ἀήρ
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Etymon-lemma
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Transliteration (Etymon)
English translation (etymon)
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Quotation
διονομάζοντα τὸ μὲν πῦρ Ἀπόλλωνα καὶ Ἥλιον καὶ Ἥφαιστον, τὸ δὲ ὕδωρ Ποσειδῶνα καὶ Σκάμανδρον, τὴν δ’ αὖ σελήνην Ἄρτεμιν, τὸν ἀέρα δὲ Ἥραν καὶ τὰ λοιπά. […] οὗτος μὲν οὖν ‹ὁ› τρόπος ἀπολογίας ἀρχαῖος ὢν πάνυ καὶ ἀπὸ Θεαγένους τοῦ Ῥηγίνου, ὃς πρῶτος ἔγραψε περὶ Ὁμήρου, τοιοῦτός ἐστιν ἀπὸ τῆς λέξεως
Translation (En)
calling fire Apollon, and Sun, and Hephaistos, calling water Poseidon and Scamander, the moon Artemis, the air (āēra) Hera, and so on. […] This type of explanation, which is very old and found already in Theagenes of Rhegium, who was the first to write on Homer, is rooted in the words
Parallels
This etymology was repeated in all Pre-Socratic philosophers, see Empedocles, fr. 23, l. 6 and fr. 33, 4 (Δία μὲν γὰρ λέγει τὴν ζέσιν καὶ τὸν αἰθέρα, Ἥρην δὲ φερέσβιον τὸν ἀέρα "he calls Zeus the ebullition (zesis) and the burning ether, and Hera life-bringing the air"). This is also alluded to in Plato's Cratylus 404c2 (ἴσως δὲ μετεωρολογῶν ὁ νομοθέτης τὸν ἀέρα Ἥραν ὠνόμασεν ἐπικρυπτόμενος, θεὶς τὴν ἀρχὴν ἐπὶ τελευτήν, "But perhaps the lawgiver had natural phenomena in mind, and called her Hera, as a disguise for āēr "air", putting the beginning at the end", Fowler's transl.). See also Heraclitus, Allegoriae 25, 7, and Plutarchus, Mor. 363d7
Comment
The last part of Porphyry's quotation, transmitted through a bT scholion to Il. 21.67, means that the origin of this association between a divinity and an element or a quality are of course the divinity's attributions, but also his or her name, as for Hera whose name is supposed to come from āēr, Ionic ēēr "mist, air", and seen as a contracted form of the latter. See also the notice on Zeus