Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 4.djvu/449

 io» s. iv. NOV. 4. iocs.] NOTES AND QUERIES. 371 any other explanation, but adds, " sed hsec noduni non solvunt." The " tolerable meaning " which Gibbon "endeavoured to grope out" is equally un- satisfactory, and even more arbitrary. He is entirely mistaken in asserting that Portius explains Ktpaucds as "a flash of lightning," as well as in advancing that " xpva-d(t>iov is a golden crown." Xpvcra<£ioi/ is the later Greek diminutive form of ^puo-os, and means simply gold ; StStfuvov fiera xpvcraiot)=bound with (set in) gold. His rendering, therefore, "a radiated crown of gold," is altogether fantastic. With regard to the ordinary meaning of the word dorpon-eX//^ (as he spells it), Du Cange refers to the 'Corona Preciosa' (the earliest dictionary, or rather concise vocabu- lary, of modern Greek, first published in Venice, 1527), to Simon Portius ('Diet. Lat. Gr. barbarum et Htterale,' 1635), and to Girolamo Germano ('Vocabolario Italiano et Greco,' 1622), all of whom interpret it by "fulmen. Kfpa.vv6s." Portius adds the verb  •*K(pavvo/3o>, and the participle uTTpon-tAe- Ki)iJievo<; = Kcpavvtadfis. Du Cange might also have referred to Meursius (' Glossarium Gr. barbarum,' 1614), who interprets in the same sense, and gives the word correctly d<TTpO1T((KlOV. I have gone through these the earliest voca- bularies of modern Greek for the purpose already stated, and not because of any doubt as to the meaning of the word, which is the usual one for thunderbolt in the spoken Greek of even to-day. It is a beautiful and most poetic form of expression. In folk-lore, and in the popular songs, 6 'AorpcnreAc'icis is a famous klepht, so surnamed for his thunder- bolt-like onslaughts on the Turkish op- pressor. Also o 'Acrrpa;royiai'i'jjs, the light- ning John. It should here be stated that, if we suppose a classic masculine form, &<TTpoiriiKv<s, then in the passage under consideration we should read d<rTpoir(eKvv, and not da-TpoireXeKw, as in the Bonn edition of the 'Alexias.' In a foot-note the editor refers to another read- ing, uKTTpoTTfXfKiv, which he rejects, which, however, is the correct one. In the Greek language the tendency to attenuation is observable at an early stage, as in the classic use of 8i(ilov for /3i/3X.os. Such diminutive forms become more and more constant in Byzantine and later Greek ; and, moreover, •we find that by the operation of a well- known linguistic law, that of phonetic decay, through laziness in pronouncing, first the o of the diminutive termination is dropped, as in TV/JOS—rvpiov—rvpiv, and rpdjrefa— ' — Tpairefav, and TTOLIS — iraiSlov — iV ; and later, in modern times, the ter- minal v is also omitted. Therefore in Anna Comnena we may read dtrTpoir(eKiv for dorpon-eXe/ciov, from a supposed primitive form da-TpoiTf 	KV9. The last form is not met with in any extant classic or early Byzantine text ; but there are sufficient indications to warrant the supposition that some such alternative desig- nation for Kcpavi/os must have been in use in the spoken language or in the popular songs of early times. All scholars are aware that the classic texts which have come down to us have preserved but a portion of the wealth of the Greek tongue in its various ancient forms and dialects. But that the bolt of Jupiter was spoken of otherwise than Kfpauvo's alone is manifest from the following passages in Sophocles (' (Ed. Col.,' 1515) :— eipos /3e j. And in Aristophanes ('Av.,' 1239) :— OTTCOS /xij O-QU yevos irav<aXc6pov Atos /ioxeAAg TTO.V dvacrrpf^frj SIKTJ, in which the thunderbolt is referred to as the arrow, and as the mattock of Jove. Elsewhere it occurs as Aicis /*aoTi£, the scourge of Jove. The distance, however, between a mattock and an axe is not great ; and TreAticus AJOS or acrrpoTTf AtKus may well have been preserved in the spoken tongue up to early Byzantine times. In this connexion, therefore, we encounter no great difficulty. It is not equally easy to associate the vocable in question with the name given to a precious stone. In that acceptation it is not met with in the ancient dictionaries of Pollux. Suidas, Hesychius, or Photius, nor in the 'Etymologica.' Nor does Theophrastus (' De Lapid.') refer to any stone of that name. The earliest instance I have been able to discover of /cepawds (»cf/»aui'iTijs) being thus used is that of Clement of Alexandria (A.D. 200, nine centuries earlier than Anna Comnena), who in 'Psedag.' ii. 12 writes : — " Totovroi rais i'ii6w.is 01 Xt6oi TTfplSoV[J.fVOl TOtS </""s", Ki'l -(» s fyKa.TOLKei6fievoi, dfiiOwoi, leal Ktpavvirai., KOI iOOTTlStS." The evidence thus forthcoming of the use of K«/>awiTijs as applied to A.i'0os is_all the more important when considered in ^con- nexion with the passage in Pliny (xxxvii. 51) where we meet with the name ceraunia for the first time, though in its Latin form ; it is