Greek Personal Names: an Introduction Greek Personal Names: an Introduction

Greek Personal Names: An Introduction Greek Personal Names: An Introduction ROBERT BOSTOCK Stheno-/-sthenēs (sthenos, ‘strength’: Sthenoboia, Kleisthenes); -kratēs (kratos, ‘strength, power’: Sokrates), -klēs (kleos, ‘fame’: Perikles, Sophokles), Dēmo-/-dēmos (dēmos, ‘people, Compound Names citizen body’: Demosthenes, Philodemos); niko-/- nikos (nikē, ‘victory’: Nikomakhos, Demonikos). A distinctive feature of Greek names is their The cavalry was a powerful element in the length: Demosthenes, Thucydides, Alcibiades, army, and horse ownership then as now Callimachus, etc.1 Behind this lies the fact a mark of prestige, so names from hippos, that a very large proportion of Greek names ‘horse’, proliferate: Hippolytos, Hippokleides, are compound words – i.e., words made from Xanthippos, Philippides, etc.3 The Greeks were two separate words to form one idea. Cf. indeed lovers of beauty, as the Association’s motto English ‘bedroom’, ‘textbook, ‘landlord’. Thus attests,4 and this is brought out in the widespread Demosthenes is formed from dēmos, ‘people’, use of names in Kalli- (kallos, ‘beauty: Kallikles, and sthenos, ‘strength’ and Thoukydides from Kallimakhos, Kallistratos etc.). theos, ‘god’, and kydos, ‘glory’. From this it may be noted that the vast majority of Greek names Given this polysyllabic baseline, the Greeks, are relatively transparent in their sense, unlike as we do, took the time-saving measure of English names such as Robert, Thomas, Jane abbreviating names: Robert – Rob; Elizabeth or Emma. – Liz. To do this, the first or second part of the name was omitted, and certain characteristic It may also be noted that this method of forming suffixes added ( n and -ias being particularly personal names is very ancient, since it is common). So Kleon from e.g. Kleotimos, shared by other members of the Indo-European Dexion from e.g.-ō Dexitheos,5 Kallias from e.g. language family. For example, in German we Kallistratos, Nikias from e.g. Nikodemos.6 have Siegfried (Sieg, ‘victory’ and Frieden, ‘peace’), and in Sanskrit Vīrasena (vīra, ‘warrior’ and sena, ‘army’). Compound name-formation may thus be 3 See Aristophanes, Clouds, 60-67 on the naming of attributed to the hypothetical parent-language, Strepsiades’ son Pheidippides; Dubois (2000). It may be ‘Proto-Indo-European’.2 noted here that the earliest surviving evidence for the Greek language, the Linear B tablets from the Mycenaean world, Within this general framework there is almost already exhibit the same categories of name-formation as in later Greek: see García-Ramón (2011). However, there endless scope for variation. Nevertheless, are interesting differences, one of which is the absence of certain words recur with particular frequency, hippo- in names, and also the absence of word elements and serve to express the values of the society denoting civic institutions and discourse, such as peisi- (from which bestowed the names: Aristo- (aristos, peithō, ‘persuade’: Peisistratos); -boulos (boulē, ‘council’: ‘best’ – Aristophanes, Aristoteles), Timo-/- Aristoboulos): Neumann (1991) 320. timos (timē, ‘honour’: Timokrates, Philotimos); 4 ε, adapted from Perikles’ -makhos (makhomai, ‘fight’: Telemakhos, funeral oration (Thuc. 2.40.1). kallos and its adjective kalos φιλοκαλοῦμεν καὶ φιλοσοφοῦμ Thrasymakhos, etc.); Arkhi-/-arkhos (arkhomai, were of course value-laden and not purely aesthetic: see e.g. ‘rule’, ‘lead’: Arkhilokhos, Aristarkhos); Dover (1974) 69-73. 5 Sophokles played a part in the introduction to Athens of 1 Henceforth Greek names will be given in their literal the cult of the healing god Asklepios. Upon his death, he was transliteration (with ‘y’ for upsilon), in order to make clear the himself worshipped as a hero and given the name Dexiōn, affinity with their etymological origins. This may seem alien, short for Dexitheos, ‘Receiver of the god’ (dekhomai, ‘receive’): but for the Greekless reader it will at least be more intelligible see Parker (1996) 184-5. than the Greek alphabet. 6 Some indication of the frequency of name types can be 2 The best introduction to the subject is Fortson (2010). For gleaned from the names of Athenian eponymous archons personal names see Meier-Brügger (2010) 430-5, with further between 500 and 403BC (see Meiggs and Lewis [1969] bibliography. 291): of the 95 names, 58 are compounds, 26 are shortened 32 Greek Personal Names: An Introduction Another characteristic suffix in name- The name of the historian Herodotos formation was -idēs (also -iadēs). This was combines -dotos with a lesser type of divinity, originally a patronymic suffix used to denote a hero (h r s). We are speaking here of heroes the father, as at Iliad 6.76 Priamidēs Helenos, not in the Homeric sense but in the cultic ‘Helenos, son of Priam’. The patronymic was sense, ofē mortalsō who upon death received often used by itself, as Pēleid s, ‘(Akhilleus) cultic honours (sacrifice, libations) like other son of Peleus’ or Atreidēs, ‘(Agamemnon) son divinities:9 famous among them are Herakles, of Atreus’. Perhaps from thisē independent Asklepios