C. Watkins, The Name of Meleager

Calvert Watkins
The name of Meleager

Seit d e n allerdings erst viel z u spt bekannt gewordenen Untersuchungen v o n M i l m a n Parry ( 1 9 2 8 ) sieht a u c h das P h n o m e n der e p i s c h e n D i c h t u n g anders aus. Ernst Risch ( 1 9 7 3 )
I have set forth elsewhere the evidence for a common Indo-European verbal formula expressing the central act of an inherited theme, the serpent or dragon-slaying myth. 1 The theme or semantic structure may be presented as HERO SLAY SERPENT (WEAPON)
The formula which is the vehicle for this theme frequently exhibits marked word order (Verb-Object), and typically lacks an overt hero subject. The marginal weapon is optional; thus the boxed HERO SLAY SERPENT (WEAPON)
The 'purpose' of this central theme and its formulaic expression is predication: it is a definition of the HERO. Compare Vedic ahann ahitn (RV I 32.1, etc.) 'he slew the serpent', dhid vrtram vajrena (IV 17.3) 'he slew Vrtra with his cudgel', or Greek (Pind. P. 10.46) 'he slew the Gorgon', ... (Pind. P. 4.248) 'he killed the serpent', or Avestan yd janat azitn dahkdm (. 9.8) 'who slew Azi Dahka', all with Verb-Object order. With unmarked Object-Verb order, note Vedic ... vajram ... yad ahim han
1
' H o w to kill a dragon in Indo-European,' Studies in memory of Warren Cowgill (1929-1985), Berlin [to appear]. See in much greater detail my b o o k Aspects of IndoEuropean Poetics, currently in preparation.
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T h e name of Meleager
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(V 29.2) '... cudgel ... when he slew the serpent', or Avestan + vc&am1 ... yat azis dahkjaini (Yt. 19.92) 'weapon . . . when A . D . was slain', or Hittite illuyankan kuenta (KUB XVII 5 117) 'he slew the serpent', or Greek / , , (. Apoll. 300 f.) 'there the lord, son of Zeus, slew the she-dragon with his strong bow'. With nominalization of the verb, Old Norse orms einbani (Hym.22) 'the serpent's single bane', a kenning for the god Thor. The semantic constituents of the basic theme may undergo paradigmatic (commutational) variants: for the H E R O ' s name there may appear an epithet (e.g., SLAYER); for SLAY we may find KILL, SMITE, O V E R COME, BEAT, etc.; for the S E R P E N T (ADVERSARY) we may find M O N S T E R , BEAST, but also H E R 0 2 or A N T I - H E R O . T h e constituents may undergo syntagmatic variants: The Verb Phrase may be passivized as in Greek ... ( 689f.) 'slain is P.', Vedic hato raj krminm (AV II 32.4) 'slain is the king of the worms', Pahlavi kirm zat (Krnmak IX) 'slew the dragon', historically 'anguis occisus'. H E R O and ADVERSARY may switch grammatical roles, as in Greek ... ... (Bacchyl. 9.13) 'whom the dragon slew', or Hittite MUSilluyankas \- tarhta (KBo III 7 I 11) 'the serpent overcame the Storm God'. The W E A P O N may be promoted to direct object and the ADVERSARY assigned a marginal role in the utterance as in Vedic jaki vddhar (IV 22.9, etc.), Avestan vadara ja&i (Y. 9.30), both 'strike the weapon'. The WEAP O N may also be promoted to grammatical subject of the verb SLAY or equivalent, as in Vedic so asya vdjro hdrito yd yasdh ... tuddd ah im hdrisipro yd yasdh (X 96.3-4) 'This is his golden yellow weapon, the brazen . . . the golden yellow (weapon), the brazen, smote the serpent.' The Indo-European expressions for these semantic constituents can be reconstructed without difficulty. Basic to the theme is the Verb Phrase, the boxed formula above; basic to the Verb Phrase is the Verb, typically *gwhen-, *uedh-, *terh-2, *uag-, in Greek *dken- (-). It is characteristic that the same root may appear in different semantic slots, with the appropriate derivational and inflexional morphology, as subject, verb, object, instrument: thus Vedic vrtra-ha, dhan ... vadhena (1.32.5), but also vadhit ... ghanena (I 33.4), both 'SLEW with the W E A P O N ' . These various phrases may legitimately be looked on as formulas in the sense of contemporary theory of oral or traditional literature. T h e variations rung on them constitute a virtually limitless repository of literary expression in archaic Indo-European societies, and their careful study can
