poss~sses a number of terms for single
the spoken language and the others to have belonged more to a specialised
schmidt (3.57ff.) conCluded that the only distinction between the two
2Kazik-Zawadzka 73.
All I wish to do
concepts, of which one (or nore) seems to have been generally in use in
Inspection of
words was that x&J:Jv does not mean 'Erde als Stoff'; but compare Aes.
Firstly, the discussion will not becane entangled in
questions of whether the words are precise synonyms, with one used in
In the
Ws/en;n + superlative, Kazik-Zawadzk.a
even though this latter does not appear thus in Horner.
The disadvantages of the method are obvious, but it also has
two advantages.
By this stage, there is no need to· conment in general on this, but
case of the Lesbian dol)blet
:.~_-
(LSJ
s. vv.
00s is regular elsewhere, in Attic inscriptions,
be made clear: Sappho and Alcaeus will be shewn to partake in the same
1
'The contribution made by [a word] to the overall purport of an utterance
we propose to call the "sense" of a word....
For such a "scatter" of
in Herodotus (Powell, s. v. F. III) , in Doric inscriptions; Dittenberger' s
:'lenses connected with a single vocable we might errploy the anhiguous term
Index to SIG does not list O"t"L + superlative.
from ordinary language "meaning" ' (Palmer, DCL 177, 178) .
·11
'I
- 152 range· of diction as the other
- 153-
minor authors.
early poets.
Where an author of whan we possess large arrounts uses
a word on a very few occasions, I shON this (usually three times or less).
i
It is significant :in this respect that, when the evidence of the
L
Lesbian inscriptions is brought :in, it is found that they tend to shON
The Lexicon of Sappho and Alcaeus
those words which are found :in prose and poetry :in the rest of the·
1 . Groups with inscriptional evidence
dialects, rather than those that are generally found only :in poetry.
Ul
i\·,
;i:
I
Here I shall not be concerned with every case where the lexica
:.-1
···.'_j'
There are exceptions, as in the case of ardmv, as one would expect,
of the inscriptions and the poems co:incide, but only with cases where
but the fact that the Lesbian :inscriptions exhibit the words found :in
the poems shON two or rrore apparently synonyrrous words for a particular
other dialects gives one rrore confidence :in the theory that many words
concept and the inscriptions shON one of them.
which we knON to have had a basically pbetic character :in the other
majority of cases, the inscriptions use the rrore 'prosaic' word, but
dialects had the· sarre character in Lesbian.
there are one or two exceptions, where they shaw a word which is
'I
As I have said, :in the
rrore characteristic of poetry elsewhere.
The study will be :in two parts: the first will conta:in groups fran
the poems for which there is corroborative inscriptional evidence, and
The first of these is the use of ardxnv (cf. Bechtel 126), which
;jj
j:J
the second groups for which such evidence is not forthcaning.
In each
group, I shall :indicate the words that are regular in prose, but I
does not appear :in other dialect inscriptions.
In Lesbian it is found
I
have not thought it necessary to give len,gthy proofs: :in rrost cases
Schw. 620 passim (Mytilene 324/3) of exiles return:ing to their
the facts will be knONn or can be gai11ed fran the lexica.
property: 6 6J.J,h, ohdxovmv E:nt 'tailta 'ta x-dnn•a ot n:apxu:pfja:xv[ •e:~;
'poetic' words,
As for
I shall note those places where they do appear :in prose,
, 633 passim (Eresus II/I) of enter:ing a temple: 10·~ e:tare:txnv
and the type of context :involved, where relevant.
Then, at the 'end of
l!noE:
rrpo&)•m~;.
each section, there will be a table of poetic auo1ors who use the word,
Bechtel claims this usage for Ionic and Doric prose, but :in Ionic it
so that the ccmnuni ty between their lexica and those of the Lesbians
will be clear.
:I
:in the follON:ing:
••
li
Jlij
~~I
il
is restricted to five exanples :in Herodotus, two :in speeches (1. 9. 3,
lj
3.14.9") and three of annies that are on the march (3. 76.2, 9.11.2,
!I'I' ·
The table is arranged roughly by genre: epic (Homer and
Hesiod) ; 'Doric' /choral lyric (Aleman, Stesichorus, Simonides, Ibycus'
!
61.1, cf. 56.1 6noonxov'twv).
For .DOric, I have only found Epichann.
P:indar, Bacchylides); Ionic lyric and iambic (Archilochus, Hipponax,
34.1K. (cf. Bechtel, Aeolica 53).
\illII
Anacreon, Semonides); elegy (Callinus, Tyrtaeus, Mirnnerrnus, Theognis,
li
Xenophanes); Corinna; Solon and Attic drama; :in general, I anit the
Two other expressions :in this category occur on the sarre inscription,
II
11
,j
!I
- 155 -
- 154 -
)EL ~ arax.(~, where~
a third-century farm-catalogue, written in the hands of the individual
there appears the expression (3}
'possessores' (Schw. 621).
seems to have the same rreaning as in Il. 18.465 o-re: lJ.LV
At the end of it, there occurs the phrase
(20) 1\pLo-tEa (QJ.ntlwlv <IJI)-ra x • -raAa. vtp&.
uncertain,
1
txavoL.
The rreaning of -raAa. is
but the post-positioning of the preposition recalls such
Haneric phrases as
yatn~
vEp8£.
Apart from exarrples with m::pt, this
(~)ve:p0e:
In Greek poetry, the word usually rreans 'fate, death'; out-
side poetry, it is found only in Herodotus, r:eaning 'violent death'.
This gives a rare exarrple of a word in Lesbian that has different
rreanings in different registers.
type of post-positioning is rrore a feature of poetry than prose.
Furtherrrore,
j.l()po~ at\10~
l
is 'not a COOITOn word in prose: in Herodotus, it
is twice used in the phrase -ra
~ve:p&,
I pass now to the evidence
and nine t:llnes in the restricted
sense of 'seaward of' ; it also appears in a fourth-century Epidaurian
inscription (Sdhw. l08g.2.57 = IG 14.1485.57
~ve:p5e:v Otoe:ta8e:v).
2
fr~
poems and inscriptions.
The groups
are listed by the alphabetical order of the words found on the stones.
I
I
the case of -raAa. vEp&, .then, we either have a glimpse of a Lesbian
In the poems,
vernacular usage, or perhaps rrore likely a specialised expression
f:o~
is much the rrore ccmron, appearing at least a
dozen times against two of O;yaBcx.;; (Sa. 50. 2, Ale. 117b. 12V) .
The
similarity of usage is clear in
The second word of interest is
j.l()po~,
which occurs repeatedly in
the inscription to denote a rreasure of land: Paton calculates that
'singuli j.l()poL plures 4400 vites continebant'.
The word is used in·
3.3
xl~
xdoAwv
In the inscriptions, however, only ayafuG is found:
the same way in a West Locrian inscription (Berl. Sitzb. 1927.8, fifth
century).
IG 4.4 (Mytilene ca. 350) ~p ay[a8o~
It is interesting, therefore, that this word should be used
in quite a different sense in poetry: in the maiden's !arrent in Ale. lOB,
Sch~·l.
~aton (on
d.v~;
IG 12 (2). 74):
'-ra.Aa "lacus" vel "prelum" significare puto;
1:11A.ta nescio an cognatum sit.
h.e. "infra prelum est'.
634A (Nesus 319/7) 9 lJ,[e:yciA.]wv ayilllwv
aCno~,
40
-rot~ ayclaoL~
cf. 37 6:v6pay[aSL]a~
In vss. 2o-21 -ra.Aa vtp& scriptum est, -
623 (Erythrae I I in) 15 6:y0BaL
Idem fere significant hoc "prelum est"
in fine illudque "cum prelo" [cruv -ra.Aa] in initio positum.'
Cf. Bechtel,
Aeolica 18.
wxm
1
22
xci>..oL~
xat
aya.50L~.
With these, one can cacpare the following expressions from the poems,
which show the similarities in the usage of the two words:
2
Apollonius Dyscolus quotes ~e:pfu as 'Aeolic', but since he also
1
quotes Urte:p8a for Aeolic his testirrony is suspect: 6rtEp is not used
'la psilose lesbienne a fait disparaitre !'aspiration initiale provenant
by Sappho and Alcaeus (Hanm 114 n.266; cf. Smyth,,
Pe 1' amuisserrent de 8; cette forrre n' est pas un trait epique, mais doit
GMP
232).
i:
ji.I
In
preserved in a text dealing with the traditional subject of agriculture.
):
~o~ is probably derived thus: 8o8/..&; > E:ohA.&.; > E:o>..&;, Lesb. ~oA.og:
appartenir au lesbien' (Ruijgh 160) . For a poetic word, this is significant.
j,Y'
R
i~l
- 156 Sa. 137.5
~ovte:~;
wlw:sv
CJJEpov, Ale. 391
bt "tOX{):.Jv, Sa. 20. 4
J
"t uxa~
ercnve:~; ~ollm
oW
~OAa~
U).L]Jfwv, 72.13 ~olw:sv
,;iJ
··-1.
