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Homeric Words in Cyprus

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 December 2013

C. M. Bowra
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Extract

The difficulty of transcribing words written in the Cypriote syllabary makes our acquaintance with the Cypriote dialect precarious and faulty, and in many cases leaves us uncertain about the exact form of a word, but in spite of this uncertainty it is clear that Cypriote, both in inscriptions and in glosses, shews in its vocabulary a notable similarity to the language of the Homeric poems. Inscriptions discovered since Hoffmann's day have enabled us to increase his already long list of such similarities (Die Griechischen Dialekte, I, pp. 278–283), and it is time to examine the evidence and see what bearing these have on the question of the nature of Homeric vocabulary. The problem presented by Homeric words in Cypriote is similar to that presented by their existence in Arcadian, but, though the meaning of Cypriote words is sometimes uncertain, Cyprus is richer in inscriptions than Arcadia and the ancient lexicographers and scholiasts have preserved a singularly large number of Cypriote glosses. The problem is simply stated: how far are we justified in believing that Homeric words in Cypriote are independent of the Homeric poems ? Are they indigenous words, naturally used, or are they ‘literary’ imitations of a well-known poetical style, used for effect in defiance of local dialect usage?

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Hellenic Studies , Volume 54 , Issue 1 , 1934 , pp. 54 - 74
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies 1934

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References

1 It occurs too in Epirus in the sense of ‘plough-land’ (GDI. 1365.5), and Herodotus uses it of a measure of land in Egypt (II 168:ἡ δὲ ἄρουρα ἑκατὸν πήχεών ἐστι Aἰγυπτίων πάντῃ).

2 We may add to the list of Homeric words com-mon to Arcadian and Cypriote the adjective otos, ‘alone,’ which is vouchsafed for Arcadian by the list of , in the entry ’Ἀρκἁδων. οἲος μὁνος. The word is common in Homer, where it has precisely the same meaning as μοῦνος, and the Hesiodic poems. Afterwards its appearances are scanty. Pindar uses it three times (P. I 93. 0. I 73. fr. 93, 1), Aeschylus once in the form οἲον (Ag. 131), Sophocles twice (Aj. 750, fr. 23) and Euripides once (Heracl. 743). It does not occur literary or in epigraphic prose, and is doubtless a poetical word. In Cyprus, however, we find it in the Idalian Bronze (1. 14), which gives ‘kase onasiloi oivoi aneu tokasinetose,’ i.e. ‘to Onasilos alone without his brothers.’ It is thus Cypriote of a good date, and indigenous because of its use also in Arcadian.

3 The reading is not certain. Cf. Deiters, P., De Cretens. titulis publicis, Jena, 1904Google Scholar.

4 Hoffman 109.