Page:Modern Greek folklore and ancient Greek religion - a study in survivals.djvu/490

 Is then [Greek: alastôr], in the sense of a 'non-forgetter,' a possible formation from the root of [Greek: lanthanô]? My own answer to that question is a decided negative, and my reasons are as follows. Substantives denoting the agent and formed with the suffix [Greek: -tôr] ([Greek: -tor-]) can only be so formed direct from a verb-stem, as [Greek: rhêtôr] from [Greek: wre] or [Greek: wer] appearing in [Greek: erô] etc., [Greek: mêstôr] from the stem of [Greek: mêdomai], [Greek: aphêtôr] answering to the verb [Greek: aphiêmi], [Greek: epibêtôr] to [Greek: epibainô]. It is among these and other such examples that Brugmann places the anomalous [Greek: alastôr], to be connected with [Greek: alastos, lêthô]. But evidently, in order that [Greek: alastôr] may be parallel, let us say, to [Greek: aphêtôr], we must postulate the existence of an impossible verb [Greek: a-lêthô] or [Greek: a-lanthanomai], 'I non-forget.' Nor would it mend matters to suppose, first, the formation, direct from [Greek: lêthô], of a nomen agentis of the form [Greek: lastôr], a 'forgetter'; for the privative [Greek: a-] appears only in adjectives and adverbs and in such verbs and substantives as are formed directly from them, as [Greek: amnêmonein] from [Greek: amnêmôn] etc., and cannot be prefixed at pleasure to a substantive or verb not so formed; [Greek: alastôr] could no more be formed from an hypothetical substantive [Greek: lastôr], than could an hypothetical verb [Greek: a-lanthanesthai] be formed from [Greek: lanthanesthai]. Etymologically then the derivation of [Greek: alastôr] from [Greek: a-] privative and the root of [Greek: lêthô] is impossible, and its sense of 'Avenger' was not developed from the meaning 'one who does not forget.'

On the other hand, to the connexion of [Greek: alastôr] with the verb [Geek: alasthai], 'to wander,' no exception can be taken. Not only is the formation simple, but an exact parallel is forthcoming. As the substantive [Greek: miastôr] stands to the verb [Greek: miainô], so does the substantive [Greek: alastôr] stand to a by-form of [Greek: alaomai], which is fairly frequent in Tragedy, [Greek: alainô]. It follows then that [Greek: alastôr] meant originally a 'wanderer.'

But, when once that primary meaning is discovered, there can be no further doubt as to the primary application of the term. Of the three possible exactors of vengeance—the revenant himself, some demonic agent, and the nearest kinsman—the first alonein Hesiod, W. and D., 353. But that form, if correct, is probably best treated as adjective (gift-*less) not as substantive (non-giver).]is mentioned in the last edition of Meyer's Griechische Philologie.]