GREEK LANGUAGE. 



a few examples. The firR we feka occurs in 

 Iliad, II. 815 ; 



Remus. Ottki', fl^, ab, erra?, alTus, fays Schcid, quod ab 

 o-TTx, quod idem atque oKi', et. ay^ni, pungo pungendojigo. But 

 the parent word is nSK> to roaft ; and o-rxt.', to fry, as-xi', 

 to kindle, £4-^', to boil, are, with all their compounds, but the 

 common offspring of this term. We fhall only add one in- 

 ftance more from the Etymologicum of Lennep. O^y^'ofjuM 

 falto ab o«ii. Dici videtur a motu in altum. Componcndum 

 quoque eft cum rj;^ouai (venire.) Ab 0=10 fatfum ex ojFi, 

 hincoj-yi', cum contailione moveo, pec. in altum : unde facillima 

 via ad o^'.x^ ; os^^; ojp^si. Rediffime igitur Etymol. c. 634, 

 52, Ttx^a, TO o^iyuy, nat ekteiveiv rxq X-^?-'-^ — '■°" "iX"^^' Ajn;-, 

 i vjKi'/nro; itarx Tro^sfiov. Unum tamen addidiffe liceat, fecun- 

 dura analogic leges, ab o^x"-' (derivata voce verbi o^x'") PP- 

 i-epeti?ndum fuilfe oj^^^'' cujus Media forma ell o=x'°H-^'' 



Tliis paragraph is a fair ipecimen of the manner in which 

 thefe etymologills have, by certain analogies, founded on 

 their own fancies rather than on the real ftrudlure of the 

 Greek tongue, yoked together under one common root 

 words the moil foreign to each other. 



The verb o^^x^ '^''i "ot come from ofv, or o^'.u; but from 

 J~l];, ii>\'g, to defire, or to ftretch to an objeft, when dedred. 

 From the fame origin are dei-ived o^ ?^»ii,ui, o^'.x^^i^, o^s^^u; 



c^'.KT^u], o^iji^xojLtai, o^iyvxojxa.i, o^yac-xy and us^yauj, all of which 



are but different modifications of the fame primitive words 



by different people who ufed tlie fame tongue. On the 



other hand, ■^•/jija.v.i, to come or go, originated in n"1Js*» 



arukb, or *]"1J\', anh, to travail, prolong, e.xtcnd. On the 



other hand ' ' 



in which an 



to arrange or place in order. From o^x^-.y arrangement 



meafure, rhythm, came the verb i^x>'^, or o^x'''i^''-h *-o move 



to the founds of muiic in a dance or to battle. The move- 

 ments in a dance and in war appear to have been regulated 



by the fame meafures ; and hence dancers and warriors had 



the fame names applied to them. Mars being called o^x'^i^h 



as the author of the Etymologicum writes, ui; ■tt^o; ^roAsjuo* 



ai-ut>n:. Hence, too, a leader, i. e. one who put the men in 

 order of battle, was called oix'-'-t^'>-: > and, moreover, n-fu/i-, 

 which denoted a fpecies of dance, came in Latin to fignify 

 praslium. Such learning, acutenefs, and diligence as were 

 poffclfed by Hemfterufe, and the celebrated men above- 

 mentioned of his fchool, however perverfe, could not alto- 

 get>her have been mifapplied. Their labours, therefore, 

 muft prefent fome inflances of jufl etymology, but their 



fyftem, upon the whole, appears to us both fanciful and afcrihes the bejl name to the gods 

 erroneous, and calculated more to perplex their readers than 

 to furnifh them with folid information. 



Etymology, as it may ferve to afcertain the primary 

 fenfe of a word, to unfold a general principle in the formation 

 of language, to exemplify the manner in which philofo- 

 phical notions, political occurrences, and religious iniHtu- 

 tions influence the mind and give birth to new modes of 

 fpecch, is a fubjeCl of rational and ufetul enquiry. In this 



Ho 





Toy Tfsu avj{=,- BaTifixj v.wXrfjKwtui, 



Of this pafFage the following is a literal verflon : Tly,' 

 extjs apart m the plain, in tl^ front 0/ the city, (namely Tl<Oi . 

 a lofty mount, accejlble by a circular afunt. This men call 

 liATlEl.| ; but the Immortals the tomb offar-loundlng Myrhw. 

