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The Story of Latin dīcere Alexander Nikolaev nikolaev@fas.harvard.edu 0. Accord

The Story of Latin dīcere Alexander Nikolaev nikolaev@fas.harvard.edu 0. According to a widespread view (notably set forth in Benveniste 1969: 107–109), the root *deḱ- originally meant ‘to show, to point out’ and secondarily developed the meaning ‘to speak’ in Italic (Lat. dīcere, Osc. deíkum ‘to say’, Umbr. deitu ‘announce’). Benveniste argued that the use of *deḱ- in the legal language played a decisive role in this process (cf. *medes-diḱ- > Osc. meddís(s) ‘judge’ and *ees-diḱ- > Lat. iūdex ‘id.’). Germanic cognates seem to support Benveniste’s view (Mod.German zeihen ‘to accuse’). The purpose of this paper is to offer an alternative to the current orthodoxy, based on some hitherto unnoticed peculiar uses of *deḱ- in several poetic traditions as well as some new etymologies. 1. Preliminaries: the meaning of Latin dīcere The verb dīcō is not quite synonymous with loquor ‘speak, talk’; rather, dīcō generally belongs to the solemn language of poetry and oratory where it becomes closely allied with canō. Cic. Orat. 32 quamquam aliud videtur oratio esse aliud disputatio, nec idem loqui esse quod dicere, ac tamen utrumque in disserendo est: disputandi ratio et loquendi dialecticorum sit, oratorum autem dicendi et ornandi. Although a speech is one thing and a debate another, and disputing is not the same as speaking, and yet both are concerned with discourse – debate and dispute are the function of the logicians; the orator’s function is to speak ornately.* Catul. 62 (a hymeneal, sung by young men and women alternatively) iam veniet virgo, iam dicetur hymenaeus. Hymen o Hymenaee, Hymen ades o Hymenaee! 5 […] non temere exsiluere: canent quod vincere par est. Hymen o Hymenaee, Hymen ades o Hymenaee! 10 now will come the bride, now will be sung the Hymenaeus. Hymen O Hymenaeus, Hymen come O Hymenaeus! nor without intent have they leapt forth; what they will sing, it is our task to surpass. Hymen O Hymenaeus, Hymen come O Hymenaeus! This aspect of the semantics of dīcere has been noticed before (e.g. Jahn 1867, Newman 1965); it provides a convenient starting point for the present inquiry since in other Indo-European traditions the reflexes of the root *deḱ- are used in a surprisingly similar way. 2. Indo-Iranian *dać- (Vedic diś-, Avestan dis-) 2.1 While the meaning ‘to show, to point out’ is amply represented among the Sanskrit reflexes of Indo-Iranian *dać-, the verbal root diś- is sometimes found construed with nouns meaning ‘song of praise’: RV 5.43.9 prá távyaso námaüktiṃ turásya ahám pūṣṇá utá vāyór adikṣi / yā́ rā́dhasā coditā́rā matīnā́ṃ yā́ vā́jasya draviṇodā́ utá tmán // I diś-ed this homage to mightiest, victorious Pusan and to Vayu, who by their generosity inspire hymns and of themselves are givers of reward * Trans. Hubbell. Loeb translations have been used here and below, where available. Nikolaev, “The Story of Latin dīcere” Oxford University, 23 February 2012” 2 RV 10.92.9 stómaṃ vo adyá rudrā́ya śíkvase kṣayádvīrāya námasā didiṣṭana / yébhiḥ śiváḥ svávām̐ evayā́vabhir diváḥ síṣakti sváyaśā níkāmabhiḥ // Today you should diś- with reverence your song of praise to skillful Rudra, the ruler of men, and to those eager and devoted ones together with whom he comes down from the sky, auspicious, self-bright, providing protection Note: evayā́vabhir níkāmabhiḥ ‘eager, devoted’ are the Maruts RV 8.102.13 (= KS 40.14.149.20) úpa tvā jāmáyo gíro dédiśatīr haviṣkŕ̥taḥ vāyór ánīke asthiran // The sisters, who constantly diś- the hymns of the oblation-bearer, have come to you in front of Vayu Note: jāmáyaḥ ‘sisters’ refers to the waters who appear in the next verse (cf. RV 1.23.6). In these passages diś- stómaṃ / námaüktiṃ / gíraḥ can be translated as ‘show forth praise’ 2.2 This usage of the verb diś- in the Rigveda may find a parallel in Avestan where the verb daēsaiia- which normally means ‘point out, show, appoint’ is once found in the meaning ‘recite, transmit’: Yt. 14.46 aētəm mąϑrəm mā fradaēsaiiōiš (Yt. 4.9: fradaxšaiiō) do not dis- this mantra 2.3 Conclusion: in Indo-Iranian poetic language the root *dać- could be construed with nouns meaning “song, hymn, poetic thought”. It was thus one of the roots referring to the “symbiotic relationship” between laudandus and laudator: it encoded the offering of song of praise by a poet (on behalf of his patron) to a god. 3. Greek δείκ- 3.1 Like Vedic diś-, Greek δείκνυμι normally means ‘to point out, to show, to direct’. Nonetheless, a peculiar use of the verb is found in the melic poetry: 3.1.1 Alcman 4 fr. 1. 4–8 Davies (= 57 Calame): σαυ]μαστὰ δ’ ἀνθ[ γαρύματα μαλσακὰ̣ [ νεόχμ’ ἔδειξαν τερπ̣[ ποικίλα φ.[.]ρ̣α̣[.].αι·[ ἔδιξαν P. Οxy 2388 fr.1 : ἔδειξαν Lobel : ἐδίδαξαν Calame and wonderful soft utterances they ἔδειξαν (Campbell: revealed) new to men ... delight ... intricateς 3.1.2 Alcman 59 (b) 3 Davies ( = 149 Calame) τοῦτο ϝαδειᾶν ἔδειξε Μωσᾶν δῶρον μάκαιρα παρσένων ἁ ξανθὰ Μεγαλοστράτα The yellow haired Megalostrata, blessed among girls, ἔδειξε this gift of the sweet Muses Nikolaev, “The Story of Latin dīcere” Oxford University, 23 February 2012” 3 3.1.3 Pindar I. 8.47–48 (Snell–Maehler8) καὶ νεαρὰν ἔδειξαν σοφῶν στόματ’ ἀπείροισιν ἀρετὰν Ἀχιλέος And the voices of the wise ἔδειξαν the youthful excellence of Achilles to those who had been unaware of it 3.1.4 Pindar fr. 32 (“Hymn to Apollo”, via Aristid. Or. 3.620) κἀν τοῖς ὕμνοις διεξιὼν περὶ τῶν ἐν ἅπαντι τῷ χρόνῳ συμβαινόντων παθημάτων τοῖς ἀνθρώποις καὶ τῆς μεταβολῆς τὸν Κάδμον φησὶν ἀκοῦσαι τοῦ Ἀπόλλωνος “μουσικὰν ὀρθὰν ἐπιδεικνυμένου” but in the Hymns when Pindar narrates the sufferings and change befalling men throughout time, he says that Cadmus heard Apollo “ἐπιδεικνύναι correct music” 3.1.5 Bacchylides fr. 15.3–4 (Maehler) χρὴ παρ’ εὐδαίδαλον ναὸν ἐλ- θόντας ἁβρόν τι δεῖξαι <μέλος> we must go to the richly-built temple (of Athena) and δεῖξαι a delicate (song / dance) 3.1.6 Philodamus’ paean to Dionysus (Furley–Bremer) (θεὸς κελεύει...) δεῖξαι δ’ ἐγ ξενίοις ἐτεί- 110 οις θεῶν ἱερῷ γένει συναίμῳ τόνδ’ ὕμνον (The god commands) to δεῖξαι this hymn for his brother to the family of gods, on the occasion of the annual feast of hospitality 3.1.7 In these six passages from choral lyric poetry we find an unexpected use of the verb δείκνυμι construed with a direct object meaning ‘song, music, song of praise’ (ὕμνος, γάρυμα, μέλος, ἀρετά (= ἀρετᾶς κλέος), δῶρον Μωσᾶν ( = song), μουσικά).  