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8
B. Maslov
On the derivation of nqooi^iov
Резюме. В статье рассматривается этимология существительного npoofaiov, которое традиционно описывается как образование от o’fan 'эпическая песнь'. Это объяснение, однако, нельзя считать удовлетворительным. Во-первых, гипотетическое исходное значение 'текст, предваряющий эпическую песнь' в памятниках архаического и классического периодов надежно засвидетельствовано лишь единожды (Thuc. 3.104.4-5). Во-вторых, отсутствуют бесспорные примеры сложных слов, образованных от o’fa% само это слово представляет собой элемент позднего эпического языка. Таким образом, необходимо объяснять ngoofaiov как образование от oifaoq 'путь' и постулировать метафорический перенос, аналогичный произошедшему в рус. напутствие. В качестве исходного значения греч. npoofaiov следует рассматривать 'речь, предваряющая то или иное предприятие'.
Ключевые слова: prooimion, proem, Greek lyric, Pindar, Homeric Hymns, kitharody, aedic self-consciousness, genre evolution, compound formation
However familiar the word ngooi^iov may appear to modern scholars, its derivational provenance, as well as its meaning in the Archaic period, are uncertain. Most modern discussions start from Thucydides's designation of the text we know as the Homeric Hymn to Apollo as ngooi^iov AnoXXwvog 'prooimion of Apollo' (3.104.4-5) and the assertion in Plato's Phaedo that Socrates before his death authored ro si’g rov АпоХХш ngooi^iov 'prooimion to Apollo' (60d). The import of this Platonic passage is, in fact, moot; the authority of Thucydides 3.104.4-5, nonetheless, was sufficient to conjure up a consensus that regards all of Homeric Hymns as prooimia, i.e. "something that preceded the singing of a heroic о!щ' (Garda 2002.8).1
1 Modern scholars who share this consensus include Bohme 1937: 2830, Koller 1956, esp. 191; Costantini and Lallot 1987; Nagy 1990: 35360; Watkins 1995: 97-8. The view that the performance of the Homeric hymns preceded a properly epic performance, upheld by
It is worth remarking, however, that neither the word ngooi^iov, nor any phrase whose reanalysis it may represent (e.g. ngo ... owns) is attested in the Homeric Hymns, or elsewhere in the hexameter corpus. The word ngooi^iov, on the other hand, had a wide currency in Attic sources in the meaning 'beginning of a speech, address, invocation.' We must therefore consider the possibility that ngooi^iov originally meant 'opening prayer, invocation', and the application of this term to the literary genre represented by the Homeric Hymns was a secondary development. The evidence of linguistic derivation supports this semantic reconstruction.
As acknowledged in Chantraine 1999: 783-4, the word ngooi^iov can be derived from either o’l^n 'song' or ol^og 'path, way.'2 While the derivation from o’fay 'song' is generally preferred on semantic grounds, it is in fact a priori more likely that the underlying noun is 'path, way.' First, the contracted form qgoi^iov points to the presence of aspiration /h/ in the beginning of the root. Whereas we know that there existed an aspirated form of ofaog,3 the only confirmation for aspiration in
o’l^n is a Hesychian gloss aoi^ov aQQnrov 'unspeakable' (cf. Chantraine 1999: 7834). That this gloss is correct may be doubted, since Hesychius and [Zonaras] preserve a homonymous word aoi^og explained as anogog 'lacking a path, resource-less' (in Hesychius) and as anogsurog 'non-traversable' (in [Zonaras]). In view of the common use of road imagery for
most modern scholars (Wilamowitz 1912: 23; cf. Keyfiner 1932: 9 with literature), goes back to F. A. Wolf (1985[1795].112-3). Nevertheless, the classification of the major Homeric Hymns as prooimia is often viewed as a problem, since these texts seem too long to have served as introductory pieces; E. G. Rabinovich has recently argued that this is an example of extended, misapplied nomination (2008: 14-8).
2 The Hellenistic scholarly tradition, reflected in Quint. Inst. Orat. 4.1.2, included both the derivation from o’fan and the derivation from oi^oq.
3 Herod. Pros. cathol. p. 546 Lenz; Soph. fr. 314.174 Radt; Call. 1.27.
4 The assumption that the preservation of an uncontracted vowel cluster indicates the existence of aspiration is itself questionable. The word could be part of poetic language; cf. the preservation of aoiSy, aoiSog alongside the contracted forms wdy, wdoq.
discourse in Archaic poetry, it is easy to imagine the use of this adjective in a context that would call forth the gloss 'unspeakable'; that we are dealing with an ad-hoc explanation of a single usage is confirmed by the fact that Hesychius uses a neuter form aoi^ov (rather than the expected masculine).