1:<1!; ~ oJjfur;;, 6.Cmoa. miA.o~
Sa. 1.6
•
~A.ue:~;
C]..llr:¥X-UV 6.y6pcu.; dxouoa.~
Ale. 130b. 3V
xapu~o~
Elsewhere in the Greek dialects, E:o5A.6!; is virtually confined to
two examples from prose literature: Democ. Bl77 oO-ce:
A6yo~;
That Lobel is making teo strong a distinction is suggested by the
humourous exchange in the Frogs (1172ff.):
E:o5AO!;
qn\)A.nv TIPfif;~v <'4Jaup(oxe:~, oO"te: TIPfif;~~; cl.y~ A6you [:lll.aaprn.L(ll~ A.UWJ,(ve:•a~
and Xen. CyL 1. 5. 9, on which Gautier carm:mts
le discours est
I
sCr assez philosophique et ... le style y est tres
ch~tie'
(92).
a coup
The
PJ.. '~u o'Ert.' ox&>~ 1:oo~6e: xnpUcxx..l nmpt
xA.Ue:~v, axoGoa.~.
EY. "to00' ~"te:pov oDe~~; Mye:~,
I
xA.Ue: ~ v, axoGoa.~ , "tal>LOV &v CJ<XPEma-ca.
The distinction does not hold for Greek generally, and xA.w is never
narre •Eolw:sv is found in Erythrae (Schw. 700.2, V/N) and E:oA.6!; in an
found in prose.
epigram from Chios (689.1, V), both from regions where a number of
Aeolic fonns are found in the dialects (cf. Buck 143).
!
',!
poetic texts, though the Glossai claim it for Arcadian, and there are
was once a word of everyday speech.
_; l
- 157 -
On the inscriptions, only axoW is used:
Schw. 620.34 (Mytilene 324/3) 6 6E: ~ axo]Uoa.~~;
Prestnnably it
The· distribution of the words in
6320.23 (Eresus, ca. 300)
6 6E:
~ axoUoa.~~;
•<lb o~ay~,
\
cf. 13.
Greek poetry is as follONs:
H He/Al St Si Ib P B/Ar Hi An Se/Ca T M Th Xe/Co/So Ae S E A
ti He/Al St Si Ib P B/Ar Hi An Se/Ca T M Th Xe/Co/So Ae S E A
XX
X
XX
X
XXX
X
X
X
X
X X
XX
XX
XXX
XXX
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
XXX
X
XXX
X X
X
XXX
X
xxxxxxxx
X
X
X
X
X X
1
3. ya, ya'Ca,
x&!J}
I have already devoted some time to these words (above pp. 148ff.),
Lobel (AM xliv) sought to distinguish between these two, by making
the first 'the rrost general' word and giving the second the sense 'give
ear to', as in:
is its meaning in Haner: 'bei Homer bedeutet
d.i. durch den Sinn des Geh8res wahmeh1nen,
6.(e:~v
nie
das physische ~ren,
das Au:frrerken' (Schmidt
It is slightly different from the above, therefore: cf. En.a.(w
'perceive', in prose.
though they are very late:
Schw. 646.10 (Cyme II in.) "t(].Kl\1 ].LE"tEXllV
~1 defined the other hearing word, 6.(w, as 'catch hearing of', which
1.272).
and it only remains to point out that the inscriptions sh.ON only ya,
axow occurs in Sa. 31.4 (U!t-), 85a.3, Ale. 129.
ll, 130b.3V, 341; xA.w in Sa. 1. 7, 86.5, 214 (4)".2 ,(= l03C.b.2V).
xat Yclb·
Iri the rest of Greek, x&!Jv is not used in prose texts, though it is
quoted for Cypriot by Hesychius (it does not appear in the inscriptions,
1ya passim (14x); ya'Ca Sa. 168C.2V, Ale. 45.3, 355; xBWv Sa; 28b.2,
Ale. 34.5, 38a.l0, 130b.l4V.
- 159 - 158-
Sa. 86.3
where !:aL is found in Schw. 679.8, Idalium ca. 450).
ya'Ca is also
141.7
confined to verse.
XX
ya'Ca
XX
x&:Jv
X
X
XX
i
,.,
6p&oo:vco 6E n(qJ.rrav ~olla
WL y~L
H He/hl St S1' Ib P B/'". Se/Ca T M Th Xe/Co/So Ae S E A
f i L Hi An
ya
,.
] •. Ku3Epn· e:uxo~[
X
X
XXX
X
XXX
X
X
X
X
XXX
X
XX
X
XX
X
X
X
X
XXX
X
X
XXX
X
X
X
X
6. 6t y6"VUN [
Ale. 44.7
'.I
(KE'tEU[ ••••• ]'tW 'tEKEOG ~LV
ALOOO].IO.L oe: I
Sa. 1.2
~ ~· &oo.LoL ~n6' 6vCaLOL 6CqJ.va,
XXX
nOLVLa, awov
4. EUXO].IO.L I (KE'tEW, ALOOOj.J.ClL I Opaj.IO.L
H He/Al St Si Ib P B/Ar Hi An Se/Ca T M Th Xe/Co/So Ae S E A
1
X X
X
XX
X
X
X
X
X
X
The first two words here are ccmnon to prose and verse; the third
txne:U:.J
x x
XX
X
XX
X
XXX
is mainly poetic, but is found three ti.rres in Herodotus: 1.24.2 where
X
Arion pleads
f~r
X
X X X
X
his life before his rescue by the dolphin; 6.61.3 in
X
1
X X
1
2
X X X
the sto:ry of the marital problems of Ariston, where the nurse E:A.Cooe:"to
"tt\'jt&ov ~~=m LflG 6I.JOj.!Op(pLTlG 'tO nm6Lov; 9.91.1, the narrative
before Plataea.
Its one appearance in Plato is as a reminiscence of
a verse line quoted before (Rep. 366A; cf. 364E).
•
~L,
As in the case of
though
the word IT"Ost comron in the poems , 66!.Lo!;, is not the one on the stones.
ccmnon in Sappho and Alcaeus, is rare in prose (five times in Herodotus,
three in speeches).
The Lesbian inscriptions give e:uxo].IO.L, Opa].IO.L:
Schw. 620.44 (Mytilene 324/3) ca
IG
Bt
~pa
•a
6
~
O;yaBoG, ~oA.o!;, this is a significant group, since
Although orxQG itself appears but once in the poems, in
Ale. 311 oi:xw 'tE ntp dJJ xat nE(:J 6.n~C~,
[e:]uEaco
the OLK- root is the live one in the poems generally: there are no
Suppl. 3 • 25 (Mytilene II P. pr) e:U]xe:oClaL 6t xat 'tOV • Ie:poxc)pu [Ka
compounds or derivatives of 66]JOG.
We find Ale. 130b.l6V o~KTl~L, 328
oCKELG, 130b.10 E:oCJ<noo., Sa. 121. 3f .' ouvoCxnv, 148.1 nOpoLKOG·
Schw. 639 (Neandrea ante 400) "t6v6e: "toV 6.v6[pLav'ta
im.6JA.A.Ova.
other Greek dialects too, this root is the significant one, whereas
6vt&xe: 'EPIJ,[t]~ Oi:n[OO!J.evo] •6 na'CBoG 5yE].I(].x[e:LOG
66!.Lo!; is found but twice in prose rreaning 'house' (in Herodotus 1.179. 2,
In the poems, the clearest uses of these words are:
1
e:uxo].l(lL Sa. 86.3, Ale. 112.21 (E;n-); txe:•e:w Ale. 44.8; A.(ooo].IO.L
2.127.3 and the Ionic inscriptions, it rreans 'a course of stones': cf.
sa.
1.2,
Ale. 374 (bis); ~L Sa. 16.22, 22.17, 112.1, 2, 141.7, Ale. ll7b.23v:
(xa"t-) •
Since these are religious words, questions of •poetic • or not
do not perhaps arise: i:t is a matter of register.
However, even here 1
it is clear that certain words seem to belong to a· spec1· a1 catego:ry and
are seldan found in prose.
In the
Favre 106, Searles 106) .
It rreans 'house' in Heracl. 5, a disparaging
reference to praying to statues oxo'Cov e:L LLG OO].LOLOL AEOXT]VEOOL 'tO,
1orxQG Ale. 311;
66voG
Sa. 1.7, 55.3, 150.1, Ale. lOB.2, 42.9, 58.2, 283.
7, 296a.5, 357.1; ~Ale. 48.15; ~AaSpa Sa. 111.1, Ale. 35.2, 42.7 (?).
1
- 161-
- 160-
and in Hdt. 4.188, a description of a strange Libyan custom.
Lesbian inscriptions, too, it is the
o~x-
root that is found.
I quote
ions shCM n:ch~:
Given the ubiquity of this word (322 examples in Fatouros's Index alone),
IG Suppl. 5A.l9 (Mytilene ante 324/3) o~oCxno~v
I anit it from the table:
otxnao~o~
H He/Al St Si Ib P B/Ar Hi An Se/Ca T M Th Xe/Co/So Ae S E A
o~w~xnoE
634.24 (Nesus 319/7)
(6.)vo~xo66]..L[n]OE,
632A.2 (Eresus <;:a. 300)
The inscript-
Schw. 632D.l9 (Eresus ca. 300) -rfiN • ATIOAI..[o6)c.pE[ Cwv] naL<&.uvl
merely the earliest of the many examples:
Schw. 620.29 (Mytilene 324/3)
-r6t~ is never found in prose.
Gautier 56 for details).
In the
D30, 37 otxn8tv-rwv
XX
X
XX
X
X
X
X X
X
X X
X
X
X
X
X
X
XXX
3
X
1
The other two wards in this group have a clear poetic flavour.
&illJO. is rare in prose: Hdt. 2. 62. 1 (Festival of Larrps at Sais) , Pherec.
