From Thinking to Raging: Reflexes of Indo-European *Men- Polysemy in Homer

Castrenze Nigrelli

doi:10.5296/ijl.v12i2.16257

Abstract

This paper aims at investigating the semantic value of the verb μαίνομαι “to rage, to be furious” in Homeric Greek, in order to clarify the striking semantic relationship between the common ‘irrational’ meaning of the verb and the original ‘rational’ meaning of the Indo-European root *men- “to think”, to which the verb traces back. The corresponding words for μαίνομαι in other Indo-European languages (e.g. OInd. mányatē; Av. mainyeite; OIr. (do)moiniur; OCS mъnjo; Lit. miniu) can be translated as “to think”, thus showing an opposite meaning. From a textual analysis of all the occurrences of μαίνομαι in the Iliad and the Odyssey, the study aims at finding semantic traces of the original meaning “to think” belonging to the Indo-European root *men-, in order to account for the apparently impossible semantic relationship between the verb and the original root. Textual data show a significant polysemy of μαίνομαι, which refers to particular psychosomatic dynamics and which can be explained by taking into account the Homeric ‘body-mind’ association and the role of the heart as the crucial organ which supervises all the vital functions, including the psychic and the cognitive ones.

Highlights

State of the Art and Purpose of the StudyIt is well known that the Ancient Greek verb καίλνκαη prototypically conveys the idea of “raging”, “being furious, mad, insane” and is etymologically connected to terms such as κέλνο “force, might, rage” and καλία “madness” (LSJ 2011; Snell 1955-2010)
This paper aims at investigating the semantic value of the verb καίλνκαη “to rage, to be furious” in Homeric Greek, in order to clarify the striking semantic relationship between the common „irrational‟ meaning of the verb and the original „rational‟ meaning of the Indo-European root *men- “to think”, to which the verb traces back
The present study aims at investigating the semantic value of the verb καίλνκαη in Homeric Greek, which is the oldest state of the Greek language, through a textual analysis of its occurrences in the Homeric poems, in order to account for the apparently impossible semantic relationship between the common „irrational‟ meaning of the verb and the original „rational‟ meaning of the IE root *men

Summary

Introduction

It is well known that the Ancient Greek verb καίλνκαη prototypically conveys the idea of “raging”, “being furious, mad, insane” and is etymologically connected to terms such as κέλνο “force, might, rage” and καλία “madness” (LSJ 2011; Snell 1955-2010). Through a comparative analysis of Homeric Greek and Vedic Sanskrit, Bartolotta (2003; 2012) has shown that the opposition that has just been sketched has to be seen rather as in terms of a semantic continuum, based on the polysemy of the IE root *men-, in which both the rational and the irrational dimensions are blurred and mutually connected She has shown that Homeric and Sanskrit forms refer to the same kind of cognitive process by taking into account both κελεαίλω, κλάνκαη, κελνηλάω “to desire”, καληεύνκαη “to divine, to prophesy”, κάληηο “diviner, seer, prophet”, and Sanskrit terms connected with the stem man-, like mányatē “to desire”, mánas- “mind”, which concern “knowledge”. The ultimate purpose of the study is to find semantic traces of the original meaning “to think” in the Homeric contexts of use of the verb καίλνκαη

Distribution of μαίνομαι in the Iliad and the Odyssey

Textual Analysis

Conclusion