2
Corrected by my colleague Jochem Schindler from lowing word vaej 'swinging.'
vaeSam, by
anticipation of the f o l -
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cast light in unexpected places, and bring together under a single explanation a variety of seemingly unrelated, unconnected text passages. In Bacchylides' fifth victory ode, Herakles in Hades meets the shade of Meleager (68-70): 'Clear showed among them the shade of the brave spirited wielder of spears, (Meleager), descendant of Porthaon' Meleager is here the formulaically prototypical H E R O , who by the spear like H e k t o r ( 834-5), is like Herakles ( 639, 267), and like Ares ( 605), Polydamas ( 449) and the nameless T r o j a n allies (B 131). On seeing and being addressed by Meleager, Herakles' reply is the recognition of a hero (869): " ; ';" "What god or man reared such a scion as this, and where? W h o slew him?" H e knows: marvelous birth, semi-devine lineage, and extraordinary death, a Heldentod, ' is a formulaic topos: cf. ' ; (248), 'how was Agamemnon slain?,' , " ; (Pi., 1.5.30), 'who killed Kuknos, who Hector?' In the narration of Meleager's greatest exploit, killing the Calydonian boar, he and the other Aitolians are called by Bacchylides 'best of the Hellenes' (111), a characteristic formulaic index of the H E R O . 3 T h e formula is indexed by phonetic figures and homoioteleuton in the immediately following ' / (); note the iconic length of in the last. The monster boar is itself subject of the verb SLAY in Bacchylides 5, 115-6 / 'whom the boar slew', with the reciprocal of the basic formula, as discussed above.
On the notion see G.Nagy, The Best of the Achaeans (Baltimore, 1979), passim, who happens not to note this passage, nor the recurrence of the figure outside Greece: Beowulf is also secg betste 'best of men' (947).
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We find another formulaic Homeric reminiscence in a metrical feature of this ode of Bacchylides: the placement of the name in verse final position at the close of a dactylic unit, with muta cum liquida making position, in all three of its occurrences: 5.77 , 93 , 171 /. While postverbal position is what we expect with such formulas introducing quoted speech, Bacchylides' placement of the name echoes that of line-final 642, , I 543 ... , or Hes. fr. 25.10 [... ] . It is probably significant that once the line-final name is preceded by a verse with the linefinal verb 'has as a care' (92-4)
(( \ /
." We would have an etymological figure, as well as an echoic link of to Homer's ( 692) 'fair-haired Meleager died' and the phonetically related, common Homeric . Note finally that in the same victory ode the final exploit of 'spearwielding' Meleager, the slaying of his mother's brothers, also involves thrown weapons like spears: (132) 'bolts thrown blind f r o m our hands.' T h e tale of Meleager is told by Phoinix to Achilles in the mission in Iliad nine, as an exemplum. Here as in Bacchylides we find the reciprocal of the basic formula, with the Calydonian boar as subject, this time of the exceedingly rare Greek reflex of *uedh-, the participle . 4 I 540 f. . . . (note the phonetic figure indexing the name ) / ' 'a wild boar white of tusk . . . / t h a t wrought much ill, wasting the garden land of .' I 543 continues ... 'him . . . Meleager killed,' thus reestablishing the usual grammatical role of the constituents of the basic formula, but with the name of the H E R O in line-final position, and no mention of a WEAPON. T h e other Homeric occurrence of the ancient participle ( / ) is in a simile in Iliad sixteen ( 259 ff.), where the Myrmidons pouring forth into
4
This analysis of the word is rightly upheld by Manu Leumann, Horn. Wrter. Basel 1950, p. 212-3, with literature, and followed by Chantraine and Frisk. Note also H.Craig Melchert, Three Hittite etymologies. KZ 93 (1979), p.262-71, on uizzai, .wiwidi.
