An Emendation in Hesychius Borthwick, E Kerr Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies; Summer 1969; 10, 2; ProQuest pg. 173

An Emendation in Hesychius 
E. Kerr Borthwick 

IN an article in this journal (9 [1968] 267ff) entitled HNew Fragments 
of Ancient Greek Poetry," M. Naoumides published for the first 
time a number of glosses from an overlooked X/Xl century 

MS of the Lexicon Cyrilli. One of these (no.8, p.280) is the entry: 

" ,~ \ 'C' ~ ~ ff ~ , 01TLOOV' TO TY)~ yvvaLKo~ awowv, lVlaKEOOVE~. 

As the author observes, this word has not found its way into LS] (nor 
indeed into the recent Supplement), although Hesychius also has an 
entry under omoov, which, however, is glossed Aaxavov aypwv. 

~ TpWKTOV. ~ tamoTov. He remarks also on the sexual euphemisms in 
Greek derived from words for plants, vegetables, etc. (e.g. UEALVOV, 

j3AT)XWV, KVEWPOV of the female, JpEf3LV(}O~, KavAo~ of the male),! but 
notes that Hesychius H does not record the meaning preserved in our 
MS." 

Almost certainly, however, the corrupt last word amOTOV in his 
gloss on omuov should be the variously spelled2 E1T{UEWV, E1TE{OWV or 
J1Tiowv, a word glossed in Hesychius' own lexicon (in the first of these 
spellings) J4>~f3awv, Kat TO al8oLov av8pos; TE Kat yvvaLKo<;. The word 
appears mostly in the medical writers and lexicographers, although 
attested-dubiously-in a fragment of Archilochus (140 Bergk, 187 
Lasserre), in Hecker's emendation of the corrupt Emo{ov, and certainly 
in the form E1TE{UWV in Lycophron 1385, with scho1. ad loc. 

The corruption to amOTOV suggests that E1Tiowv had been the 
spelling originally used here-as in Aristotle, Historia Animalium 
493a 20, etc. 

UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH 

April, 1969 

1 See J. Taillardat, Les images d'Aristophane (Paris 1965) 72-75, and for equivalent expres­
sions in English, cf Eric Partridge, A Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English5 (London 
1961) s.vv. 'garden', 'green-grocery', 'greens', 'parsley (-bed)', etc. 

20rigo vocis obscura est, adeoque et orthographia incerta (Pierson on Moeris, p.141). The 
EtymologiCHm Magnum (363.58) hazards a derivation 7Tapa TO €i(]t€vaL! 

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