Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Abbreviations
- Preface: Anthroponomikos
- Dedication
- PART ONE HOMERIC NOMOS
- One The Nomos of Feasts and ‘Sacrifices’
- Two Nomos Moirēgenēs
- Three The Nomos of the Land
- Four Pastoral Nomos
- Five Nemesis
- PART TWO POST-HOMERIC NOMOS
- Six The Nomos of the Post-Homeric Poets
- Seven The Nomos of Heraclitus
- Eight Nomos Basileus
- Nine The Nomos of the Tragedians
- Ten Nomos Mousikos
- Bibliography
One - The Nomos of Feasts and ‘Sacrifices’
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 May 2021
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Abbreviations
- Preface: Anthroponomikos
- Dedication
- PART ONE HOMERIC NOMOS
- One The Nomos of Feasts and ‘Sacrifices’
- Two Nomos Moirēgenēs
- Three The Nomos of the Land
- Four Pastoral Nomos
- Five Nemesis
- PART TWO POST-HOMERIC NOMOS
- Six The Nomos of the Post-Homeric Poets
- Seven The Nomos of Heraclitus
- Eight Nomos Basileus
- Nine The Nomos of the Tragedians
- Ten Nomos Mousikos
- Bibliography
Summary
οὐδ’ ὑμῖν ποταμός πϵρ ἐΰρροος ἀργυροδίνης ἀρκέσϵι, ᾧ δὴ δηθὰ πολέας ἱϵρϵύϵτϵ ταύρους.
Hom. Il. 21.130–2ἀλλ’ ἄγϵ δὴ καὶ νῶϊ μϵδώμϵθα, δῖϵ γϵραιέ, σίτου·
Hom. Il. 24.619–20Distribution-sharing
In Plato's Protagoras, Protagoras, in response to Socrates, recounts through a fable the creation of mortal creatures and their ‘distribution’ (utilising the verb nemein) of power (dunamis) by Prometheus and Epimetheus:
προσέταζαν Προμηθϵῖ καὶ Ἐπιμηθϵῖ κοσμῆσαί τϵ καὶ νϵῖμαι δυνάμϵις ἑκάστοις ὡς πρέπϵι. Προμηθέα δὲ παραιτϵῖται Ἐπιμηθϵὺς αὐτὸς νϵῖμαι, ‘νϵίμαντος δέ μου’, ἔϕη, ‘ἐπίσκϵψαι’: καὶ οὕτω πϵίσας νέμϵι. νέμων δὲ τοῖς μὲν ἰσχὺν ἄνϵυ τάχους προσῆπτϵν, τοὺς δ᾽ ἀσθϵνϵστέρους τάχϵι ἐκόσμϵι: τοὺς δὲ ὥπλιζϵ, τοῖς δ᾽ ἄοπλον διδοὺς ϕύσιν ἄλλην τιν᾽ αὐτοῖς ἐμηχανᾶτο δύναμιν ϵἰς σωτηρίαν. ἃ μὲν γὰρ αὐτῶν σμικρότητι ἤμπισχϵν, πτηνὸν ϕυγὴν ἢ κατάγϵιον οἴκησιν ἔνϵμϵν: ἃ δὲ ηὖζϵ μϵγέθϵι, τῷδϵ αὐτῷ αὐτὰ ἔσῳζϵν: καὶ τἆλλα οὕτως ἐπανισῶν ἔνϵμϵν.
In translation, the passage can be rendered as follows:
They [the gods] charged Prometheus and Epimetheus to allot [neimai] to each their proper dunameis [powers]. Epimetheus besought Prometheus that he undertake the allotment [neimai] himself; ‘And when I have assigned’ [neimantos], he said, ‘you shall examine’ and having persuaded him so, he allotted. In allotting [nemōn] he attached strength without speed to some, while the weaker ones he provided with speed; and some he armed, while granting to others who were unarmed, another dunamis for their preservation. To those which he invested with smallness he allotted [enemen] a winged escape or a habitat under the earth; and those which he increased in size he preserved by this very means; and he dealt all other [dunameis] according to symmetry.
In the literary evidence (in this case, in Homer), long before this use of the verb to describe the distribution of powers, one of the earliest, if not the earliest, uses of the verb appears to have entailed the essential matter of the ‘ritual’distributionsharing of meat (often at a feast). No occasion was said to be more enjoyable than a feast (Od. 9.5–11).
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- Information
- The Birth of Nomos , pp. 3 - 37Publisher: Edinburgh University PressPrint publication year: 2018