Studies on Homer and the Homeric Age, Vol. 1 of 3: I. Prolegomena II. Achæis; or, the Ethnology of the Greek RacesGladstone, W. E. (William Ewart)
History
Studies on Homer and the Homeric Age, Vol. 1 of 3: I. Prolegomena II. Achæis; or, the Ethnology of the Greek Races
Gladstone, W. E. (William Ewart)
Civilization, Homeric; Epic poetry, Greek -- History and criticism; Homer
A very extensive list of perhaps one hundred or more verbs might be
added, which are either identical or nearly related in the Greek and
Latin languages: but it would not, I think, materially enlarge or
diminish the general effect of those words which have been enumerated.
We have before us about one hundred and eighty words in the classes of
substantive and adjective only. They might nearly form the primitive
vocabulary of a rustic and pacific people. Two exceptions may be named,
which may deserve remark. It will be observed, that the senses are
inadequately represented, only two of them, smell and taste, being
included. The other three are also connected in the two languages as
follows: touch, by the relation of θιγγάνω and _tango_: sight, by εἴδω
and _video_: hearing, by the evident connection of the Latin _audire_
with the Greek αὔδη, the proper name in Homer for the voice.
The other marked exception is that of religion. With slender
exceptions, such as θεὸς = _deus_, the connection of _rex_ with ῥέζω,
of _numen_ with νεύω, of λοιβὴ with _libo_, and that of ἀράομαι,
ἀρητὴρ with _orare_, _orator_, _ara_, there is a considerable want of
correspondence in the leading words, such as ἱερὸς, ἅγιος, θύω, βῶμος,
νῆον, ἄγαλμα, σέβω, μάντις, of the one tongue, and _sacer_, _sanctus_,
_pius_, _templum_, _vates_, _macto_, _mola_, of the other. The greater
part of the Pelasgian vocabulary must have been displaced on the one
side or on the other: and as it is in Greece that we have much fuller
and clearer evidence of the advent of a superior race, which gave its
own impress to life and the mind in the higher departments of thought,
we must conclude that this substitution probably took place in Greece,
and was of Hellenic for Pelasgian words.
The proposition of Niebuhr with respect to terms of war, appears to me
to be in the main well sustained by the facts. Let us take for example
the following list: which appears to show that, in this department,
with the exception of a pretty close relation between βέλος and
_telum_, and a more remote one between πόλεμος and _bellum_, possibly
also between _lorica_ and θώρηξ, there is hardly in any case the
faintest sign of relationship between the customary terms employed in
the two languages for the respective objects.
telum βέλος
ensis } {ξίφος
gladius } {φάσγανον
cuspis }
mucro } αἰχμή
acies }
galea κυνέη
hasta {δόρυ
{ἔγχος
scutum[541] } {ἄσπις
clypeus } {σάκος
lorica θώρηξ
ocrea κνημίς
vagina κολεός
bellum {Ἄρης
{πόλεμος
prælium } {ὑσμίνη
pugna } {μάχη
currus } {δίφρος
rheda } {ἅρμα
rota κυκλός (Hom.)
terno ῥυμὸς
tuba } σάλπιγξ
classicum }
castra κλισίαι
tabernaculum[542] κλισίη
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