Re: Greek kitharis

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "david_russell_watson" <liberty@...>
wrote:

>
> Moreover lyres, as well as lutes, are supposed by most to
> have originated in Mesopotamia, where Babylonian has the
> word 'qatros' for the lyre. I don't know the etymology or
> age of this word, or anything else about the Bablylonian
> language, but 'qatros' seems to me the best place to start
> looking for the origin of the Greek words 'kithara' and
> 'kitharis'.

Forget that suggestion. I just found 'On Semitic Words in
Greek and Latin' on JSTOR, in which W. Muss-Arnolt writes
"The Greek kithára, kítharis passed into late Hebrew as
qat_ro:s or rather qi:t_a:ro:s (Dan. iii. 5)", and so the
direction of borrowing was just the opposite. Surely too
this is the 'qayteros' already mentioned by Mark Odegard
at http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/cybalist/message/436 .

David