Ἀσκληπιός: Difference between revisions

{{etym

|etymtx=Grammatical information: PN m.<br />Meaning: hero, later god of medicine (Il.)<br />Dialectal forms: Dor. <b class="b3">-απιός</b>; <b class="b3">Αἰσκλαπιός</b> (Epid. a. Troiz.), <b class="b3">Ἀσχλαπιός</b> (Boeot.), <b class="b3">Αἰσχλαπιός Ἀσκαλαπιός</b> (Thess.), <b class="b3">Ἀσκαλπιός</b> (Gort.), <b class="b3">Αἰσχλαβιός</b> (bronze figure from Bologna with Corinthian letters; s. Kretschmer Glotta 30, 116), <b class="b3">᾽Αγλαπιός</b> Lac., <b class="b3">Αἰγλαπιός</b>.<br />Derivatives: <b class="b3">ἀσκληπιάς</b> f. name of a plant (Dsc; s. Strömberg Pflanzennamen 99).<br />Origin: PG [a word of Pre-Greek origin]<br />Etymology: Unexplained. H. Grégoire (with R. Goossens and M. Mathieu) in Asklèpios, Apollon Smintheus et Rudra 1949 (Mém. Acad. Roy. de Belgique. Cl. d. lettres. 2. sér. 45), explains the name as <b class="b2">the mole-hero</b>, connecting <b class="b3">σκάλοψ</b>, <b class="b3">ἀσπάλαξ</b> [[mole]] and refers to the resemblance of the Tholos in Epidauros and the building of a mole. (Thus Puhvel, Comp. Mythol.1987, 135.) But the variants of Asklepios and those of the word for [[mole]] do not agree. - The name is typical for Pre-Greek words; apart from minor variations (<b class="b3">β</b> for <b class="b3">π</b>, <b class="b3">αλ(α</b>) for <b class="b3">λα</b>) we find <b class="b3">α</b>\/<b class="b3">αι</b> (a well known variation; Fur. 335 - 339) followed by <b class="b3">-γλαπ-</b> or <b class="b3">-σκλαπ-</b>\/<b class="b3">-σχλαπ</b>\/<b class="b3">β-</b>, i.e. a voiced velar (without <b class="b3">-σ-</b>) or a voiceless velar (or an aspirated one: we know that there was no distinction between the three in the substr. language) [[with]] a <b class="b3">-σ-</b>. I think that the <b class="b3">-σ-</b> renders an original affricate, which (prob. as <b class="b3">δ</b>) was lost before the <b class="b3">-γ-</b> (in Greek the group <b class="b3">-σγ-</b> is rare, and certainly before another consonant); this affricate will have been palatal (i.e. [[cy]]), of which the palatal character was (sometimes) expressed with a (preceding, or following) <b class="b3">ι</b>, for which see on <b class="b3">ἐξαίφνης</b>, <b class="b3">ἐξαπίνης</b> and <b class="b3">πινυτός</b> \/ <b class="b3">πνυτός</b>. S. Beekes Pre-Greek. - Szemerényi's etymology (JHS 94, 1974, 155) from Hitt. <b class="b2">assula(a)-</b> <b class="b2">well-being</b> and <b class="b2">piya-</b> [[give]] cannot be correct, as it does not explain the velar.

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