GREEK AND THE PSYCHOLOGY OF THE GREEKS 153 



Moloch; the date, Sa/crvAos, is Aramaic dikela, palm; in o-vKo'^opo?, syca- 

 more, we seem to hear O-VKOV and /Aopos, though the word is derived 

 from Hebrew schikmim. 



A marked feature of the language, even its later history, is its 

 proud refusal to adopt Latinisms. Strabo finds Greek equivalents 

 for procurator, legatus, aquaeductus, sinus. Literature seems only 

 then to have adopted Latin words when they had been enfranchised 

 in the language of the people, which was not often the case. Plutarch 

 was weak in Latin; Libanius was ignorant of it. Not till the fourth 

 century was Latin better known because of the Latin rhetors in the 

 Eastern Empire. Cestius and Argentarius seem to have been the 

 first to make addresses in Latin. The influence of Latin syntax is 

 indeed seen in Philodemus to a considerable extent, but Philodemus 

 was himself Latinized. 



Various other aspects of Greek vocabulary open up interesting 

 points of approach. The play of fancy, the poetical envisagement of 

 an object are seen in many of the names for animals, fishes, plants, etc. 

 Thus, KcpSw, fox, <f>epeou<o<;, snail, faxy, butterfly, ^x* 7 " 7 ^ cicada, /Sao-t- 

 A.IO-KOS, golden-crested wren; /?a'/cxo9, wfiiov, are names of fishes; w^ata 

 is the water-lily. It is noteworthy that the same word often desig- 

 nates a plant and a fish, a bird and a fish. Sometimes the same ani- 

 mal has many names, which are due to popular recognition of diverse 

 qualities. 



Greek names for persons are one of the finest achievements of the 

 genius of the Indo-European languages; and the principle of name- 

 giving inherited by all the Indo-European peoples nowhere attained 

 such splendid results as in Greece. The common names of the Greeks 

 have an element of distinction, an idealistic and poetic tone that 

 echoes the national spirit as the names of no other land. xXeos is 

 the most prolific single element, and its frequency recalls the remark 

 of Pliny ( N. H. 3, 42) : Grai, genus in gloriam suam effusissimum. 

 The stateliness and dignity of the names in ev-, dpwrro-, xaAAi-, KaAo-, 

 dyopa-, ST//XO-, -ju-a^o-, ITTTTO-, $o-, Kparo-, etc., evince at once the national 

 ideals and the contrast to the lowliness and poverty of the Roman 

 names, which often express intellectual or physical defects (Cato, 

 Verres, Cicero, Catilina; Brutus; Flaccus, Plancus, Sulla, Naso). 

 In Latin there are at most only thirty praenomina. Success in war 

 was not to the Greeks a proper source of name-giving, and not till 

 the Macedonian age do we meet with such names as Demetrius 

 Poliorcetes, Seleucus Nicator; whereas the addition of designations 

 like Africanus and Numidicus is proper to the genius of the Roman 

 people. The Greek found in names for persons the nomen et omen, a 

 religious significance rather than an opportunity for mere word-play 

 or jest such as marks the attitude of Cicero in his correspondence 

 and even in his speeches. But the well-nigh universal refusal of the 



