Abstract
The paper deals with the etymology of Gk. ἐπίρροθος (and its variant ἐπιτάρροθος), which characterises Athena and other gods as helpers of mortal heroes within the Homeric poems. Through a rigorous phonetic and semantic analysis, the author proposes to trace back the whole word family of ῥόθος to the Indo-European root *h2redh- (or maybe *(s)h2redh-). By supposing a semantic shift "to appear, to come out" → "to flow, to run", ἐπίρροθος can be interpreted as an agentive compound meaning "who comes / runs (to help)".
| Translated title of the contribution | [Autom. eng. transl.] Gr. Ἐπίρροθος "helper": an etymological proposal |
|---|---|
| Original language | Italian |
| Pages (from-to) | 29-64 |
| Number of pages | 36 |
| Journal | Quaderni Urbinati di Cultura Classica |
| Volume | N.S. 124 (2020) |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 2020 |
Keywords
- Athena
- Correre in aiuto
- Etimologia
- Etymology
- Homer
- Omero
- to Run to Help
- Ἐπίρροθος