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THE MONTH NAME ΑΓΑΓΥΛΙΟΣ, ARTEMIS ΑΓΑΓΥΛΑΙΑ AND HOMERIC PHRASEOLOGY*
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 September 2015
Extract
The month name Ἀγαγύλιος is attested in Thessaly and Achaia Phthiotis. Recently, excavations at a Thessalian temple of Apollo in Pythion, at the foot of Olympus, have brought to light numerous ex-votos dedicated to Apollo, Poseidon and to an Artemis whose epiclesis is Agagylaia. Neither the month name nor the epiclesis, which is certainly to be connected with the month name, has yet received an explanation.
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- Copyright © The Classical Association 2015
Footnotes
*
The author gratefully acknowledges the financial support provided by FAPESP. I would also like to thank Dr Daniel Kölligan (Cologne), Prof. Dr J.L. García Ramón (Cologne) and the anonymous reviewer for their helpful remarks and suggestions on this paper. All shortcomings and mistakes are of my own responsibility.
References
1 C. Trümpy, Untersuchungen zu den altgriechischen Monatsnamen und Monatsfolgen (Heidelberg, 1997), 229 n. 923.
2 Ramón, J.L. García and Helly, B., ‘Εννοδια Κορουταρρα (“celle qui dote de nourriture, de croissance”) et autres divinités kourotrophes en Thessalie’, RPh 80 (2007), 291–312 Google Scholar, at 310.
3 Trümpy (n. 1), 224 remarks: ‘Wie der Monatsname Ἀγαγύλιος zu deuten ist, ist ungewiss.’ García Ramón and Helly (n. 2), 310 n. 81 also note that the epiclesis ‘reste à expliquer’.
4 Schol. DGe Ψ 111 [ἀξέμεν ὕλην] κόπτειν ὕλην. ἢ παρὰ τὸ ἄξαι, ὅ ἐστι φέρειν· ἄγεται γὰρ τὸ ζῷον. Eustathius (4.639.15) makes the same mistake: τὸ δὲ ὕλην ἄγειν δύναται καὶ ἀντὶ τοῦ κλᾶν καὶ θραύειν εἶναι κατὰ τὸ “νέα μέν μοι ἔαξε Ποσειδῶν”. τὸ δὲ τοιοῦτον ἄγειν καὶ ἀγνύειν λέγεται. Cf. also Eust. 4.680.8; 4.695.1; and LfgrE s.v. ἄγω II.b.
5 This time Eustathius (4.988.9) gets it right: ὅτι ἐν τῷ ἀγινέμεν ὕλην, ὅ ἐστιν ἄγειν, φέρειν, μετακομίζειν, δηλοῦται ὡς καὶ τὸ ὕλην ἀξέμεν τὸ ἀγαγεῖν μᾶλλον δηλοῖ, οὐ μὴν τὸ κλάσαι. πάντως γὰρ ἀγινεῖν μόνον τὸ ἄγειν, οὐ μὴν καὶ τὸ κλᾶν. τὴν δὲ ὕλην ξύλα πρὸ βραχέων ὁ γέρων ἔφη.
6 This distinction, if indeed valid, between carrying wood by means of carts and mules (ἄγειν) and on one's own arms or back (φέρειν) was apparently lost to Quintus Smyrnaeus (5.618): ἀπ’ Ἰδαίων ὀρέων φέρον ἄσπετον ὕλην (cf. Hom. Il. 24.784, quoted above).
7 Cf. Diod. Sic. 2.16.6.
8 See further in the text (7.5): ἓξ ὄνοι δι’ ἐνιαυτοῦ ὑλαγωγοῦσιν. Later, ὕλη meaning ‘matter’ can also be used with ἄγω, cf. Chrysipp. fr. 444 τὴν ὕλην ὁ ἀὴρ ὧδε μὲν συναγαγὼν καὶ πυκνώσας γῆν ἐποίησεν.
