New Post
Search
Help
ArchivesRe: meaning
in reply to a message by Kassios
The Catalogue of Ships is the section in the 2nd book of the Iliad where we get the whole list of the Achaean forces, with the names of the leaders and how many ships each one controls.
What I mean about the etymology is that I really doubt it--it looks right on the surface, but it's likely to have been invented out of recognizable words to explain a word that wasn't clear to the people studying it. The ancient commentators did this frequently, and you have to admire their efforts, but linguistically they don't work. Rhodos, for instance, is brodos in the Aeolic dialect--something that's hard to justify if it comes from rheei odme!
What I mean about the etymology is that I really doubt it--it looks right on the surface, but it's likely to have been invented out of recognizable words to explain a word that wasn't clear to the people studying it. The ancient commentators did this frequently, and you have to admire their efforts, but linguistically they don't work. Rhodos, for instance, is brodos in the Aeolic dialect--something that's hard to justify if it comes from rheei odme!
1