Syr. 2.1 (Zeus weaves into a
qiipo~
There is one example of each in the poems:
-ra ·nvnvou &:l).IO.-rd and Schw. 654.21
(Tegea ca. 390) dx E:rtt c55]..ta. nOp E:rtoCo£, where it means 'terrple'.
sa. 16 .19V x6.v 5n.A.ow~ [m:o&:I)J.]axEv-rClG
In
Ale. 70.8 Mb x' Ci:!JuE 136AA.n-r'
Aristophanes, it is always used in paratragic or burlesque passages,
suggesting that it was felt to be obsolete or archaic in Attic
'Ill~
least (cf. Rutherford 25).
is not found in prose; in Sa. 111.1,
tv
66lJ.Q!;
XX
&illJ(l
XX
]..LtA.aBp::t
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
XX
X
X
XX
X
X
X
X
X X
X
X
X
X
X
XX
X
XXX
X
XXX
X
XXX
·X
onAa. E:EEMA.(a) ~OE, cf. Bl -ra on.A.(a
X X
3
The use of L"EUXEa = 'arms' is elsewhere confined to ~try, and is
particularly collll'On in epic.
H He/Al St Si Ib P B/Ar Hi An Se/Ca T M Th Xe/Co/So Ae S E A
XX
-rEuXEa
8.
Here, the first word is ccmnon to all Greek.
-r6tvov is fol.lnd in
both prose and verse literature, but does not figure in the dialect
inscriptions: it seems to·have been sarething of a
1 •
na~~
passim (ca. 35x); -r6tvov Ale. 359.1;
-rEx~
1
.633.13 (Eresus II/I) 1-ln Et~pnv oe 1-Lnoe 5nAa.
H He/Al St Si Ib P B/Ar Hi An Se/Ca T M Th Xe/Co/So Ae S E A
XX
E:m-r.uxE .. [
Schw. 632A. 7 (Eresus ca. 300) -rot~ 1-lEv TIOA.L-ra~~ napE~ -ra
]..LEA.OBpo[ ~o~ it has its rrore conm:m meaning of 'halls' .
orxo~
M.ApEu~
The inscriptions give two examples of the former, but none of the latter:
at
it is used with its original sense of 'roof-tree', but in Ale. 35.2
7. em.Aa., "t"Etr)(Ea
~iterary
Ale. 44.8.
word (cf.
XX
•
X
XXX
XX
X
•
<>-j
~' napo~vo:.V
X
X
X X X
2
4
X
2
-a
That both of these words were used in the tenporal sense is shCMn by
1supplements: L"EUXEa Schmidt, "t"EUXEO~ Kamerbeek, E:n~L"EUXEOb (= ETI~L"EUXEr~)
Wilamowitz.
The first or second is rrore likely, given the narre of Ares.
2np6o8E Sa. 5.5, Ale. 119.17, IA 32.2V; ndpo~Ba Ale. 6.11 (sscr. -E);
- 163-
- 162 Sa. 5. 5
c5ooa. 5E
i
10. Verbs of rrotion
np J0081:: O!.J.SpcrrE
The poems shCM the usual verbs of rrotion ~PXOJJC'.~, !3aLvw, XWpllll~,
o
'
which are =rn:Jn to prose and verse, and also ~xo;vw, ~xw,
The inscriptions shCM only the former:
are rrore poetic.
Schw. 619.19 (Mytilene IV p.pr.) ~N:J.xov MunA.frvcxo~ rrpcSa8c; x6TT:rnv
H
,!1
qXW,
1
hich
w
The last is only found in Ionic-Attic in the early
period, and so could be an Ionicism, but the text is uncertain, and
2
Neue's i:Ew may be rrore likely (cf. Hanm 127). Neither twl:vw nor i:xw
620 passim (Mytilene 324/3), e.g. 7 "t"Wv) E\1 -.0.~ ro:)A.~ ~
€6v-.wv
appears in the inscriptions, which have:
644.13 (Aegae IV extr. aut IV/III) ~ -.~ ~AoYLOb
Elsewhere, n.c:)po~ac:v/-a is found in poetry.
Schw. 619.12 (Mytilene IV p.pr.) £EEA.5n~
The Glossai claim n.c:)po~ac:v
620 (Mytilene 324/3) 9 lW.n:A.nA.DeavtQG, 24
for Arcadian, but it does not appear on the inscriptions, where there
TT.OPEXWpl')CXt\1
is TTPCXJ(J8a.yE\I\ITJ~; (Schw. 661. 33, 35, Mantinea V) and rrpc)cxfu (Inscr.
H He/Al St Si Ib P B/Ar Hi An Se/Ca T M Th xe/Co/So Ae S E A
Olymp. 266.2, V p. pr., an elegiac couplet).
XX
H He/Al St Si Ib P B/Ar Hi An Se/Ca T M Th Xe/Co/So Ae S E A
xxxxxxxx
X
X
X
XX
X
X X X
X
X X
£A.a6vn:aa~, 5
XX
X
X
XX
X
X
X
X
X X
X
X X X
2. Groups without inscriptional evidence
Here there is no support from the inscriptions, but the evidence
of the above sections has already suggested that the Lesbian dialect
q:fun aPJ?E:!arS in Ale. 73.5, 349b, and there is an isolated exanple
of
i'im
in Sa. 109.
did possess a lexicon similar in a number of ways to that of the other
The inscriptions give one exarrple of the former:
Schw. 618 (Mytilene V)
WG q:x:x.m 6
dialects.
yprnj.m~;
possibility.
In Greek generally, the defective verb lillL is represented in a very few
parts of its paradeigm.
I
Haner has only
in Attic, lillL is used in phrases like
i'iv
nat,
lillL,
it only appears in Alan. 136
n-.C
nat (Ar.
Frogs 37) and
I
Otherwise, in poetry,
and Hermipp. fr. 1
1 twl:vw Sa. 44.26, Ale. lOB.4, 395; txw Sa. 1.13 (f.E,;.), 5.2, 17.20 (6rr.-),
naC.
Cf. in general, Lejeune, Adverbes.
Once again, the similarity in the groups of words used
between the Lesbians and the other poets will be clear·
(3rd person singular inperfect);
5' €yw etc. are carrnon in Plato's dialogues.
ro&po~ac:v Sa. 5.11, Ale. 112.20, 325.3.
II
i'i
The follCMing sections may be read in the light of this
62.10, 96.36, 105a.3 '(f.n-), Ale. 207.8, 287b.6;
I
nxw Sa.
114.2 (bis).
l.rhe MSS of Harrer provide a s:iJnilar picture: nxw is transmitted in
four places, of which only one seems to be certain (cf. Leaf on Il. 5.
478) ; i:xw is transmitted sorre twenty-five times.
I
- 165 -
- 164 -
In Greek generally, the usage of these four words suggests that
they were felt to be virtually synonymous; Schmidt sumnarised as follows:
Label's discussion (AM xxxiii ff.) is ncm out of date, since winds
'rcve:Wa. hat •.• noch die ganze Ve:rwendbarkeit des Horrerischen 6.Fn"t"TJG und
have blCMn frequently through the fragments discovered since he wrote.
des On).ICl der nachharerischen Dichter, ja es wird mit Cl.ve:).IOG fast
On the basis of the later evidence, Page (38) atterrpted to distinguish
between
~-ra
identisch' (2.231) and, on ~-ra and rcve;DI.Ja, he says they both rreant 'das
and Cive:).IOG, by making the fonner essentially 'a blcming'
which could be qualified as necessary.
Wehen des Windes, auch als selbst!hldige Bezeichnung fUr den ~'lind' (2.249) ·
This may be justified by etyrroIn Lesbian, their usage can be demonstrated in
logy, but it is hard to see what the distinction might rrean.
perhaps of more note that, while Ci:vE]JOG is the regular word
ot TTOLT]-rat -cO. rcve;U]Ja-ra
~"t"Ob
xaA.oucn (Pl. Crat. 410B).
It is
Sa. 90(l).iii.22 6e:~ rcve:u).ICl[
in Greek,
Ale. 319
This word does
at <6' > dr]-rm
Sa. 2.10V
not appear in prose texts, though the Glossai attribute it to the tCMn
]..l.EMLxa rcv[ltohmv
of Cleitor in Arcadia; LelUilann (268) is sceptical of this and thinks
20.9
that the use of the plural in the gloss points to a poetic source.
] >tEYdA.a.LG ~-radG
There is, then, a broad similarity of usage.
Given the nature of Arcadian hcmever, it is not impossible that this
H He/Al St Si Ib P B/Ar Hi lin Se/Ca T M Th Xe/Co/So Ae S E A.
was another case of a word that was poetic elsewhere being retained
in that dialect.
WEj.I.OG
XX
X
XXX
~-ra
XX
X
X
X
X
prose and verse.
rcve;Ui.Ja is regular in prose, but in poetl:y is co:rrmm
only in Tragedy.
~
mx:':x:x.
XX
X
XXX
X
XXX
X
XXX
is not conuron at all until the fourth century,
though it is found in epic: Thucydides has it in a technical description
There is but one instance of each of these verbs:
(4.100.4), it is in Aristotle (Plant. 815a27, 816b26 ='breath'), and
Sa. 115
in Theophrastus anrl the Hippocratic corpus it appears over fifty tirres
(cf. Silk 186f.).
XX
X
X
mie;U!Ja
The other· two words in this group appear to have been used in botll
X
It was, presumably, either a technical word that
23.5 ] EOvaaL
has not found its .. way into early texts very much, or a poetic word
which was taken into the technical vocabulary: sare editors of Theo-
w
-r(wL a',
q>C/..e; y<ll..$pe:, ~ hl«la&il;
c5(Jrrc.ot L l3paB ( VWL oe; ].1M Len: • {; LHOa&.l
a·
"EMw.L a· Ho[x]nv
The second verb is very rare: it is never found in prose and in verse
\'
its use and distribution are restricted.
