μωλύω
Word
Validation
Word-form
Word-lemma
Etymon-lemma
Transliteration (Word)
English translation (word)
Transliteration (Etymon)
English translation (etymon)
Century
Reference
Edition
Source
Ref.
Ed.
Quotation
μῶλυ φυτὸν ἀλεξιφάρμακον. [...] Κλεάνθης δὲ ὁ φιλόσοφος ἀλληγορικῶς φησὶ δηλοῦσθαι τὸν λόγον, δι’ οὗ μωλύονται αἱ ὁρμαὶ καὶ τὰ πάθη.
Translation (En)
Mōlu, "moly": medicinal plant. [...] The philosoph Cleanthes says that the word has an allegorical meaning: it mōluei "weakens" impulses and passions.
Parallels
Hesychius, Lexicon, mu, 2036 (μῶλυ· φυτοῦ εἶδος ἀλεξιφάρμακον, ἢ βοτάνης ἀντιπάθιον. οἱ δὲ τὸν λόγον, δι’ οὗ τὰ πάντα μωλύεται, ὅ ἐστι πραΰνεται); Etymologicum Gudianum, mu, p.401, l.27 (Μῶλυ, ἐκ τοῦ μῶ τὸ ζητῶ μῶλυ, βοτάνης εἶδος, παρὰ τὸ μωλύειν, ὅ ἐστιν ἀφανίζειν τὰ φάρμακα· φασὶ δὲ αὐτὸ ἑλκόμενον τῆς ῥίζης τῷ τέλει θάνατον ἐπιφέρειν τῷ ἀποσπῶντι); Eustathius, Commentarii ad Homeri Odysseam, éd. Stallbaum, vol. 1, p. 381, l.34 (φασὶ δὲ οἱ παλαιοὶ καὶ μῶλυ λέγεσθαι παρὰ τὸ μωλύειν ὅ ἐστιν ἀφανίζειν τὰ φάρμακα); Scholia in Odysseam (scholia vetera), 10, 305, éd. Dindorf (μῶλυ: βοτάνης εἶδος παρὰ τὸ μωλύειν, ὅ ἐστιν ἀφανίζειν τὰ φάρμακα); Scholia in Lycophronem, 679, éd. Scheer (μῶλυ δὲ γίνεται ἐκ τοῦ μῶ τὸ ζητῶ ἢ τὸ μολύνειν, ὅ ἐστιν ἀφανίζειν τὰ φάρμακα)
Bibliography
J. Stannard, 1962, "The Plant called Moly", Osiris, 14, p. 254-307; L. Calvié, 2002, "Notes sur la théorie de l'allégorie chez les rhéteurs grecs", in J. Gardes Tamine (éd.), L'Allégorie, corps et âme. Entre personnification et double sens, p. 77-95; on the etymology of the name, C. Le Feuvre, "Language of gods, Pythian Apollo and Plato's Cratylus", in S. Anthonioz, A. Mouton, D. Petit (des), When gods speak to men. Divine speech according to textual sources in the ancient Mediterranean basin, Leuven - Paris, Peeters, 2019, p. 83, with bibliography.
Comment
The word μῶλυ is first Homeric (Od. 10, 305): it is the plant Hermes gave to Ulysses so that he could escape the wiles of Circe, who turned his companions into pigs. The etymology of the word did not interest Greek authors very much: the question was rather for botanists the identification of the plant described by Homer (with a white flower and a black root). This passage from Cleanthes is one of the first attestations of the word allegory in its ancient sense, which explains the way this fanciful etymology functions.