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Ancient and Medieval Greek Etymologies

Ζεύς

Word

Ζεύς

Validation

Yes

Word-form

Ζεύς

Word-lemma

LSJ

Etymon-lemma

LSJ

Transliteration (Word)

Zeus

English translation (word)

Zeus

Transliteration (Etymon)

zaō

English translation (etymon)

to live

Author

Plato

Century

4 BC

Source

Idem

Ref.

Cratylus 396ab

Ed.

J. Burnet, Platonis Opera, Oxford UP, 1903

Quotation

οὐ γὰρ ἔστιν ἡμῖν καὶ τοῖς ἄλλοις πᾶσιν ὅστις ἐστὶν αἴτιος μᾶλλον τοῦ ζῆν ἢ ὁ ἄρχων τε καὶ βασιλεὺς τῶν πάντων. συμβαίνει οὖν ὀρθῶς ὀνομάζεσθαι οὗτος ὁ θεὸς εἶναι, δι᾽ ὃν ζῆν ἀεὶ πᾶσι τοῖς ζῶσιν ὑπάρχει· διείληπται δὲ δίχα, ὥσπερ λέγω, ἓν ὂν τὸ ὄνομα, τῷ Διὶ καὶ τῷ Ζηνί

Translation (En)

For certainly no one is so much the author of “life” (zēn) for us and all others as the ruler and king of all. Thus this god is correctly named, through whom all living beings have the gift of life. But, as I say, the name is divided, though it is one name, into the two parts, Dia and Zena (transl. Fowler)

Comment

The etymology starts from an infected form of Zeus, taking it from the Ionic inflection of Zeus, Acc. Ζήν or Ζῆν, Gen. Ζηνός, Dat. Ζηνί (Zēn, Zēnos, Zēni), which happens to be identical with the infinitive ζῆν (zēn) "to live". The sentence δι᾽ ὃν ζῆν ἀεὶ πᾶσι τοῖς ζῶσιν ὑπάρχει is maybe a hint to another etymon of Zeus/Dios: the preposition διά (dia); see Cornutus, Compendium 3.8 (Lang): Δία δὲ αὐτὸν καλοῦμεν ὅτι δι' αὐτὸν γίνεται καὶ σώζεται πάντα

Parallels

Epicurus, fr. 114, 25; Chrysippus, fr. 528, 20-21 (διὸ δὴ καὶ Ζεὺς λέγεται ὁ κόσμος, ἐπειδὴ τοῦ ζῆν αἴτιος ἡμῖν ἐστι); Schol. bT Il. 15, 192 (εἴρηται δὲ παρὰ τὸ ζῶ. τοῦ γὰρ ζῆν αἴτιος)

This etymology is alluded to in Euripides, Orestes 1635 (Ζηνὸς γὰρ οὖσαν ζῆν νιν ἄφθιτον χρεών "being born from Zeus, she must live forever")

Modern etymology

Zeus is the old Indo-European name of the sky, identical with Latin diēs and Sanscrite dyaus

Persistence in Modern Greek

The form "Δίας" has replaced the nominative "Ζεύς" in Modern Greek, to denote both the ancient god and the planet. The ancient genitive singular is still used to call ancient monuments, e.g., "Στήλες Ολυμπίου Διός" (Triandafyllidis, Dictionary of MG)