Homer has it in the present
I;
phrastus and the Corpus actually print the epic fonn rcvoLn (cf. Silk).
and i.nperfect only, and it is· also restricted to the end of the line 'in
1
&ve:).IOG Sa. 37.2, 47.2, Ale. 6.1, 38A.l3, 249.11, 319, 326.1;
eight of its nine occurrences.
20.9, Ale. 249.5; rcve;Ui.Ja Sa. 90(1) .iii.22; l"t\100. Ale. 319.
~-raSa. 2.10,
e:t~w, too, though regular in prose,
- 166 -
- 167 -
is carnnon in the Attic poets only.
that Alcaeus uses it in a fairly colloquial manner.'
H He/Al St Si Ib P B/Ar Hi An Se/Ca T M Th Xe/Co/So Ae S E A
H He/Al St Si Ib P B/Ar Hi An Se/Ca T M Th Xe/Co/So Ae S E A
2
X
XX
X X X
Ale. 119.11
-co~
aUu
5' E:A.'fl4xx, xOA.ov ycip,
words belong with this partition of functions to the dialect' (AM
This was a bold conclusion to draw on so little evidence,
especially as we have no reason to believe that E:A.TTli:Pn was so used in
In any case, it is a word confined to a small range of
poetocy: outside Homer and Alcaeus, it is fonnd twice in Apollonius
Even in Haner, its usage is restricted to four occurrences
always at the start of the line and always in the
Odyssey,
-co~ ~e:~-ca
formula E:A.TTli:Pn
I
which are virtually confined to .Homer.
2
All of this
suggests that E:A.'fl4xx was an old poetic word, though it is noteworthy
1
~A.n.~~; Sa. 63.5; E:A.'fl4xx Ale. 119.11, 259a.ii.8
2
cf. OA.ex.pn, &JA.riu:pn,
Pruss.
TT.a.~n,
-ce:pmuA.n,
cpe;~&u.\n
pintis
(=
'path'), probably referred to the sea over
&A.~; is sometimes said to refer to the sea ·around
the coast (Gray 112), but its etyrrology does not support this.
expressions as E:~; oov-cov, ~ oov-cou in the fonnulaic language of ~oiner
(Page,
HHI
literature:
228), in general, the words are synonyrrous in early Greek
'a&Aaooa
ist n&rnlich das Meer nach seiner natUrlichen
Beschaffenheit, als grosse Salzflut, nnd dem Sinne nach von dem poetisdten
&A.~; durch nichts nnterschieden'
(Schmidt 1. 642) •
This general similarity
can be seen in Lesbian in
~ 5' E:n.~­
Sa. 96.9
oxe:~ ~
En.' 6A.).LUpa;v
tv t vai:icn v E:n. • MJJ.\JPO\I
44.7
00\11:0\1
Ale. 117b.27 liD.[!;] n.oA.Ca~; ~G)J.· OA.[o]G E:o13[0.]A.nv
IA 34a.8V).
In prose, oo\11:0!; is rare, except as the proper narre and in conjnnction
(cf. Monro 79f. >• Outside
Haner, OA.e:upT') is used as a technical tenn in Aristotle and the Hippocratic
l~Sa. 96.10, Ale. 34a.5, 45.2, 48.6, 58.13, 359, 395,
Corpus
oov-cOG sa. 44.8, Ale. 118.2, 249.8, 283.5, 334.2,
(LSJ s.v.
3) and is burlesqued in Ar.
Wasps
615; -ce:pmuA.T') is
fonnd in Arch 11.2 (el.), 215 (ia.), Theog. 984, 1068;
13.46 (el.).
Though
traces of sane such distinctions may remain in the rarity of such
(2.280, 6.314, 7.76, 23.287). · Furthermore,
it belongs to a class of norms with the obsolete suffix -w.\n (-c.:pT') by
dissimilation)
o.
which one travelled.
latter was used as a predicate, while the forrrer was not: 'the tw:::>
in the
X X X
These words may once have been differentiated in rreaning: n.6v-cQG,
panta,
6A.Cya~~; 01:~~~~;: E:ve:C~nv
I.obel tried to give these words different fnnctions, by saying that the
Rhodius.
X
which appears to be cognate with Skt. plmth~h 'a way, path' (cf. Av.
Sa. 63.5
any dialect.
X
X
d/..~;: 1
4. a6Aaooa., oov-cQG,
There are two places ,where the usage of these words is clear:
xxxvii).
X
XX
X
X
Jl.
• '· •
1
t.A.TT.~!;
1 E:11.lill:pa.
3•
2 X
cpe;~&u.\n
in Sol.
117b.27, 305.i.l0, cf. 44.7 E\1\i]aA.Cav.
SLG
SLG
262.7;'
262.26; dA~; Ale.
I
I
- 169 -
- 1681
with the names of specific seas: it appears four time in Herodotus
5. Caos, ~Pn!;;, CxE~
rreaning 'sea' , with a further thirty-eight uses either of the Pontus
Although there are obvious differenoes between 'equality' and
or of narred seas; Thucydides has it once (with five others); in Xenophon,
'similarity' , in Greek as in English the distinction does not always
it is never used on its own and in Plato, it occurs twioe, once in the
hold in practioe.
In Lesbian verse, this can be seen in:
Myth of Er (Rep. 611E) and once in the description of the islands in
the
(BIG
Timaeus
(25A).
OA!;; is even rarer in prose.
In an Attic inscription
44.21
93.35, Athens 418/7), it occurs in the phrase w.of:J'c. E:[x)oEAcuNOOLV
Degrees of similarity or equality to the gods are not in question in
ot J.LUcrraL; traoes of it also remain in Attic and Ionic names and substantives, such as
MLE~,
MLQUPYQG (Ruijgh 157f.).
these passages.
Lobel (AM xxxvi f.)
That COO!;; and ~pnG are also close in :rreaning is
shown by
argued that it had a discrete place in the lexical system of the Lesbian
Sa. 58.16
vernacular, on the grounds that napO}..LQ!;; is elsewhere used for the same
132.1
)no8' Caa vEBPLoLOLV
t:on J.LOL w:lAa OOL!;; XPUOLOLOLV Ctv8E:].LOLOLV
~pnv t:xmaa
region as rr.apa.8ai..OooLQ!;;, and that 'the uncanpounded noun is preserved
in Attic in the name of the second day of the Eleusinia'
C]xEAoL aEoL!;;
JJ4:xl;av KML!;; ayaruha
Schmidt (4.481) wanted to distinguish CxE~ and ~PnG on the grO\mds
(CiAaOE J.LMaL).
However, the argurrent fran canpounds which are plaoe-names in another
that the for:rrer conveys the idea of a closer, rrore .all-'roUn.d similarity
dialect and also from religious expressions is dangerous, sinoe, especially
than the latter, but this is drawing too fine a distinction, as is
in the latter, archaic and specialised diction is likely to be preserved
shown by lines like od. 21.411, of Odysseus's bow:
n 6'
after it has gone from the everyday language: the rronth-name and the .
UnO w:JJ..Ov &LOE, XEAL&SVL dxE:A.n a.66nv
For poetry, at least, the words bear the same general sense.
phrase on the inscription clearly refer to the ritual cry CiAaOE J.LMaL.
OA!;;, one presurres, was an archaic word that lived on in poetry, in
In Greek,
religious language and in the names of traditional occupations of people
(8.8.3 ljJEUoEOL CxEA.a) and onoe in a conparison in a speech (3.81.2
H HehiJ_ St Si Ib P B/Ar Hi An Se/Ca T M Th Xe/Co/So Ae S E A
80Aaaoa
X X X
X X
X
XX
X
X
X X X
X
X
XXX
XX
X
X
X
X
X
xxxxxxxx
XEL~L no-.Q.liiiL CxE~), both reminiscences of Hesiodic or Haneric
xxxxxxx2
expressions.
X
X
X
X X
2
1
Usually = 'salt', but cf.
EV BE:v8EOLV.
Wasps
1521 m:v·
~
a;rpuyE:-.ou,
Frogs
667
It also appears in Derrocritus (B224
n "t"oU TtA.EoVQG
€maw,tn. • •
-cf'\L Ata,Jrte:i.nL xuvt txE:A.r)); later, it is rrore cc:mtDn in the Hippocratic
Corpus.
1-
~
X
It is found twice in
Herodotus, once in the description of the miraculous swinmer Skyllies
a6J..o.aoo. is, of course, corrmon to prose and verse.
living by the sea.
(E) CxEAoG is rare in prose.
1
In fact, it is uncanmon everywhere exoept Harer.
€]JQJE:pnG
1 COOb Sa. 31.1, 58.16, 68a.3, 111.5, Ale. 117b.27; CxE~ Sa. 44.21
(cf. 44.34 8EoLKEAoLG), 96.4; ~E:pnG Sa. 132.3
- 170 seems basically to be ionic:
- 171-
nine times in Herodotus, four in Aristotle
Ale. 356
and in Theophrastus; in poetry, it is not found before Tragedy, where
it is relatively uncommon.
H He/Al St Si Ib P B/Ar Hi An Se/Ca T M Th Xe/Co/So Ae S E A
X
XX
XX
X
X
X
XX
X
X
6•
..
lq)t;TI)lJ.~
I
• •
C1:IJCJDO:J)I
xatpe:, Ku~ 6 lJ,E5e:~G
354
... A.xO·..A.e:UG 6
X X
l l 3
··I=...oe:·""'
,...1
use of the compound is clear in
Ale. 351
X
X
XX
X
X
I:xu8LliD.b utoe:~G
WVOG,
orO!;
X
X
X X X
X
3
X X
X
X
2 3
X
XX
XX
7.
