πτερόν, πτέρυξ, πτερύγιον. A Cultural-Historical Study of a Classical Greek Architectural Term and Derivatives, and their Post-Classical Meaning

Abstract

πτeρόν, πτέρυξ and πτeρύγιον all stem from the same root, and their primary meaning is connected to birds: “feather”,“wing”, “shoulder blade”. The history of these words is worthy of note for they came into use in the description of Graeco-Egyptian temple complexes and in the nomenclature of Classical architecture. In order to observe the semantic import of theseand related words and expressions across various cultural contexts (Graeco-Egyptian, Classical and Byzantine) this articlepresents and discusses a range of ancient, late antique and Byzantine literary, erudite, archaeological and iconographic sources.This study aims at giving the reader a glimpse into the Greek lexical domain of architecture, by providing insights into some ofthe general mechanisms of its construction, and specifically to illuminate, by way of a cultural-historical investigation of theseterms, ideas of appearance and significance inherent in the Graeco-Egyptian and Classical and Byzantine worlds. This surveysuggests lexical forms as a key research domain for the understanding of the intellectual, social and cultural life of societies.