πᾶς + ἠθικεύομαι
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Transliteration (Word)
English translation (word)
Transliteration (Etymon)
English translation (etymon)
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Quotation
Πίθηκος: ὅτι τὸ πᾶν ἠθικεύει.
Translation (En)
Pithēkos “monkey”: because it always behaves like men [pan ēthikeuei].
Other translation(s)
Pithēkos « singe » : parce qu’il se comporte toujours comme les hommes [pan ēthikeuei].
Parallels
Anastasius Sinaïta, Hexaemeron, Book 10, l. 294 (Oὐδὲν γὰρ σχεδὸν λείπει τοῖς τοιούτοις ζῴοις, εἰ μὴ μόνον ὁ λόγος τῆς ἀνθρωπίνης φύσεως. Φυσικῇ γάρ τινι ἕξει κέκτηνται τὴν τῶν πραγμάτων καὶ σχημάτων, ὧν καθορῶσι, μίμησίν τε καὶ ἐπιτήδευσιν. Διὸ καὶ πίθηκοι λέγονται, ὅτι τὸ πᾶν ἠθικεύονται)
Bibliography
General references on primates in Antiquity: W.C. McDermott, The Ape in Antiquity, Baltimore 1938; C., Connors, "Monkey business : imitation, authenticity, and identity from Pithekoussai to Plautus" 2004, Classical Antiquity 23 (2) : 179-207; C. Greenlaw, The Representation of Monkeys in the Art and Thought of Mediterranean Cultures, Oxford 2011
Comment
Compositional etymology in which, as often, the first member is reduced to the first letter /p/. It probably arose in a ioticizing state of the language, where ἠθικεύω was pronounced [iθikevo], providing a formal match with πίθηκος. In the Greek grammatical theory, it can be described as a pathos, an interversion of η and ι. The etymology is clearly driven by the formal side, because the semantic side is quite unnatural. The translation of the LSJ "to speak morally" is ill-fitted here, as the matter is about the behavior of the animal. The verb probably means simply that the animal imitates the human behavior, with ἠθικός meaning "related to the customs".