Though none of the examples of the s:illplex form has a context the
•C!.G
H He/Al St Si Ib p B/Ar Hi An Se/Ca T M Th Xe/Co/So Ae S E A
l
4
A&o~o·
308(2)b.l
X X X
XX
X X
}l.(lt TTJ,dmow' M:vaooe:
X
l
The similarity in meaning, can be seen in
Sa.? l68B. 4V
€:yoo BE lJ.C)va
Ale. 130b.lOV
~[6'] orOG E:oCxncn
"Kal:EUCw
WVOG is cc:mron in all Greek, whilst orO!; is confined to poetry <!nd to
xp:x:tfu is a regular word in both prose and poetry.
in the group are both mainly poetic.
6.vc:ioa,.)
quotation from Honer dpnxe:v olJ"tOV rroMfj ~0~
O:vaooe:~v (Il.
The other ·two words
is in Thuc. 1.9.4 in a
vnoo~o~
}l.(lt
N
Apye: ~ nO.vn
2.108), and is also found on an Argive inscription (IG 4.,
614, ca. 575-500
E:F~rto).
That it belonged to a high style is
Cypriot (cf. e.g. schw. 679.14, Idalium ca. 450 'ovaoD..O~ oCFO~ d:ve:u
1:6(v) xamyvhov).
orQG is, in fact, rare outside hexarreter poetry.
H He/Al St Si Ib p B/Ar Hi An Se/Ca T M Th Xe/Co/So Ae S E A
XX
XX
X
X
xxxxxxx
X
3
X
X
X
X
X
X
X X X
2
2
suggested by Aristotle's oamment on its use in this line of Euripides's
Telephus
8. ~JJm, 6rma.1:a, C'Joom
'l«illulG 6vOoa.uv ~ e:tG Ml.x:JCav
(mpe;rtEG,
on
ue:t6ov 1:0
O:vaooe:~v
fi J.l.(ll:' Q&Cav
2
In the epics, there is a partition of functions arrongst these words:
(Rhet:. l405a29).
ue:ofu
(xp8a)..]JDL and C'Jooe: are generally used in the anatanical sense, whilst
never appears in prose, and in epic, as in Alcaeus, is restricted to the
O].IIJ(ll:a conveys rrore the idea of 'countenance, Gesicht' (Treu 65ff. , cf.
present participle; in Aristophanes, the word is always used in para-
Schmidt 1. 370ff.); C'Jooe: is corrparatively infrequent (14x).
tragic lines (e.g.
Lys.
834).
Alcaeus's use of these last two words is
these distinctions do not apply.
In Sappho,
For the eyes as outwardly visible, all
consonant with their apparent grandeur:
luOVOG Sa. 168B.4V (= 94.40, om. LP), Ale. 74.7, 208a.ii.7, 350.6; orO!;
l"KPETI1U~ Sa. 20.5, Ale. 351 (en~-);~ Ale. 356; utoe:~G Ale. 308(2)b.l,
Ale. 130b.lOV, 148.6.
354.
2~l-ID~ sa. 151, 162; u•"~·
L---~a sa. 31.11, 112.3, 137.5; 5ooo~ Sa. 65.8, 138.2.
- 173 -
- 172 -
nore frequent in
three words are used:
Sa. 112.3
crot
than Od.) and in Euripides; it is n<:Mhere ·fotmd
in prose.
XOpL€\1 J.Jf:v dBoG, On:rr.a:ra 5' •••
H He/Al St Si Ib P B/Ar Hi An Se/Ca T M Th xe/Co/So Ae S E A
ueMLx', ~pcx;; 5' En:' C)Jtpl:())L MEXUl:aL ~L
138.2
n.
X
XX
162
X
X X X
X
X X X
X
X
X X X
X
X
X X X
5
2
1
XX
When the eyes are described tmdergoing sare physiological event, orrrra1:a
X
X
XX
xat l:Cxv En:' ocnxo' 6l-!11Ecaoov XOpLV
X
and CXpea}..lJOL are used:
Sa. 31.11
6Ttruhe:ocn 5 · ooo · €v C\pnw'
In Lesbian, these words are used synonynously thus:
151
Tt6A.]A.rotL ruC5e: [ V]Wv ~XOLOO.
Sa. 96.2
96.15
The distribution of these words in the rest of_ Greek is as f 0 11CMS.
Cxpaa)..~ is the general word.
Ale. 358.2
OlJ.l.L<ll:a is fotmd in prose in Attic and
Ionic, but only in the fourth century does it becare caruron: Herodotus
has it but once (6.117.2, a miraculous event at Marathon, where Epizelus
is said l:Wv 6].1l.J(i1:wv me:pnafivm as a giant warrior passed him) , as has
Democritus (Al35, anatomical) and Gorgias (Bll, 'sight, vision'); later,
Tt6A.A.a.
fu.l.lfi
o€
!;;aqoL l:O.LO'
1:ov Fov&i].JaWlJQv atn<llle:VOG
is a rare word in prose and caredy, and is only found regularly in
Pindar of the lyric poets.
In prose, only Plato makes frequent use of
it; otherwise, it occurs twice in xenophon
(cyr.
8.8.12 and
Mem.
the Choice of Heracles), and once in Isocrates (Panath. 102).
2.1.22,
no~L
in Aristotle and the Hippocratic Corpus , it is ~~~
....... ...,.., m' both senses.
without the final sigma is rret with in epic and lyric alone (never in
In Attic, Thucydides uses it once in a speech (2.11. 7), Aeschines three
prose, according to
tines (1.102, where it is a variation for Cxpaa}..J.LOC, 3.121, 255), and
Plato and Xenophon use it regularly.
1
in paratragic or 'elevated' passages.
s.v. no~q;).
The use of the neuter plural
n6AM to rrean 'often' is found sporadically in prose: Hdt. 3.85.3, Plato
In Attic Canedy, it appears only
ten tirres, Xenophon (cf. Sturz's Lexicon s.v. noA.U!; 18b; for Attic in
Finally, it is read on a Doric
general, cf. Rosenkranz 151).
H He/Al St Si Ib P B/Ar Hi An Se/Ca T M Th xe/Co/So Ae S E A
inscription from Epidaurus, which records (in none too sober language)
the efficacy of the shrine of Asclepius (SIG 802.121, ca. 320).
ClooE/-oL
is, by contrast, a rare word, being carrron only in Horrer (four tines 1
cf. Gautier on Xen. Mem,. 2 .1. 2lff. : 'le double exerrple de OlJ.lJCI,l:a est
aussi interessant; ai11eurs dans les .Merrorables OJ.Q.Jal:a est arrene par la
variation: .dans ce passage, qui ne contient aucun exerrple de Cxpaa}..lJOC,
i l semble bien que Dll]JQ.l:a ait ete prefere en vertu de sa valeur
stylistique' (107).
LSJ
OOA.A.alt L( ~)
X X
~
XX
XX
Tt6Ma
XX
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
XXX
4 1 5
X
X
X
X
X
XX
ln6A.A.rot L Sa. 96.2; Tt6A.A.rotL~ AJ.c. 76 .13; ~ Ale. 72.6, 306 (14) . ii.l6,
358.2; n6M.a. Sa. 96.15.
- 175 -
- 174 •
10 •
n:pc::x:JUJnOV'
carpare, for its s:ir.lilarity in use to pna,
p'.L_"'-v-.1
t;;VV\o
Ale; 34a. 7 {Jna 6' O:v8p1noLG fu:v<i-rw {J6e:aSe:
The latter appears but once, in an uncertain context:
Sa. 22.3
]v
e:u\-IOPDG is not =m:m in prose: cf. nerrocr. B223 nOOLV ro:)pe:crnv e:4Jop€<.x.;
PE&:>G c5oxq.L[
Two things, however, are in favour of the rreaning 'face' •
0.-re:p ]Jt)xfuu
Firstly,
there is the remark of the scholiast on Il. 22.68: pi!:&) oE -ra 6&v-ra
J,J£A.n, oL • ifN P€6oJJ£v n · AtoA.e:t'G .6E -ro n:p6a,m)v.
23 •.39,. but to mean-'face' in an Aeolic poem (29.16).
Crit.
-ro CJJtf\VOG); Plato,
113E .nv -re: EV J,J.€CXJJL vfioov
X
later,
It seems
X
x•x
X
XX
X
4 1 X
in Sappho, if it dces mean 'face',
H He/Al St Si Ib P B/Ar Hi An Se/Ca T M
X
on ae:<JG E:~ 6LE:XOOwlOE:V;
H He/Al St Si Ib p B/Ar Hi An Se/Ca T. M Th Xe/Co/So Ae S E A
HCMever, we have already
L' 2
12. Ol:LIIJLG,
A.ua
is more likely to have been a native poetic expression.
X X
o~a
70GB, a passage about Minos,
to have been a word with a poetic flavour.
Leumann (222)
seen that not all words with an initial *wr;_ are spelt with a beta
p~
Legg.
where it means •cheap, easy tp obtain' (IG 12 (5) . 714.15, IV) •
suggested that its use in Sappho was 'ein Harrerismus' , since one would
expect the Lesbian form to have been *!3pi!:&:JG.
