154 GREEK LANGUAGE 



Romans to name their children after their gods evinces a deeper 

 religious feeling than the Greek custom, which, with few exceptions, 

 draws on the entire pantheon (for example, 'ATroAAwvios, Iloo-eiSwvios) . 

 In fact, while the names of the Greeks mirror the high spirit of the 

 cavalier, the Roman names utterly fail to reflect the dignity of 

 Roman national life. , 



Another difference between Greek and Latin is the individualiz- 

 ation by the Greek of his mountains, springs, and other features of 

 natural scenery. All of these bear definite names, and some are 

 relics of the primitive "Carian" civilization, such as 'Epv/Aavflos, 

 'ApaKwflos. 1 So rich is the vocabulary of Greek places that we may 

 almost use the words of Lucan in speaking of the district about 

 Troy: "nullum sine nomine saxum." 



Conscious of the wealth of the vocabulary at his command, the 

 Greek does not scruple to repeat a word already used; while the 

 anxiety of the Roman to vary his words is an effort to hide by artifice 

 the poverty of his resources. Poetry has its own vocabulary, but the 

 proprieties of prose demand a limitation of the material used by 

 the poet; yet no such strict bounds were set by the Greeks as by the 

 Latins. Under the impulse of a controlling emotion the writer of 

 prose in Greece feels free to rise to the region of poetry and to borrow 

 from the loftier language of his fellow craftsmen the means to 

 awaken emotion in others. 



The deficiencies of Greek vocabulary are also instructive. Words 

 for color are more numerous than in Latin, the poverty of which in 

 contrast to the abundance of Greek is lamented by Favorinus 

 (Gellius, N. A. 2, 26, 5). Their infrequency in Greek, however, in 

 comparison to modern languages is an indication of indifference, not 

 to the charm of color, but to the minutiae of shading. French is said 

 to have five times as many color-words as English, but we are not 

 therefore insensible to the play of color effects; and English differen- 

 tiates auburn, hazel and bay, rose and pink where German has only 

 braun and rosa. Greek words for color often suggest more than they 

 mean, as in the case of x^upavxyv used of a woman. 



Both Greek and Latin have a highly developed system of names 

 for family relationship, but a point of difference between the two 

 languages may be noticed in the "conjuges liberique" of the Roman 

 in contrast to the TraiScs /ecu ywauces of the Greek. The relation of the 

 slave to his master in Greece (Trcus, OIKCT^S, avSpa-TroSov, and the color- 

 less 8oAos) is much less individualized than in Rome, where an am- 

 pler system of names indicates a wider aspect of the position occu- 

 pied by the slave in regard to the family and the state (puer, famulus, 

 verna, minister, ancilla, servus, mancipium). 

 1 Probably " Carian " are also 