Turning to the evidence of compounds formed from the words o’lm 'song' and ol^og 'path,' one has to acknowledge that there are several undisputed derivations from ol^og, but not a single one from o’lm:
Table 1: Compounds of ol^og and ofay
ofaoq o’iyn ?
aoi^oq- anopoq (Hesych., [Zonaras]) durni^oq- durndoq (Aesch. Cho. 945, Hesych.) ndpoi^oq^ о yenMv (Hesych.) пaQOlftdю^avтeq• гxтpanгvтeq тvjq одой (Hesych.) olpySoxsw 'waylay' (Theognost. Can. 22) [aoi^ov • аррутоу ?] npooi'^iov napoi^i'a
The two formations whose derivation may be disputed are ngoofaiov and nagoi^ia 'proverb.' Hesychius transmits an ancient etymology that links nagoi^ia and ol^og, explaining the former as fiiMqsXyg Xojog naga ryv odov Xsjo^svog 'useful saying which one says by/along the road' (cf. English by the way 'apropos').5 The alternative explanation is to assign to o’l^n a broader meaning 'word, speech' (cf. similar formations in Lat. pro-verbium, Russ. po-slovica, po-govorka), since the word for 'proverb' cannot be easily linked to a word meaning 'heroic lay.' If this were possible, the probability that ngoofaiov is also derived from o’l^n would be higher. As a final and, in my view, the least likely possibility, I cite the interpretation adopted in Chantraine 1999.783: nagoi^ia was derived from o’l^n in a more general meaning 'remarque qui accompagne le propos principal,'
5 In favor of derivation from o'l^oq, see Bieler 1936, who explains the form as «die Rede, die nap’ o'faov, den Weg entlang, geht, die 'Wegbegleitung'» (246).
whereas ngoofaiov is based on ofay in a more specialized meaning 'chant, poeme, recit poetique.'
The problem with the latter two hypotheses is that the extended meaning of ofay is entirely hypothetical. As a matter of fact, in the entire surviving corpus of Archaic and Classical Greek the word only occurs three times. These occurrences are restricted to the two books of the Odyssey, Bk. 8 and Bk. 22, that proffer an innovative "aedic ideology" and can therefore be identified as sites of metapoetic experimentation (Maslov 2009: 5-8).
Antonino Pagliaro (1953: 34-40; accepted by Durante 1976: 176) correctly notes that this poetic employment of ofay is an innovation peculiar to the Odyssey and stresses the fact that it is avoided in lyric. In particular, given the metapoetic selfconsciousness of Pindar's epinikia, it is indeed remarkable that it excludes the term ofay, while including a metapoetic use of the closely related notion ol^og (O. 9.47, P. 4.248), especially in light of the fact that the two nouns are treated as synonyms in the corpus of hexameter poetry (as demonstrated by Hom. Hymn Herm. 451).
I conclude that ofay in the meaning 'heroic lay' is a poetic word, which in all likelihood could not have served as the basis for the compounds nagoi^ia and ngoofaiov.
Instead, I believe that the semantic history of both ngoofaiov and o’fay points to the former's derivation from the word ofaog 'path, way.' The proper meaning of the compound pro-oimion would be 'what one says before setting out on one's way,' with the extended meaning 'proper speech act preceding any undertaking.'
It is not difficult to find parallels for such a metaphoric extension of the meaning 'road, path.' Many European languages have lexical doublets or triplets that show progressive availability of the extended meaning of this word; cf. English road - way - path, French chemin - route - voie, Russian doroga - put' - stezia, etc.6 In Greek, obog is the preferred
6 For a survey of this lexical field in Indo-European languages, see Buck 1949: 717-721, who remarks that 'way' was the usual word for 'road' in American English until ca. 1700.
word for 'road,' but it is also available in metaphoric extensions; xsXsuS-og, on the other hand, refers to 'road, way' in Homer and the conservative Arcadian dialect (Buck 1949: 717), but in later Greek it is reserved for extended meanings. Ofaog tends to be used in extended meanings, and only rarely appears in literal contexts.7 In languages favoring compounding, these semantic differences are reflected not only in idioms, but also in compounds: e.g. Russ. pere-put'e lit. 'crossroads,' most often used in the extended meaning 'a critical point' (cf. English at the crossroads and parting of the ways, but not *parting of roads), Greek sunogia lit. 'easy way' but much more commonly 'prosperity, abundance,' si/obsw 'to have a good voyage' but also 'to prosper,' sqobia 'provisions for the road' but also 'resources.'
From the typological viewpoint, npo-ofaiov can be directly compared to Russ. na-putstvie, lit. 'that which is [said] for the road' but generally used for a speech act that precedes an undertaking of any kind (cf. also English farewell, which originally referred to parting good wishes before a journey).
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