(sc.
it is found in Aristotle, Anima 403al, and on an inscription from Andros,
And secondly,
Theocritus uses the word to rrean 'limbs, boc'ly' in a Doric poem
(above pp. 79ff.), so that
1
X
X
X
Th
Xe/Co/So Ae S E A
X
(x)
X X X
1 1
Ma is very rare: apart from the two exanples in Alcaeus, it appears
only in
pi; Ne.
9.14, though one may compare Call. fr. 43.74 E:Mnaxv
(with Pfeiffer ad lac.) and the gloss A.oo-rav m:ooL&.be:L in Hesychius;
Herodian (Gr. 1.306) and the scholiast to Pindar make A.6a and m:OoLG
ll.
1:\pa.LOLOG, Pr\a, e:UiiDPnG
2
synonyrrous.
The basic meaning of e:UiiDPnG appears to be 'easy to do' (cf. Fraenkel
on Aes.
Ag.
n&yxu 6'
navn
e:~E:G
as Silk (123) has shCMn, not only 'strife', but also 'direction, :Ue
o6ve:-rov rn6noaL
(of the wind) • and.also 'p:>liticial faction' are all rreanings which are
-rou-r.
1
rrpOOwrr.ov Sa. 1.14, 4. 7, 16.18, 112.4, Ale. 123.6; pg&)G Sa. 22.3.
Cf.
Hamn 87 n.l73 on pEfuG.
2
~:~paL6LoG Ale. 129.22; {Jna Ale. 34.7; e:UiiDPnG sa. 16.5, 96.21, Ale. 69.7.
El.
179 XP6VOG
yb+J e:U}npnG ae:<JG,
"'
iltportant here.
This difference is presumably due to the fact that A.6a
was an obsolete, poetic word, while m:ooLG remained a living part of
For a different rreaning of e:UiiDPnG fran that discussed in the text, cf.
Soph.
wider range of meaning than A.6a: in
Ale. 208.1V (= 326 LP) 6ouwl!:-rnl.I.L -rGJv 6:vi!:1JWV m:a.ow
1326), as in
Sa. 16.5
0n the other hand, m:ooLG has clearly taken on a much
'time is a god Who brings ease'.
lin Ale. 69.6ff., e:u].l6pe:a rrpoA.El;aLG might be taken as 'putting forward
specious words' , but Page
argue~
for 'having predicted easy things' (226££ ·) •
2m;aaLG Ale. 130b.llV, 208.1V; A.6a Ale. 36.11, 70.10.
,,
- 176 -
- 177-
the lexicon of everyday speech.
-'-~
1
14. \j.(j)(JJO!;, upUE:pO!;, xpuuE:L!;
H He/Al St Si Th P B/Ar Hi An Se/Ca T M Th Xe/Co/So Ae S E A
XX
X
X
X
X
X X X
Alcaeus uses both
ol.l"\vrvv-
'VV N-"-'"'
and xpue:po!; in the physical sense, in
which he differs from Honer, who only uses the latter in the sense of
1
• spine-chilling' , as in xpue:poto qx)!3ow;
\j.(jXfJOV U6wp
Ale. ll5a.8
28Ga. 3 xp]ue:po!; rr.&.vOG
'Doch fllhlt man rreis:tens noch heraus, class &MIX; rrehr das Streben
auf ein Zeil darstellt, -cax.IX; das Individutnn seiner ganzen Art noch als
ein schnelles angibt' (Schmidt 2 .135) •
For Lesbian verse, ha.vever,
ljij)(JJO!; is also used by Sappho in the transferred sense:
Sa. 42.1 lj.(j)(JJO!; J_LEv tye:v-c' 6 ~
. thus rvmtnlerrentary
and for -u.pu6E:L!;
1
The uses of \j.(j)(JJO!; and "H.PUE:POG are
~·r
even this tentative distinction does not hold, as is seen in sa. 44.3
one can canpare
-cax~JG Ci.yye:A.OG, 1.10 ~e:e:G mpoOOcn.
Pr'\a 6' ~LG &J.vchw pue:o8£
Ale. 34a. 7
6axpuOE:V"'CO!;
I
II
oo is quoted
WKUG
for Cleitor in Arcadia by the
Gl~ssai
(Latte 138), but
is not found otherwise in prose, except in certain cc::npounds:
Neither JiPUE:po!; nor JiPuOE:LG can be quoted f or prose (indeed, words with
the suffix -6e:LG are generally rare in prose: Buck,
'le terme medical WKU"'COKQ!; (Hdt. 4.35.2; Hp. Mul. 1.77 WKU"'C6KLOV etc.)
peut provenir de la poesie didactique.
Il est Surprenant que nErre
Thucydide fournisse un exemple de noBWKnG (3.98.2)' (Ruijgh 166).
6-cpaAEO!;, though through its connection with 6-cpU\x.l it has a slightly
CG
211).
H He/Al St Si Ih p B/Ar Hi An Se/Ca T M Th Xe/Co/So Ae S E A
ljJQ)(JJO!;
XX
upue:POG
XX
upooe:LG
XX
X
X
X
X
XXX
1 3
X
XX
different meaning than the s:inple words for 'quick' , is nevertheless
regularly glossed by words like -cax~X; (cf. Ebeling, Lex. Hom. s.v.).
The word never appears in prose, and is found only three tines in
This concludes this selective study of the lexicon of Sappho and
Harer, always as an adverb.
H He/Al St Si Th P B/Ar Hi An Se/Ca T M Th Xe/Co/So Ae S E A
XX
X X X
xxxxxxxxx
6i:~
X
X
X
XX
-caxuG Sa. 1.21, 23, 27.9, 44.3, Ale. 6.19, 58.15, 367.2;
It has tried to show that, aside from a few easily isolatable
excmples,
th ~s
~
lexicon shares the characteristics and caoponents of the
X
X X X
poetic dictions of the other early Greek poets , both epic and lyric.
1
1
· t ~·ens suggests that the
.
Comparison of the evidence from the Lnscr~p
X
1
3. 1
1 •
Alcaeus.
Lesbian poetic dialect was a similar blend o f 1exemes from the local
cr:u\JG
sa. 1.10,
Ale. 6.7, 7.10, IA 10.1; 6-cr:aAEwG Sa. 44.11; cf. Ale. 149.2 ]aAaL~fJOLOL[.
1~ sa. 2.5, 31.13, 42.1, Ale. ll5a.8, 117b.38; JiPUE:po!; Ale. 286a.3;
Kpu6e:LG Ale. 34a.8 (6a-), 48.12.
(I
~
I
- 178 vernacular and fran a body of specialised language, which was particularly
B I B L I 0 GR A P HY
connected with poetry or other contexts in which the writer sought for
This bibliography contains the works referred to in the text·
effect.
No doubt the idiolects of the Lesbians of the time, especially
those of the educated classes, errployed this 'poetic' diction, but the
general view given by the Greek dialects is that there did exist this
body of words which were felt more appropriate to poetry.
The origins
Citation is usually by author's name alone or author' s name plus an
abbreviation, where more than one work is involved.
In sane cases
where it is, obvious which article is meant, I have not used an
abbreviation.
The major anission is that I have not included the
of this poetic Kaine are,presumably to be sought back in the Mycenean
many lexica consulted for Chapter Three; details of these may be found
period at least, and it no doubt survived migrations and the splitting
in H. & B. Riesenfeld, Repertorium Lexicographicum Graecum, Uppsala
up of dialect groups through the conservative nature of poetic language,
and also the combined forces of metre, tradition and convenience.
This
1954.
basic ccmmmity of diction was no doubt then reinforced after:; the Dark
I
Age, when inter-state relations blossaned again, and poets travelled
Texts
For Sappho and Alcaeus, I generally use the text and nurreration of
fran one place to another.
In all of this, epic poetry certainly played
an inp:>rtant role, but it should not be granted a role of total daninance.
E. Lobel & D.L. Page, p0 etarum Lesbiorum.Fragmenta, Oxford 1955, reprinted with Addenda 1963.
'gt
The evidence has been sparce and fragmentary, and the argument has
Sometimes I have preferred a reading of
sappho et Alcaeus, Amsterdam 1971, in which case 'V' is
E.-M. Vol ,
affixed to the reference.
The other lyric poets I quote fran D.L. Page,
involved much speculation, but overall it is hard to deny that the
Poeti Melici Graeci, oxford 1962
(PMG)
and Supplementum Lyricis Graecis,
language of Sappho and Alcaeus, in its phonology, morphology and lexicon,
was a true poetic diction.
Sir Maurice Bowra once began an essay on
Haner's style as follCMS; it may serve as our conclusion on the Lesbian
oxford 1974 · (SLG).
Elegiac and Iarrbic poets are quoted frorn.M.L. West,
Iambi et Elegi Graeci, Oxford 1971 and 1972.
Except where stated,
inscriptional texts are taken frc:m E. Schwyzer
&
p. Cauer, Dialectorum
poets:
[their] language can never have been spoken by men. It contains
too many ~ternati~ fonns, too many synonyms, too many artificial
fonns for 1t to be m any sense a Ve1nacular. It is a language
created. for poet7Y by th~ needs of corrq:x::>sition. To its remarkably
expre~s1ve and w1de-rangmg effects various layers of Greek have
oontributed. Mace & Stubbings 26)
Graecarum Exempla Epigraphica Potiora, Leipzig 1923 (Schw.), and the
M:>re
dates and methods of expressing them are taken fran here too.
re~t Thessalian inscriptions are fran A.S. McDevitt,
from Thessaly, Hildesheim & New York 1970 (MD).
