Re: Hermes again

From: Trond Engen
Message: 63828
Date: 2009-04-15

dgkilday57:

> --- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "A." <xthanex@...> wrote:
>
>> Quick question:
>> I've looked through the archives and a few other sites, and been
>> unable to find any clear etymology for the name Hermes (and the
>> hermae pillars).
>> Am I simply missing it, or has one not been successfully
>> established?
>
> Beekes considers 'Hermes' to be unanalyzable Pre-Greek, but I am not
> so sure. He admits a possible connection with Attic-Ionic
> <herme:neús> 'interpreter, expounder', which he also regards as
> Pre-Greek. Whatever the origin of the Greek suffix -eús, it was
> clearly productive in forming denominal terms for persons connected
> with specified things or activities, thus <hippeús> 'horseman',
> <agreús> 'hunter', <bapheús> 'dyer', etc. The suffix -é:n, -e:n- in
> turn forms denominals like <leskhé:n> 'chatterer' from <léskhe:>
> 'public place; gossip, chatter', hence in fact <leskhe:neúo:> 'I chat
> with' beside <herme:neúo:> 'I interpret'. A presumed noun *hermé:n
> could thus have been derived from an abstract *hérma:, Att.-Ion.
> *hérme: 'articulate speech, connected discourse', formed like
> <phé:me:> 'speech, report' (Doric <phá:ma:>, Latin <fa:ma>) and
> leading in turn to <herme:neús>. The IE root would be *ser- 'to line
> up, join together, connect' whence also, by a different suffix, Lat.
> <sermo:> 'connected speech, discourse' (Pokorny's *ser-(4), IEW p.
> 911).

Could the original noun have denoted the swift messenger relay? "Line
up, join together, connect" sounds like the user's guide. That would
explain all the sandals and roads and running and crossing borders, and
the "interpretor" sense is easily concieved from "messenger".

> 'Hermes' comes in two morphologies. One type includes Attic
> <Hermês>, poetic <Herméa:s>, Epic-Aeolic <Hermeía:s>, and Mycenaean
> <E-ma-a2> /Herma(:)íha:i/ (dative). The other includes
> Laconic-Arcadian <Hermân> and poetic (mostly Doric) <Hermá:o:n>.
> Homer has several personal names of this latter type; among them
> <Aretá:o:n> and <Makhá:o:n> appear to be formed on <areté:> 'virtue'
> and <mákhe:> 'battle'. Chantraine identifies the same suffix in Hom.
> <Iá:ones> 'Ionians', which is known to have had a */w/ (Hebrew
> <Ya:wa:n> 'Greece', Sanskrit <Yavana-> 'Greek'). The original form
> *Iá:wo:n 'Ionian' can then be derived from <iá:>, Ion. <ié:> 'voice,
> sound, shout'; as an ethnonym 'Shouter' has parallels elsewhere.
> <Hermá:(w)o:n> is thus to be understood as 'Provider of Articulate
> Speech' or the like, the god who facilitates interpretation, the god
> of travelers, traders, and others who must interpret. 'Poseidon' has
> a similar formation, Hom. <Poseidá:o:n>, Dor. <Poti:dân>, <Poteidân>,
> <Poteidá:(w)o:n>, Pergaman <Potoidân>, Myc. dat. <Po-se-da-o-ne>.
> This name has been variously analyzed but to me it looks like a
> denominal in *-wo:n of a noun *potei-da: 'land in the drink' i.e.
> 'flooded land'. The preposed locative is parallel to those in
> <Hali-karnassós> 'Carnassus by the Sea', <khamai-léo:n> 'lion on the
> ground', etc. If this is correct, Poseidon was originally a god of
> flooding rivers, like his Italic counterpart Neptune.
>
> The first-declension type of <Hermês> is more difficult since there
> is no parallel for it as a simple denominal suffixation of *hérma:.
> It is more likely to be an objective compound like Lat. <agricola>,
> <parrici:da>, etc., and Boeotian <Olumpioní:ka:> 'Olympic victor'.
> Many dialects attached -s to the masc. nom. sg. of this type, and of
> course Attic-Ionic has -e:s from -a:s here. The verbal second
> element of the compound is hard to determine but <Hermeía:s> requires
> */i/ or */y/ and <E-ma-a2> points to internal */h/, but not directly
> preceding */y/. One possibility is *H1eis- 'to set in fast motion,
> send quickly' (P.'s *eis-(1), IEW pp. 299-301) found in Skt.
> <pres.aya-> (*pra-is-aya-) 'to send', <is.u-> 'arrow', <is.udhi->
> 'quiver', etc., and Greek <i:ós> (*is-wos) 'arrow'. Classical Attic
> has generalized /o/ as the stem-vowel in compounds such as
> <numphokómos> but /a:/ is retained metri gratia in <genea:lógos> and
> the like. Hence we may presume an archaic Greek compound
> *Herma:-eiha:- 'Quick Sender of Articulate Speech'; perhaps the god
> was portrayed as sending inspiration as swiftly as an arrow to those
> who must interpret.

Or, when *herma: soon acquired the meaning of "relayed message", "quick
sender of message", i.e. the personification of the relay?

--
Trond Engen