9 Cf. Hsch. (υ 150) ὑλάσασθαι· ξύλα συναγαγεῖν; Poll. 7.101 Ἐκ δὲ τῶν τὰς ὕλας παρασκευαζόντων εἶεν ἂν ὑλουργοί, φυτουργοί, γεωργοί, ὑλοτόμοι, ὑλαγωγοί, ξυλουργοί, πισσουργοί, σμηνουργοί· καὶ ἡ πρᾶξις ὑλουργία, ὑλοτομία, ὑλαγωγία, ξυλουργία, πισσουργία, κηπουργία, σμηνουργία; 109 Τῶν δὲ ξύλων ὑλοτομηθέντων οἱ ἐργάται ὑλοτόμοι καὶ δρυτόμοι καὶ ὑλαγωγοί, καὶ τὰ ἐργαλεῖα πελέκεις, καὶ τὰ ῥήματα ὑλοτομεῖν καὶ ὑλαγωγεῖν καὶ ὑλάζεσθαι.
10 Schol. Ar. Ach. 272 ὑληφόρον] ξυληφόρον; Men. Her. 52 ξυλοφορῶ; Men. Kol. 31 ξυλοφορῶν; Dosiad. Hist. fr. 1.12–13 θεράποντες ξυλοφόροι; Lys. fr. p. 270.22 ξυλοφορίαν; Strabo 14.2.24.8-9 ἡμίονον κατέλιπε ξυλοφοροῦντα καὶ ἡμιονηγόν. Cf. also Joseph. BJ 14.2.24.8-9 (describing the Jewish feast of Tabernacles): Τῇ δ’ ἑξῆς τῆς τῶν ξυλοφορίων ἑορτῆς οὔσης, ἐν ᾗ πᾶσιν ἔθος ἦν ὕλην τῷ βωμῷ προσφέρειν, ὅπως μήποτε τροφὴ τῷ πυρὶ λείποι, διαμένει γὰρ ἄσβεστον ἀεί; Poll. 7.130.1-3 οἱ ἐξ ἀγορᾶς ἢ ἐκ λιμένος κομίζοντες ἀχθοφόροι, ἀμφορεαφόροι, καὶ τὰ ῥήματα ἀχθοφορεῖν καὶ ἀμφορεαφορεῖν, ὑδροφόροι, ξυλοφόροι, σκευοφόροι, ὑληφόροι καὶ ὑληφορεῖν; Suda (υ 98) Ὑληφόρον· ξυληφόρον.
11 On the question of compound univerbation of set expressions see O. Hackstein, ‘When words coalesce: chunking and morphophonemic extension’, in H.C. Melchert (ed.), The Indo-European Verb. Proceedings of the Conference of the Society for Indo-European Studies, Los Angeles 13–15 September 2010 (Wiesbaden, 2012), 87–104. On the semantic difference between ἄγω and φέρω with regard to the conveyance of wheat, see J.L. García Ramon, ‘Der thessalische Name Σπύραγος, σπυρός “Weizen(korn)”: att. πυρός und πυρούς ἄγειν “Weizen(korn) zu Wasser transportieren”’, in G. Schweiger (ed.), Indogermanica: Festschrift Gert Klingenschmitt. Indische, iranische und indogermanische Studien dem verehrten Jubilar dargebracht zu seinem fünfundsechzigsten Geburtstag (Taimering, 2005), 127–43. See also J.L. García Ramón, ‘Anthroponymica Mycenaea: 5. a-wi-to-do-to /Awistodotos/ und die unsichtbaren Götter im Alph.-Griechischen. 6. we-re-na-ko /Wrēn-āgos/ oder /Wrēn-ā̆kos/ und Myk. /wrēn/ *: alph.-gr. °ρρην- ἀρήν “Lamm”*’, Živa Antika 55 (2005), 85–97, at 91–4.
12 See above, (n. 1), 255 n. 1040.
13 See D.F. McCabe, Chios Inscriptions. Texts and List (Princeton, 1986), text no. 46; cf. F. Graf, Nordioinische Kulte (Rome, 1985), 47–9.