Inscriptions
Where a fragment or an·
inscription is broken, I have burdened the text with dotS and square
brackets only where the uncertainty affects the point in question.
i'
n
.
.
,·.l:
~'!~
- 180Adrados, ESL
F.R. Adrados, Estudios sobre las sonantes y
laringales indo-europeas, ed. 2, Madrid 1973.
Adrados 1 OLG
- - , ori'genes de la li'rica griega, Madrid 1976.
Ahrens
H.L. Ahrens, De graecae linguae dialectis, vol.
1, ~ttingen 1839.
Allen, AR
W.S. Allen, Accent and Rhythm, Cambridge 1973.
Allen, VG
-·--, Vox Graeca; ed. 2, Cambridge 1974.
Aly
W. Aly, 'Herodots Sprache', Glotta 15 (1927) 84.
Arena, CLV
R. Arena, 'La continuazione delle labio-velari
nei dialetti greci, s.M.E.A. 8 (1969) 7.
Arena
Baumbach
Beazley
vols., Leipzig 1887-98.
Blumenthal
H.J. Blumenthal, 'Sare Hareric Evidence for the
History of the Augrrent' , I. F. 79 (1974) 67.
Boardman
J. Boardman, The Greeks Overseas, new & enlarged
edn., London 1980.
Bowra, AD
C.M. Bowra, 'Arion and the Dolphin', M.H. 20
(1963) 121.
BcMra, GLP
---, Greek Lyric Poetry, ed. 1, Oxford 1936,
ed. 2, Oxford 1961.
H.R. Breitenbach, 'Xenophon', RE 2.Reihe, Bd.
F. Bader, 'De rnyceruen MATOROPURO, AREPAZOO a
grec MATPOIIOAIE , AfiEI<KlBIOE : le trai tement
des sonantes-voyelles au premier millenaire',
Minos 10 (1970) 7.
Buck
C.D. Buck, The Greek Dialects, Chicago 1955.
Buck, CG
---, Comparative Grammar of Greek and Latin,
L • Baumbach, 'The Mycenean .Greek Vocabulary II' ,
Glotta 49 (1971) 151.
Buck-Petersen
J.D. Beazley, Attic Vase Paintings in the Museum
of Fine Arts, Boston, Part 2, London & Boston
1954.
F. Bechtel, Die griechischen Dialekte, 3 vols.,
Berlin 1921-4 (vol. 1, unless stated).
Bechtel, Aeolica
- - , Aeolica, Halle 1909.
Beekes
R.S.P. Beekes, 'The Greek i- and u-sterrs and
nDALG, -neG' 1 Glotta 51 (1973) 228.
Bergk
F. Blass, Die attische Beredsamkeit, ed. 2, 3
Breitenbach
Bechtel
Berard
Blass
- - , Note linguistiche a proposito delle tavole
di Eraclea, Roma 1971.
Bader
Bergren
- 181 A.L.T. Bergren, The Etymology and Usage of
IIEIPAP in Early Greek Poetry, New York 1975.
J. Berard, 'La migration
1959, tane 1, 1.
eoli~e·'
9A.2
1898.
Chicago & London 1933.
---, and W. Petersen, A Reverse Index of Greek
Nouns and Adjectives, Chicago 1944.
Calame
C. Calame, Les choeurs de jeunes filles en
Grece archaique, 2 vols., Rome 1977.
Cartledge
P.A. Cartledge, 'Literacy in the Spartan Oligarchy', J.H.s. 98 (1978) 25.
Casadio
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,.
SELECT
I NDI CE S
1. Subjects
Aeolic forms in Homer, 49-56,
Cepion, 9.
21, 32-40, 96, 108,
123£.
107f., 12lf., 123f., 132-5.
Gorgias, 145£.
'Milesian' nurreral system, 7lf.
Herodotus, 145.
'Northern' tradition of poetry, 59f.
Hesiod, 15, 56, 59, 72.
Nl.llrerals, 56.
Hexameter, origin of, 19-23.
67, 68, 92, 112.
Conjugation, 124-31.
Aeolic migrations, Sf., 10-14,
Onega, 138.
Hiatus, 22, 69, 73, 84-6, 115-7.
Consonants, 91£.
Orpheus oracle, 7f.
30, 47, 48, 49, 55f.
'Contract' verbs, 124f.
Hippocratic Corpus, 146.
'Aeolic' myths, 6f.
Participles, in
Ionic prose, early, 144f.
----,
medic-passive, 44, 45.
'Correptio epica', 134f.
Isaeus,
----,
perfect active, 50, 127, 130.
Cyrre, l l f .
Isochrony, 28-31, 39, 52 n.l.
Andocides, 146.
Antiphon, 145£.
Declension, 109-22.
Antissa, 12f.
Derrosthenes, 14 6 •
Arion, 9.
Digamma, 69-87, 93f., 132f. 136,
138, 174.
16, 20,
cf.
27 n.2.
Contents.
Enhoplium, 22f., 25.
-e~ry-,
94f.
Formulae in lyric, 3 n.l, 32ff.
passim, 58, 59, 90.
Boeotian dialect, 47f., 52, 84,
87, 90, 96, 100, 110, 112,
114f., 118, 127, 129.
'brevis in longo', 22, 115-7.
Burns, R., 65.
Gaelic poetry (Scottish), 41.
gayatri, 24£.,
26.
Glottochronology, v. 'Lexicostatistics'.
Glyconic, 21, 23f., 24, 26, 34, 43,
117, 124.
Isocrates, 146.
26.
Pericli tus,
Labio-velars, 50, 87-91.
Lesbian forms in Hesiod, 56, 68.
~
Pherecratic, 19, 20, 23f., 25, 34.
Pindar, 57, 74, 78, 82, 134.
150, 152, 153ff. passim.
----, in prose authors,
----in other lyric, 57, 68.
----, opp. to 'prose' usage, 139,
143~6,
152.
142ff. passim.
----,poets, Bf., 14f.
Prefixes, 103f.
Lesches, B, 14.
Prepositions, 107-9.
Lexicostatistics, 141£.
Pronouns, 105-7.
Locative, 110, 115, 121.
Prose authors, 'poetic' usage, 143-6.
Lysias, 146.
ri > re, 50, 51.
:I I
!
'Poetic' words, in inscriptions, 143£.,
Relative pronoun, 105f.
![,,
rjJI
---- in Homer, 49-56; 68.
32 n.2, 39.
!
I.
9.
'Long' and 'short' lines, 28 n.l,
:['
il·,
----, in -oLOa., 57.
Plato, 145.
Lesbos, history, 12f.
Barytonesis, 50, 5lf.
Boeotia, v. 'Aeolic migrations ' .
.l46.
jagati, 17f.,
'Dovetailing', 20, 26, 28 n.2.
Augment, 123f., 136.
57.
'Correptio attica', 135.
Alanan, 57, 74, 78, 94,. 101.
Aristotle, 146.
-a.~(;, -a.~oo.,
Infinitive, 4lf., 49, 53.
Alcaic stanza, 43.
~1etre,
I.
Corinna, 74, 101.
Aeolic poets, 7-9, 68.
Avestan
Metre and language, 16-46 passim,
- 196 -
197 -
Terpander, 9, 57.
-rr-, 50, 51, 58.
an•a,
43, 164f.
dpnL, 59 n.l, 122 n.l.
Theocritus, 74.
Sapphic stanza, 18, 26, 42 n.l,
Theophrastus, 146.
75, 116 n.l.
Sappho, doublets in, 64, 137.
Thessaly, v. 'Aeolic migrations'.
- - , 'nonnal' and 'ab.11onnal'
Thessalian dialect, 5, 32 n.ci2, 47f.,
0SUp~1:a, 33, 37, 40.
(ipj.n, 58.
Atax[fuL!;, 93.
ACav, 93, lllf.
a.u&onG,
AL6ao,
6u6.1:a,
77f.
52, 53, 54, 87, 90f., 92, 94f.,
poems, 62, 64f., 121, 137.
96, 100, 106, 110, 112, 114f.,
fr. 1.19, 77.
- - , fr. 44, 32-40, 66, 67, 113,
69, 78f., 85.
aLO\Kuv 1 93.
aUl:aLG (dat.), 114.
Thucydides, 145.
-aLG (dat.), 112-5, 136.
A\x,x.;,, 43, 79.
ti > si, 47, 50, 90, 130.
6.Lw, 156 n.l.
i'lqpoOC•a, 43.
'traditional' diction, 46.
axoUw,
AXLMEa,
tristubh, 17f., 25f.
~. 134f.
Troy, 13, 14f,. 58.
-oAEO!;, 104.
13a[\Xll, 163.
Vedic metre, 16, 17f., 20, 24-8, 38.
O>..s,
0p-, 80-4, 86, 93f., 174.
VCMels, 93-7.
<'l+Le; L (30lJ.(l\l 1 12 3f.
Word-localisation, 32-45.
~LV,
Writing, 31 n.l.
~L
Xenophon, 145.
&v
Further information on 'Subjects'
6:vCu:n.l, 1 7 0 f.
Bpf\ooa., 83 n. 3.
~EOL, 120, 122 1 136.
BPoOo-,
&vc.UO!;, 164f.
[3pu1:np, 83 n.l.
118, 120, 121, 124f., 127, 129.
- - , fr. 31.9, 84f.
112, 136.
116, 123.
- - , fr. 94D
42, 156f.
135.
(= 168B V), 63 n.l,
66, 109.
Sigmatic aorist, 126f., 130f.
Slavic metre, 16, 24 n.2, 28 n.l.
Smyrna, lOf., 14.