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battle with Patroklos are likened to a swarm of wasps that boys in their foolishness ( ... ) smite and goad into fury ( ). Here too we have a variant of the basic formula: the foolish boys are A N T I - H E R O E S , who SMITE (*uedh-) the 'HERO'-WASPS to whom the Myrmidons are compared. Now we find just such a theme and variant of the basic formula in another and instructive Iliadic simile in A 558ff. T h e Greek hero Ajax slowly giving ground before the Trojan onslaught is likened to 'a donkey, stubborn and hard to move, who goes into a cornfield in despite of boys (), and many sticks have been broken upon him ( ' line-final) but he gets in and goes on eating the deep grain, and the children beat him with sticks ( / ) but their strength is infantile ( ) ...' (tr. R.Lattimore). T h e weak boys are again A N T I - H E R O E S , who BEAT the 'HERO'-ASS ( = Ajax) with W E A P O N S (); we have the full version of the basic formula. And in ... ' ... we have the variant with W E A P O N S promoted to grammatical subject of the intransitive verb , IE *uag-. Compare RV IV 41.4 (astnin) ni vadhistam vajram 'strike down the weapon on him', with the W E A P O N promoted to grammatical object of the transitive verb vadhistam, IE *uedh-. T h e word occurs only here in the Iliad; as in the Aesop tales, it is just a stick to beat with, but it occurs in a definable locus of a formulaic nexus. In the Odyssey the word has more legendary associations, and in the same formulaic nexus: the W E A P O N . In 195 it is the staff requested by Odysseus from Eumaios, which in 236 is potentially a deadly weapon. In i319-20 it is the great club of the M O N S T E R Polyphemos, which Odysseus will use to blind him: ... 'of yellow-green olive wood'. Elsewhere it is the club of the H E R O Herakles: Soph. Track. 512 (lyr.), Aristoph. Ran. 47, 495, and Pindar fr. 111, with the epithet 'rough, jagged'. But the most interesting is the final attestation of in the Odyssey, in book eleven, the Nekuia ( 572-5). "After him I was aware of gigantic Orion/ in the meadow of asphodel, rounding up and driving together/ wild animals () whom he himself had killed () in the lonely mountains/ holding in his hands a brazen club, forever unbroken" (tr. Lattimore). , , . We observe not only another instance of the basic formula HERO SLAY BEAST (WEAPON)
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but another collocation of the W E A P O N and the root *uag-, this time as an epithet , hapax in H o m e r . Orion's cudgel here is the most fully described in early Greek literature. There can be no doubt that this is an ancient and inherited thematic nexus, for the same features recur in the description of Indra's cudgel in Vedic, and Mitra's mace in Avestan. And the word f o r the W E A P O N in both languages is a derivative of the root *uag- (Mayrhofer, KEWA s.v. with references, also Nachtrge): Ved. vajrah = Av. vazr, IE uagros. With ... compare Vedic vajrahasta- 'having the bolt in his hand', 17x of Indra; for Avestan, Yt. 10.96 vazram zastaiia drazamn 'holding his mace in his hand'. With compare R V I 80.12 vajra yasdh 'cudgel of bronze' as well as X 96.3-4 cited above, and Yt. 10.96 zaris aiiayh frahixtam 'cast in yellow bronze'. With the cudgel of Polyphemus note RV III 44.4 harim ... vajram 'the yellow cudgel', as well as X 96.3-4 and the Avestan epithet just cited. For the cudgel of Herakles, the studded club familiar in Greek iconography, cf. Ved. sahasrabhrstih 'with 1000 studs' (I 80.12 above), or Av. satafitanam 'with 100 bosses'. Such was the Indo-European * uagros. It is well-known that both the verb form and the adjective in the above passages show 'metrical lengthening', and that the other Homeric instances of (3x II., Ix O d . repeated) do not. T h e participle (/) occurring (at verse-end) once in each epic ( 769, 123) requires a digamma, and a short vowel. 5 H o w is this metrical lengthening generated? and have the same metrical position (verse-final) as in 642 and I 543; Hesiod's the same position (before feminine caesura) as in I 550, 553, 590. T h e long syllable in (w) w - c # and (w) is primary in (), secondary in , , . I suggest the latter three are based on the former. T h e hiatus in is most easily explained by a lost f . If a line or hemistich-final *(-)/ ( w w ) - c # is responsible for the lengthening in */, */, * / then the link must be semantic, and therefore *(-)_ must have been perceived as containing fay- 'break'. If so, then *(-)/ either forms an equation with Vedic vajrah/Avestan vazr ' W E A P O N ' or is wholly independent. In view of the clear association of the Greek root f - with the W E A P O N in these contexts, variants of the basic formula (' ... , ... ), and in view of
