δαίζω + φρήν

Validation

No

Last modification

Sun, 12/31/2023 - 12:45

Word-form

δαΐφρων

Transliteration (Word)

daïphrōn

English translation (word)

warlike

Transliteration (Etymon)

daizō + phrēn

English translation (etymon)

to divide + mind

Author

Scholia in Asechylum

Source

idem

Ref.

Scholia in Aeschylum, Septem 917-918

Ed.

O. L. Smith, Scholia Graeca in Aeschylum quae exstant omnia, vols. 1 & 2.2, Leipzig: Teubner, 1:1976; 2.2:1982

Quotation

δαΐφρων δέ, δαΐζων τὰς φρένας

Translation (En)

Daïphrōn "warlike" means "dividing the mind" (daïzōn tas phrenas)

Comment

The first meaning of the compound is identified as the verb δαΐζω rather than as the noun δάΐς "battle". This goes together with a different meaning, since the compound is here epithet of γόος "weeping", which is not "warlike". Notice most modern editors have the correction δαϊόφρων in Aeschylus' text, whereas the scholion has δαΐφρων. The assumed structure is that of a verbal compound Verb-Object, like φερέοικος "carrying his house"

Parallels

Scholia in Aeschylum (recentiora), Sept. 917 (δαΐφρων δὲ, ἤτοι διακόπτων τὰς φρένας, οὐκ ἐπὶ τοῖς καλοῖς χαίρων); ibid. 918 (δαΐφρων] πολέμιος ταῖς φρεσὶ, λυπηρὸς καὶ διακόπτων τὰς φρένας ὁ θρῆνος) [elliptic etymology: the real etymon δαίζω is replaced by its synonym διακόπτω]

Bibliography

N. Grintser, “Linguistic Observations by Homer and in Early Greek Poetry”, in N. Kazansky et al. (eds.), Ancient Grammar and its tradition, Leuven 2011, p. 50-51, argues that this etymology is already present in Od. 1.48 ἀλλά μοι ἀμφ᾽ Ὀδυσῆι δαΐφρονι δαίεται ἦτορ “my heart is divided about δαΐφρων Odysseus”, which he translates "with divided, broken heart". It is probably a wordplay rather than an etymology, but it may have been interpreted as an etymology by Greek scholars.

Modern etymology

Δαΐφρων originally means "wise", from *dn̥s-i-. The word was reinterpreted as meaning "warlike" when it was used as an epithet of Homeric heroes, by a synchronic etymology relating it to ἐν δαῒ λυγρῇ

Persistence in Modern Greek

No

Entry By

Le Feuvre