14 Trümpy (n. 1), 245 n. 992 remarks: ‘Wir müssen im böotischen Ort Alalkomenai den Hauptkultort dieser Göttin sehen, der ihr offenbar den Namen gegeben hat’. Cf. Ἀλαλκομενεύς, one of Zeus’ epithets (EM 56.10). There are admittedly no other compounds with ἀγαγ°, but that of course does not hinder our hypothesis.
15 J. Bendahman, Der reduplizierte Aorist in den indogermanischen Sprachen (Egelsbach, 1993), 56–7. Both Indo-European forms, going back to an original amphidynamic declension *h 2 éĝ-h2ĝ-(e-), *h 2 ĝ-h2ĝ-ént- :: *h 2 él-h2l̥k-t-, *h 2 l̥k-h2l̥k-ént- would have been then thematized in proto-Greek to *h 2 əĝ-h2əĝ-é/o- :: *h 2 əl-h2əlk-é/o- respectively.
16 Cf. Trümpy (n. 1), 217 n. 6.
17 One of the words associated with the epiclesis of her brother Apollo in Cyprus is Ὑλάτης; cf. J.-B. Cayla, ‘Appolon ou la vie sauvage: à propos de quelques épiclèses d'Apollon à Chypre’, in N. Belayche, P. Brulé, G. Freyburger, Y. Lehmann, L. Pernot and F. Prost (edd.), Nommer les dieux. Théonymes, épithètes, épiclèses dans l'antiquité (Turnhout, 2005), 227–40, at 232–4. One may envisage at least two possible but inferior alternatives for the etymology advanced here:
(i) with a different segmentation for Artemis’ epithet, namely Ἀγα-γυλαια, it might be argued that the compound roughly means ‘big shout’ (< *m̥ĝh 2 -guh2-lo-). The second member would then be related to the root *geu̯h 2 - ‘to call, to shout’ seen in Gk. γοάω ‘to wail, to mourn’. In phraseological terms, this might be supported by the collocation μέγαν γόον (Hom. Hymn Dem. 82); cf. Ramón, J.L. García, ‘El antropónimo pilio e-ri-ko-wo y la fraseología poética: /Erikōwos/ (: μέγα κῶας Hom.+) o más bien /Erigowos/ (: μέγαν γόον HHCer., ἐρικλάγκταν γόον Pind. y μέγα βοήσας Hom., Ἐριβόας Pind.)’, Faventia 30 (2008), 33–45 Google Scholar. One may recall as well that one of Artemis’ epithets is κελαδεινή ‘loud-voiced’. In this case, the name of the month would be derived from the epithet or from the (unattested) festival, but the morphology leaves much to be desired: -lo- suffix added to a compound?
(ii) still with ἀγα°, one might risk a meaning ‘big cult stone’ for the second member (< *ἀγα-γυλ[λ]-). In the decision of Molpoi concerning the cults of Apollo Delphinios and others in Miletus, an obscure block of stone that must be carried for cultic purposes in honour of Hecate is mentioned: καὶ γυλλοὶ φέρονται δύο, καὶ τίθεται παρ’ Ἑκάτην τὴν πρόσθεν πυλέων ἐστεμμένος καὶ ἀκρήτω κατασπένδετε, ὁ δ’ ἕτερος ἐς Δίδυμα ἐπὶ θύρας τίθεται. Cf. D.F. McCabe, Miletos Inscriptions. Texts and List (Princeton, 1984), text no. 10.25–7; M.P. Nilsson, Geschichte der griechischen Religion, vol. 1 (Munich, 19673), 722; and S.I. Johnston, Restless Dead: Encounters between Living and Dead in Ancient Greece (Berkeley, 1999), 207 n. 17. The month name, as well as Artemis’ epiclesis, would then be derived from the (unattested) name of a festival, where the relevant cult would take place. Given the enigmatic nature of the cultic object, this hypothesis is to a large extent no more than mere speculation.