5
Rolf Hiersche has suggested in Glotta 44 (1966), p. 1-5 that the perfect in Hes. Op. and Sappho 31.9 (2.9 D 2 .) reflect an Aeolic poetic tradition outside Homer with lengthening (and digamma), whence Ionic . The two traditions with lengthening are I think one and the same.
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the formal identity of Greek *(-)/ and Indo-Iranian *ua/ras 'WEAP O N , ' we are led to c o n c l u d e - a s the simplest hypothesis to account f o r the f a c t s - t h a t Greek *(-)f meant ' W E A P O N , ' and made a word equation with the Indie and Iranian forms. T h e metrical evidence indicates that the original locus of the root fayin the Greek version of the basic formula was verse-final (w) (w) w +F or hemistich-final (w)(w)-w||, and that the only form apt to fit that slot was */-, the nominal derivative ' W E A P O N ' . A tendency to verse and clause-final position is also characteristic f o r the position of the instrumental W E A P O N in the (boxed) basic formula in Vedic, HERO SLAY SERPENT (WEAPON)
notably when the verb is clause-initial. 6 If the original locus of */-- in the Greek formula was the WEAP O N , the other cases show transference of the root to other semantic constituents. Given in our myth HERO 1 KILL 2 MONSTER 3 (WEAPON) 4
the (VERB intr ) shows 4 ^ 2 , while (ADJECTIVE + WEAP O N ) shows 4 N P [x + 4]. At a certain time in the hexameter tradition (or its ancestor) these constituents underwent semantic 'movement' in the underlying structure, but remained metrically static; their position in the metrical line remained unchanged. T h e necessary consequence was the deformation we know as 'metrical lengthening.' T h e final semantic 'movement' was simply 4 1: the W E A P O N becomes the name of the H E R O , or a constituent of it. This transference could be the more favored by the existence of the thematic and formulaic variant WEAPON KILL MONSTER
with the W E A P O N promoted to grammatical subject, as discussed and illustrated above. T h e Maruts' bolt is a goha (IE *gwou-gwhen-) nrha vadhah 'cattle-slaying, man-slaying weapon' in RV VII 56.17, just as Mitra's weapon is aspa.vtraja 'horse and man-slaying' in Yt. 10.101. T h a t such a semantic structure was profoundly rooted in early Greek culture is proved by a curious feature of the ancient Athenian ritual of the Bouphonia (IE *gwou-gwhon-), the sacrifice of an ox to Zeus of the city: the sacrificial axe
6
See the works referred to in note 1.
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is ritually tried f o r murder. 7 T h e creation of the c o m p o u n d name _ 'having the care of the *| ' 'he w h o cares f o r the * ^ ' could have been at the outset a nonce-formation; P N N in - (var. -) are infrequent but do occur. See Bechtel, Personennamen, w h o notes that the type was first analyzed already by August Friedrich Pott. 8 T h a t the H E R O of such a mythological episode in the basic f o r m u l a may owe his name to a (synchronically no longer perceived) transference of the W E A P O N can be exactly paralleled in Vedic. For as Stanley Insler will show in a forthcoming paper, 9 the H i n d u god Visnu himself was originally only the name of Indra's cudgel, his vajra. C o m p a r e the clear basic formula in R V VI 20.2 ahim ydd vrtmm ... hann ... visnun sacnah 'when he slew . . . the serpent Vrtra . . . together with Visnu' Etymologically the W E A P O N *(-)/ was the 'breaker' in Greek (^). 1 0 T h e root *uag- - otherwise not f o u n d in I n d o - I r a n i a n - r e c u r s in Tocharian AB wk- 'split, open (intr.),' pres. wokotr < *uag-o,n and in the Hittite hi-verb wki 'bites.' T h e weapon might have been originally the 'biter'; f o r the semantics compare IE *bheid- in Germanic {bite, beien) and its association with the W E A P O N in Germanic legend. Beowulf's sword H r u n t i n g was useless against Grendel's mother: bitan nolde (1523) 'would not bite'. T h e weapon with which Beowulf finishes off the W o r m in the final, fatal conflict is biter ond beaduscearp (2704) 'biting ("bitter") and battle-sharp': *bhid-ro- is f o r m e d just like *uag-ro-.n Formally *uag-ro- suggests a Caland adjective in -ro-, with substativation and accent shift to vajra-. T h e stative *uag-e- in Gk. is likewise
