αἵμων

Validation

Yes

Word-form

δαίμων

Transliteration (Word)

daimōn

English translation (word)

divine being

Transliteration (Etymon)

haimōn

English translation (etymon)

skilled, knowing

Author

Tryphon

Century

1 BC

Source

Idem

Ref.

Peri pathôn 1.11

Ed.

R. Schneider, Excerpta Περὶ παθῶν [Programm Gymnasium Duisburg. Leipzig: Teubner, 1895]: 4-21

Quotation

Πρόσθεσις μὲν οὖν ἐστι προσθήκη στοιχείου κατ’ ἀρχὴν ἢ συλλαβῆς, οἷον σταφίς ἀσταφίς καὶ ὀσταφίς, Σπληδών Ἀσπληδών, στάχυς ἄσταχυς, ὥρα ἑώρα, ἅμα θαμά, οὖρος θοῦρος, εἱλόπεδον θειλόπεδον [ὄρος θόρος], κιδνάς σκιδνάς, αἵμων δαίμων

Translation (En)

Prosthesis "adjunction" is the addition of a letter or a syllable at the beginning <of a word>, as in staphis "raisins" / astaphis and ostaphis, Splēdōn / Asplēdōn, stakhus "(corn) ear" / astakhus, hōra "he was seing" / heōra, hama "at the same time, together" / thama, ouros "pushing" / thouros, heilopedon "drying place" / theilopedon, kidnas "having scattered" / skidnas, haimōn "knowing" / daimōn "divine being"

Comment

The etymology is given in a list of "adjunction" of extra sounds at the beginning of a word, either vowels or consonants. Whereas most instances involving the adjunction of a vowel reflect real etymological relationships valid from our modern point of view, most instances involving the adjunction of a consonant are incorrect etymologies for modern linguists, but show how the Greeks perceived not only a formal, but also a semantic affinity between the two words thus paired: in fact οὖρος means "favorable", and has nothing to do with θοῦρος "impetuous, fiery", but οὖρος is used mainly as an epithet of wind, and the two words share the notion of a quick move forward. The last pair in the list etymologizes δαίμων, a usual word in all Greek dialects, by a Homeric hapax αἵμων (αἵμονα θήρης, Il. 5.29), the meaning of which was disputed in Antiquity but which most commentators of Homer understood as "skilled, knowing". The god would therefore be the knowing one – as in Plato's etymology of δαίμων by δαήμων. The difference of status between the word δαίμων, usual, and the etymon αἵμων, rare and poetic, was not taken into account. The etymology is reversible: Philoxenus (fr. 466) derives αἵμων from δαίμων (repeated in Orion and the Byzantine Etymologica) (see αἵμων / δαίμων): this accounts for the difference of status, as the poetic word is the one which suffered the alteration

Parallels

There is no parallel: the etymology deriving αἵμων from δαίμων is found several times, but the one deriving δαίμων from αἵμων is found only there

Bibliography

On the meaning of αἵμων, see Le Feuvre, Ὅμηρος δύσγνωστος. Réinterprétations de termes homériques en grec archaïque et classique, Geneva, Droz, 2015, 381-398. The word does not mean "skilled" as the Greeks thought, but "taker": it is an agent noun on the root of αἴνυμαι "to take, to seize", hence αἵμονα θήρης "game-taker" (that is, "good hunter", which explains why it was understood as "skilled in hunting"). The initial aspiration, on which there was a debate in Antiquity, is secondary

Modern etymology

Chantraine (1970, 247): "Δαίμων" derives from “δαίομαι”, meaning ‘to attribute, to divide’

Persistence in Modern Greek

The form "δαίμων" is used only in specific phrases (e.g., "ο δαίμων του τυπογραφείου" ("printer's error"). "Δαίμονας" instead of "δαίμων" (MG plural: "δαίμονες") is used in MG to denote 'the spirit(s) of evil' (Triandafyllidis Dicti. of MG).

Entry By

Le Feuvre