and the Dioskouroi (Kastor and usage its patronymic meaning was weakened Pollux). Here the use of the suffix -i(a)dēs is and it became simply another suffix for most common: Herakleides, Asklepiades, forming names: Alkibiades, Pheidippides, Dioskourides.10 Conversely, names derived Hippokleides, Euripides, etc. from ‘literary’ heroes such as Akhilleus, Odysseus, Agamemnon, Menelaos, Diomedes, etc. are very rare.11 One of the most common Theophoric Names suffixes for names of heroes is -eus: Akhilleus, Odysseus, Theseus, Pentheus, Proteus, Peleus, etc. This suffix was common for name- The gods were another major source for formation in Mycenaean times, as attested names (‘theophoric’ names), just as the saints by the Linear B tablets, but is relatively are in Catholic and Orthodox societies today.7 uncommon later – an interesting instance of Two broad categories may be distinguished. historical discontinuity.12 First, names derived directly from the god, the most common being Apollonios, Artemisia, On the topic of heroes we may note the Demetrios, Dionysios; but we also find e.g. tendency to see proper names as significant, Hekataios (Hekate), and later Sarapion after as expressing something elemental about the the Egyptian god Sarapis. Names of potentially name-bearer, a natural connection between malignant gods, such as the underworld pair onoma (‘name’) and physis (‘nature’).13 The Hades and Persephone, are not found, and poets are fond of making such (pseudo-) likewise names formed from Hephaistos are 8 etymological connections: Akhilleus from very rare, perhaps felt to be inauspicious akhos (‘grief’; cf. Od. 11.486, mē akakhizeu because of the god’s lameness. Akhilleu), Odysseus from odyssomai (‘hate’; Od. 19.406-8), Pentheus from penthos (‘grief’; Eur. The second category of theophoric names Bacch. 367), Aias (Latin form: Ajax) from aiai uses compounds, and as with other compound (a cry of pain, like ‘arrrgh!’; Soph. Ajax 430-1).14 names certain word elements predominate. Two of the most common are -dotos/-dōros, which denote ‘giving’ (from the verb didōmi), 9 For an introductory account see Burkert (1985) 203-8. and -philos, meaning ‘dear’, beloved’ (from the 10 Another source of names in this respect were rivers, adjective philos). These can be used either with conceived of as divinities and associated especially with the the general word for god, theos, or with the name nurturing of children. From the Attic river Kephisos we have of an individual god: Theophilos, Theodotos, Kephisodoros and Kephisodotos. See Parker (2000) 59-61. Artemidoros, Dionysodoros, Diodoros (from 11 For example, there are eleven different forms of name Dios, the genitive form of Zeus), Diphilos. The based on Akhilleus, with a total of 193 names; contrast e.g. child is ‘given by the god’ or ‘dear to the god’. the single name Nikias, with 918 examples, or Apollodoros with 1,425 examples (figures taken fromLGPN online – see ‘Further Reading’ below). compounds, leaving 11 others. Of these, six are rarer forms of compounds or shortened compounds, leaving five other 12 Morpugo-Davies (2000) 35-6. names (Smyros, Ankhises, Konεn, Morukhides, Glaukinos). 13 Griffith (1978) 84 n.5. 7 For theophoric names see Parker (2000). 14 Note the important caveat at Bremmer (1987) 45: ‘the 8 Parker (2000) 55. etymological interpretation is always secondary, and cannot 33 Iris | Journal of the Classical Association of Victoria | New Series | Volume 29 | 2016 Greek Personal Names: An Introduction Women’s Names but significant linguistic point reinforces this: the vocative form (used to address someone) of gynē ‘woman’ is very common, whereas the Most of the examples given so far have vocative form of anēr, ‘man’, is almost only been of men. A couple of points in relation to found where a wife addresses her husband. women’s names – among the many that might Out of respect men should address one another be made – can be noted: one linguistic, one by name; likewise out of respect (within the cultural. In the first place, names of women cultural framework) a woman should not be are very often simply the feminine equivalent addressed by name.19 of a male name, and as such do not make strict sense. Kallistrate, which means ‘having a fine army’ (from kallos, ‘beauty’ and stratos, Further Reading ‘army’) hardly applies to a woman (Artemisia aside), and likewise names such as Melanippe (‘having black horses’), Eurykleia (‘of Much has been left out of this brief sketch: widespread fame’) are feminine adaptations simple names as opposed to compound names; of originally masculine names. This is one ‘derogatory’ names such as Simōn (‘snub- example of the way in which names, unlike nose’) and Kopr n (from kopros, ‘crap’ [!]); language in general, do not communicate slave-names, foreign names, family naming information but merely designate or label.15 In practices, etc. Thereō is a very good summary addition to their semantics, female names also of the topic by Elaine Matthews in the Oxford behave differently from the normal language Classical Dictionary (3rd ed.), s.v.

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