Spelling, 95, 137f.
-ss-, 50, 120-2, l30f., 135.
Suffixes, 104f., 131.
Syllabic liquids, 98-100.
can be found in the Table of
Synapheia, 20 n.2.
167f.
<=
~,83n.l.
122, 136.
+ dat., 107, 137.
&vl, .zosf., 137.
13f:;o.[6LQG, 81, 83 n.l., .l74f.
ep&x~,
81, 83 n.l.
81, 83 n.l.
Contents.
Synonyms, 147-50, 151, 153.
&vec.aLv,
120-2.
6;v6poooc., 123f.
2. Greek
il
a)TT.\JE Lrir] (, 85.
ya, yata, 43f., 63, 93, 137, 148-50,
157f.
~L, 42, 158f.
6.j3pooUm,, 104.
ay~, 155f.
~.
105, 117, 123, 137.
AFOE, 138.
6fJE'AJ.f£.-, 89f., 137.
6.FU1:0p, 72 n.l.
OOLXnEL, 128f., 138 n.2
6.Fur5, 72 n.l.
OPYOAEO!;, 104, 146f.
6py~, 133.
yeN:xv, 121.
ye;\o~;,
50, 54.
yevc.ctla.L, 42.
\
YE\Nal"O, 123.
I
1
ij1
_
'
I
.ii'I '
I~I t
:
- 199 -
- 198 -
3Ean:Ecr~a, 33, 88 n.1,
O:ixpuo~v, 119f.
EAm~, 166f.
Ex:4tva. 1
E:Allli:pJ., 166f.
EUonEE, 70, 80, 83.
5dxvu, 56.
~pn~, 169f.
EUpUoao,
5£pa., 88f., 133.
E:vv, 133.
EtJXOIJO.~, 158f.
CE~, v. r~.
6~e:x~, 89.
tvvaJdw,
E((Xl.~VEO, 40.
CuavE,
56 •
13 3.
-~fu,
80, 83.
(dat,)
co]..IOG,
159f.
Fatmu, 76, 86.
113, 137.
1
~ov,
E:6(;,
&.:lin,
trropB'
159f.
-n~
(voc. of
I
50, 75.
E:O:vaooe: 1
tn~AA0yov,
~Em.[, 85.
E:~xOo&.J, 165f.
etc., 72-7,86.
I
'44, 85.
133.
l)L~o~, 36.
r~. 111.
f\MW, 163.
f\n:Ep, 131f., 136.
xat,
"Hp:.Jv, 117f.
XOAEOOU~, 42, 130.
E:p~&l.A.n~, 103f.
i'i~, 125f., 137.
xap6~a, 98f.
~~~~pws, 50, 54, 109.
i'im,
x&p.~. 99f., 136.
tpi•a~~
(dat.), 113.
162.
E:~ouw, 42, 69, 165f.
~. 43, 167f.
1
97 •
~\1 1 40.
-Ecr~
~a~, 155f.
-Eoo~
EAEAuo6ov,
123f.
datives, 119f., 122.
datives, 50, 119-22, 130.
134f.
XOO~Yvn•~, 89f., 137.
Ep~EV, 126f.
fuaa[, 85,
rn-
52, 109f., 137.
r~. 5o, 53f., 95f., 136.
EL~/E:~, 47, 107f.
ELcmAoW 1
-~v,
C~, 69, 169f.
ETt~EJJUEVO~
~6wKav, 122, 125f.
CMW, 163.
77.
I
~a:(E 1 84f.
~6ooav, 122, 125f.
LXEA~, 169f.
143.
names), 83 n.1.
85 •
123f., 133.
FE~v, Fo~, 72-7, 86.
Fdmw ? ,
F6~
70.
1
EnE;po~,
-E
FE,
125, 137.
5poo~v, 119£.
52, 109f., 137.
txO.vw, 163.
~vv=, 133.
~~~
cf. &:iocrE~.
~. 173.
&:iocrn, 70, 85,
&ta,
xa•fuvE,
cf.
50, 53.
XE(V)
1
E:a.~~. 125f.
&tA.w,
X~~,
90f.
E~A~EE, 125, i37.
3EoLXEAo~~. 133.
37 n.1, 130.
123.
fuaa[,
&i!:Ayw, 88.
8~~,
91.
88.
&tplJ.(lV,
89.
XAW,,
103, 137.
156f.
f
- 200-
XqYt"EpDb 1
99•
xp€Tn~~. 42, 170f.
vii(~)
i
56.
I
NripTJo<;;/Nnpd&Jl\1,
13 5 •
l
A.&/3oA.ov,
104, 176.
o-rn + superlative,
TtVEG)Ja., 164f.
150.
76, 96f., 137.
70.
Aa8~x&o8a, 115-7.
6-rpa.A.€w<;;,
OTI~<;;, 50, 53.
vorn.n-ra., 40.
v6o<;;!vW<;;,
- 201 -
n:OOe:oo~
, 119.
noanw,
128f., 138 n.2.
TIOLXLOA.6Epo~, 133.
Ciq:puaw, 119f.
noxxC,
OOL<;;,
70, 160f.
A.CaaoJJO.~, 15Bf.
Qap~!;, 50f.
rra.'CoL,
Ma., 175£.
ot€Tn<;;,
n:apcl., 109.
orxo<;;,
164f.
&pea}..~L 1 171-3.
!;Ovov, ·13lf.
50f.
TtV<:Sa.,
89.
Tt6A.e:a&;,
111.
rt6A.no<;;,
llOf, 134.
119f.
n0A.A.a. 1
1 73 •
nOpoL8e:(v)/~, 103, 16lf.
159f.
M:t'Ca., 93.
-o~o,
50, 60, 112, 136.
)JOXQ.LP<J. 1 4 3 •
oro<;;,
171.
).!6pn-rw, 99.
-oL<;; (dative),
~ya&;, 37 n.1.
-o~o-
Tia.l:cly EOXE 1 12 7 f.
Tt6v-ro<;;,
112-5, 136, 137.
(Lesbian), elsewhere, 57.
ne:ra·,
123.
n€A.oJJO.~
1
167 f.
~,.133.
nooc Wa.v, 7 o.
90 •
~6E~<;;, 170f.
~A.aBpa., 159f.
6ve:C6e:o~v, 120-2.
TtE]-D1Ei3<)T)a., 13 3.
TII)l:E0\11:0.~
~A.mva., 43.
O\ITlap, 94 n.l.
nepfne:pC,
nouipLa., 40.
-~va.~,
6vxaA.€ov-re:~;;, 124f.
nipa-rwv,
~\ICllJ.(.)CJ{Na 1 1 04 •
6w€A.nv,
tne:pLo-re:Cxe:Lv,
~Ladwv, 112 n.1.
~~ve:, 133£.
~vo<;;, 171.
OTia.l:jJOb I
).J6po<;; 1 15 4f •
OrtAa., 161.
50,_53, 55.
133£.
63, 131£.
44, 70, 133.
no-rC,
I
124f. ' 137.
47, 49, 56 n.1.
151.
np6~, 47, 56 n.1.
50f.
TtEpL-reA.A.e:-ra.L, 90, 117, 137.
np6oee;, 103, 16lf.
ntp(pl~, 51, 58.
np6awroov,
43, 174.
moA.E:]J.(i6oxo<;; ,
-V
~AxUOl:LXOv 1 73, 101-3.
vepfu;, 154.
4 4 , 91 f .
oTtllO.-ra., 171-3.
nCA.va.(~l, 56.
rtl:6A.~<;;, 9lf., lOBf.
OTtl10l:E, 50, 53,
nCA.va.-ra.~ , 91.
nc.Y..I.Xl\IOxnfu, 109f., 133, 137.
eooo~,
171-3.
I
I
I
TtAEU]J.ova.(<;;)
I
1
86 •
i
i
II
II
II
,il
r
- 203 -
- 202 -
pt&:x;;,
irlKu~, 176 ..
174.
pna, ai,
93£., 137, 174£.
I
-oav, 125£, 136.
Tpo[av, 93.
-a&-, 138.
1:1:- = n1:-, 92 n.2.
-aGa,
u.uv5twv,
-a~
50, 53, 129£.
(dat.) , 119£.
m:ams,
175;t.
m:ELXW,
151, 153.
106£.
l:WV5EUMiv,
52.
C&.p, 133.
CYt1')8Em (v) , 120-2.
u€pywv,
-auva, 104.
una.,
a6.
l:aAa,
154.
Urr.6,
86.
•axa,
37.
qx:xpf;Wi-u=;5' , 98£., 126£.
l:aXUQ,
q:Oo~,
17(i.
•axus ayyEAos,
JJ, Ja, 176.
l:EAn~~, 42,
aa,
qi:p:u, 43.
q:pta~, 119£.
130£.
x8Wv,
l:EOS, so,
107.
119£.
148-50, 157.
XPOOEW~, 133.
x4Jn~~, 163.
1:~(:;,
90£., 116.
\(IQ)({Xl(:;,
177.
150.
WNo~[av, 133, 138.
L
r
3. Mycenean
a-mo, 58.
te-re-ja-e, 124 n.2.
a-re, 59 n.1.
te-re-ta, 88.
i-je-ro, i-e-re-u, 96.
srava(s) aksitam, 38.
1011 162.
xtp::n,
Ws + superlative,
4. Sanskrit
q:6J3a.~ai: <v> , 101, 103.
160£.
166.
84 n.1.
qijp:x., 88 n.1.
l:ExVOV 1
-wA.n,
l:OLoOEa(a)~, 50, 52, 106£.