See the penetrating analysis of Walter Burkert, H o m o Necans. Translated by Peter Bing. Berkeley 1983, p. 136 ff. 8 KZ 6 (1857), p. 129: 'Er [] bedeutet cui curae cordique est () venatio ().' But the second member (so etymologized already by Euripides, v. infra) will not account for the hiatus. ' Referred to by permission, for which I am grateful. 10 Burrow, Sanskrit Language 26, Thieme, Kratylos 3 (1958) 139 = Kl.Schr. 765, Mayrhofer, KEWA 126 and 790. I leave to others to consider whether the Germanic
7
name of history and legend Odoacer, Odovacar, OEng. Eadwacer, Gmc. *Auda-wakraz might still contain our W E A P O N (*uagros) rather than the apparent uogros of O N vakr, OE wacor, German wacker. See M. Schnfeld, Wrterbuch der altgerm. Pers.- und Vlkernamen 174 f. Jay Jasanoff, Stative and Middle in Indo-European. Innsbruck 1978, p.41, 120.
11
12
The following line forwrat Wedra heim wyrm ort middan (2705) '(B.) cut open the
belly of the Worm' also recalls RV I 32.Id pra vaksan abhinat parvatnm '(Indra) split the belly of the mountains', or IV 17.3 bhinid girtm 'he split the mountain'.
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at home in a Caland-system, as is the s-stem *uag-es- of the Hesychean gloss - , 'fragment', and its internal derivative 'unbroken'. Hidden in the name of Meleager, but recoverable by the techniques of formulaic analysis, we have a Greek word *^ which makes an exact word equation, both linguistically and in its poetic deployment, with Vedic vajrah and Avestan vazr. T h a t word and its associative poetic semantics and formulaics must go back directly to the period of community of Greek and Indo-Iranian, to the period of both linguistic and poetic community. T h e explanation of the name of Meleager is only a by-product of the understanding of the nature and extent of that Indo-European poetic tradition. Jochem Schindler points out that the analysis of the name of Meleager is not new, but was published over a century ago. 13 H e referred me to H e r mann Osthoff, w h o wrote in 1878 of , 'besser ist aus lautlichen Grnden diejenige Etymologie, auf dessen Urheber wir uns aber leider nicht besinnen, nach welcher in dem mythologisch zu deutenden Namen das Schluglied Skr. vajra- m. n. 'Donnerkeil', Abaktr. vazra- m. 'Keule' enthalten sein soll'. 14 T h e etymology in fact was made by none other than Berthold Delbrck, at the age of 23. 15 H e quite correctly saw the figure of Meleager in the framework of what I term the basic formula. Nihil novi sub sole. But Delbriick's etymology, based explicitly on a long-antiquated view of mythology as a reflection of phenomena of nature, failed to convince the few Hellenists who knew of it. I believe it is the formulaic analysis alone which can demonstrate the correctness of the equation, and explain the genesis of the name.
13
14 15
Schindler also notes Euripides' etymology in Meleager fr. 521 Nauck: , ' with a double figura etymologica ( recurs at Bacchae 434). As Nauck notes, the paronomasia was castigated already in antiquity: . . ... Das Verbum in der Nominalkomposition. Jena 1878. p. 140n. Zeitschrift fr Vlkerpsychologie und Sprachwissenschaft 3 (1865), pp. 266-99, esp. 282-3, as can be learned from van der Kolf, Pauly-Wissowa RE 29 (1931), col. 446 (who however remained unconvinced).

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Calvert Watkins

The name of Meleager

Corrected by my colleague Jochem Schindler from lowing word vaej 'swinging.'

The name of Meleager

The name of Meleager

See the works referred to in note 1.

The name of Meleager

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