individual solutions can be proposed for each passage, for example: 3.1.1 ‘to show’ (as a πρῶτος εὑρετής), 3.1.2 ‘to teach’ (pedagogical function of the chorus), 3.1.3 ‘to point out’, etc…  or: the translation ‘to sing’, ‘to perform’ can be adopted for all these passages in view of the Vedic usage above. The assumption that needs to be made is that δεικ- ‘to show forth (a song of praise)’, an inherited terminus technicus of hymnic poetry, in Greek became employable with a wider array of terms (not necessarily related to praise) and spread to such choral genres as partheneia and hyporchemata. 3.1.8 Conclusion: Greek δεῖξαι μέλος / ὕμνον corresponds rather neatly to Vedic diś- construed with ‘song of praise’ (stómaḥ / námaüktiḥ / gī́ḥ) and the conclusion is nearly unavoidable that these two poetic figures share a common origin. We have thus reconstructed an element of Indo-European poetic diction. Nikolaev, “The Story of Latin dīcere” Oxford University, 23 February 2012” 4 3.2 An additional argument: ἀριδείκετος 2x Il., 6x Od., 4x Hes.: | 7 ἀριδείκετος ἀνδρῶν (/ λαῶν / ἀνάκτων) || E.g. Il. 14.320 ἣ τέκε Περσῆα πάντων ἀριδείκετον ἀνδρῶν· who bore the ἀριδείκετος hero Perseus 3.2.1 A plausible contextual meaning would be ± ‘very famous’ (Hsch. ἀριδείκετον· ἄγαν ἔνδοξον) (on ἀρι- see Willi 1999). The morphological structure is more or less clear: as a parallel to a deverbal derivative in -ετο- compare (-)κλειτός ‘famed’, e.g. ἀγακλειτός ‘very famous’ or ναυσικλειτός ‘famed for ships’ (see Vine 1998). Βut what about the root of this adjective? 3.2.2 Root *deḱ-: Schulze (1892: 242) suggested a metrically lengthened *ἀριδέκετος ‘sehr gegrüsst’ (to δέκομαι ‘receive kindly’, Latin decus ‘dignity’). Problematic.  Why should a hero or a divine power be described as someone who is “well- received” or “very welcome”?  Against Schulze’s theory: Doric proper name Ἀριδείκης, found in epichoric prose inscriptions (12x; cannot be an itacistic confusion for -δίκης). 3.2.3 Root *deḱ-: Sittl (1880: 52) interpreted ἀριδείκετος as ‘vielgezeigt’ in the sense ‘much pointed at with fingers’ and, somewhat similarly, Thieme (1938: 162) glossed the word as ‘wer verdient dass man ihn dem Fremden zeigt’. Not compelling. 3.2.4 Τhe “Diḱtēr-sprache” provides a simple solution: (ἀρι)δείκετος from *(-)deḱ-eto- meant ‘praised (in song)’, ‘famous’ from ‘well worth praising (in song)’. 4. Latin dīcere, praedĭcāre and praecō If the use of *deḱ- with ‘song of praise’ is so old, the possibility has to be considered seriously that Italic, too, has preserved this inherited phraseology and the rise of the meaning ‘to speak’ in this branch could be connected to the poetic usage of *deḱ-, rather than being seen as an innovation. 4.1 Some uses of dīcō in Augustan poetry 4.1.1 dīcō ‘celebrate in song’: Verg. G. 2.95–96 purpureae preciaeque, et quo uploads/Litterature/ nikolaev-the-story-of-dicere.pdf