θεῖος

Validation

No

Last modification

Thu, 08/05/2021 - 14:03

Word-form

θεῖον

Transliteration (Word)

theion

English translation (word)

brimstone, sulfur

Transliteration (Etymon)

theios

English translation (etymon)

divine

Author

Plutarch

Century

1-2 AD

Source

Idem

Ref.

Quaestiones convivales 6665c

Ed.

G.N. Bernardakis, Plutarch. Moralia. Leipzig, Teubner, 1889 (2)

Quotation

ὅθεν οἶμαι καὶ τὸ θεῖον ὠνομάσθαι τῇ ὁμοιότητι τῆς ὀσμῆς, ἣν τὰ παιόμενα τοῖς κεραυνοῖς ἀφίησιν ἐκτριβομένην πυρώδη καὶ δριμεῖανhttp://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A2008.01.0311%3Astephpage%3D665c

Comment

Play on the homonymy between θεῖον "brimstone" and θεῖον "divine (neuter), the former being getting its name from the latter. Plutarch justifies that, not by "divine" powers of the brimstone, but by the fact that it smells like things struck by thunder, which were considered divine because struck by Zeus himself, master of the thunderbolt. The etymology is certainly older but this is the first explicit attestation (the reference is not always very clear in scholia). The Homeric form θέειον is explained by scholia and Eustathius (see Parallels) as a modification of the familiar form θεῖον by insertion of a vowel: Greek etymologists had no sense of history and did not start from the oldest form (Homer), but from the most familiar form (that of koine), and it was not a problem for them to derive the Homeric form from the familiar one

Parallels

D Schol. Il. 8.135 (Θεείου. Θείου. Προσληπτέον δὲ, κεραυνοῦ. Ὅπου γὰρ ἂν κεραυνὸς πέσῃ, ὡς θεῖον ὄζει ἐν ἐκείνῳ τῷ τόπῳ); Hesychius, Lexicon, theta 202 (θείου πλῆτο· τοῦ κεραυνίου πυρὸς λέγει. ὀδμὴν γὰρ ἔχει ὁ κεραυνὸς θείου); Choeroboscus, Epimerismi in Psalmos, p. 120 (θεῖον ἐκ τοῦ θεὸς θέϊος, καὶ κράσει θεῖος· τὸ οὐδέτερον τὸ θεῖον. Σημαίνει δὲ τότε ἄφιον (τὸ θεάφιον·) καὶ Ὅμηρος, [Il. ξʹ. 415.] ‘δεινὴ θείου γίγνεται ὀδμή’); Eustathius, Comm. Il. 2, 548 Van der Valk (Ἐν δὲ τῷ θεείου πλεονάζει μὲν τὸ ε, λείπει δὲ τὸ ως. ὤφειλε γὰρ εἰπεῖν ὡς θείου καιομένου. ἔνθα γὰρ κεραυνὸς πέσῃ, ἐκεῖ ὡσανεὶ θείου καιομένου ὄζει. Τοῦτο δέ, ὡς καὶ ἐν τῇ Ὀδυσσείᾳ δηλοῦται σαφέστερον, διὰ τὴν ὕλην γίνεται τοῦ κεραυνοῦ, ἀναθυμίασιν οὖσαν ξηρὰν καὶ καπνώδη. [Ἢ καὶ ἄλλως τὸ «ὡς θεείου» εἶπεν οὐ διὰ τὴν ὀδμήν, ἀλλὰ διὰ τὸ οἷα εἰκός οὐκ αὐτόχρημα φλόγεον τοῦ κεραυνοῦ ὡς καὶ ἀκοντίζεσθαι ὑψοῦ, ταπεινούμενον δέ, ὡς εἰ καὶ θέειον ἐφλογοῦτο. Παραβολικὸν δὲ τὸ «θεείου καιομένοιο», ἀντὶ τοῦ ὡς θεαφίου ἐκπυρωθέντος); ibid., 3, 674 (Τὸ μέντοι «δεινὴ θεείου γίνεται ὀδμή» πρὸς μὲν τὸ προκείμενον καθ’ Ἕκτορα πρᾶγμα εἰκῇ λαλεῖται, ἔχει δὲ ἄλλως ἱστορίαν. Συμβαίνει γὰρ τοῖς διοβλήτοις τῶν δένδρων, ὡς πολλαχοῦ φαίνεται, τὸ ὡς θείου ὄζειν αὐτά, ὃ θέειον πλεονασμῷ τοῦ ε λέγεται, ὡς δηλοῖ καὶ ἡ Ὀδύσσεια. ἀφ’ οὗ καὶ ῥῆμα θεειῶσαι ἢ θειῶσαι τὸ θυμιᾶσαι); Schol. Od. 14.307 Dindorf (ἐκ δὲ θεείου] θεαφίου. θεῖον λέγει πῦρ ἐξ ὕλης τινὸς ἀναπτομένης θειώδους ὀνομαζόμενον. H.Q. τεαφίου. οὕτω γὰρ ὄζει ὁ κεραυνός. B.); Schol. Od. 12.417 Dindorf (θείου πυρός. εἴ γε ἀπὸ τοῦ θείου διαίρεσις, διὰ τί τὸ θεείου διὰ διφθόγγου; φαμὲν ὅτι πλεονασμός ἐστι τοῦ ε, ὡς εἷς, ἕεις)

Modern etymology

Within Greek, probably related with θύω "to fumigate". Older *θϝεhειον, from *dhwes- "to smoke" (Beekes, EDG)

Persistence in Modern Greek

MG still has θείο as a learned word, the usual word is θειάφι (from Ancient Greek θεάφιον "sulfur")

Entry By

Le Feuvre