 Ifie language of the Trojans, though a dialed of ti e 

 Greek, was, we may well fuppofe, from iheir iituation. 

 mixed by an mflux of Afiatic terms. Of this clafs is 

 Bary.^, which in Hebrew is n'3, belt, and mtrin^sii abode, 

 in Haiah, x:v. 18, and Job, iii. 15, it fignifics the laft liome 

 of man. The term here occurs in the Syriac form N'r.-J 

 bateea, and has the fenfe which it bears in the .lewifh fcrip- 

 tures. Hence we difcover the meaning of the paffage 

 which has efcaped the knowledge of ftie critics, ancier.t and 

 modern. BaT.i.>. means the fame thing with =-r,«, and the 

 claufe, TTcXva-HK^Syoic Mt.iwr,-, is to be connefted with th» 

 former as well as with the latter ; and the import of the 

 phrafe is. Men call it (Batleia) the grave, and the Im- 

 mortals the tomb, of ATyrinnes. By mm Hcmpr meant the 

 vulgar people of Troy ; by the Immortals he intended th- 

 , . . „ pohflied Greeks. Here ive fee the partiality or rather the 



o;';c^:. which means a row of plants, or the order pride of the poet rcfpetiing his language arid countrymen, 

 y thing is done, is from the Hebrew -jly, arfZ-, The phrafe is purely oriental. The elegant Shauferit is 

 ' - - ' ■^ ftyled Z)rtfiJ iVajom-, writings of the Immortals Conform- 



ably to the fame lofty figure. Homer calls Greek, from its 

 fuperior polilh, the language of the immortal gods, while he 

 charaaenzes the dialed of Troy, from its barbarity and 

 rudenefs, the language of men. 



The explanation which the critics have given of Pa7,.,x 

 is various, each rendering it more uncertain and improbable. 

 Hefychms explains it to be :roX.; Te:..,tr. Others derive the 



go ; and others again from 



term from /Sai, or pain-, to 



0aTo-, bramble, becaufe, as Heyne fays, coUis fentibus ob- 

 dudus effe potuit. As the commentators did not know 

 the origin or meaning of the word, it is not to b^ expeded 

 that they Ihould underffand the Angular phrafeology 

 grounded upon the ufe of it. Euflathiuss account of it is 



TO //:V cXi'? X^'iTOV 



&V0/LtaTi7> C=i 



Ei,' Gcvapu."7V0'j: 



th 



1- cHio-iv i. rroi'^t ; the poet 

 The fcholiall fays, 7o» ^e» 



cjOfM Hi dov: av^^fff!. I mtrr.r.s, to h y.;Txyi»i.:^cr 

 ; the poet refers the more ancient name to the gods ; 

 more recent name to nun ; w hich cannot be true : for 

 SxT.E.x is at leafl equally ancient with e^r.yx. Clarke comes 

 nearer the truth, who iuppofes the language of the Im- 

 mortals to mean the language of the learned ; and this Treat 

 critic would have fecn that Homer intended to contraf? net 



_,--- - - - -,--,- - the language of the learned with the vulgar Greek, but 



enlightened view it blends itfelf with the hiftory of philo- t'"'^ polilhed language of the Greeks with the barbarous 

 fophy, of politics, and of religion, with the ilrudure of the dialed of the Trojans, if he had been aware that /3a-:iiia 

 human frame, and even with the theory of the human mind. '" t'u^ dialed, meant a tomb, or the fame thing with crrua. 

 Ccnneded with any or with all of thefe purpofes, none but We (hall only obferve that this word exifts in Celtic, and 

 the uninformed \v\\l neglect or decry this branch of philo- bears the fame fignification — bedd, a grave. 

 logy as vain and ulelefs ; and without fuch connedion none The next palTage in which the ufe of the Oriental tongues 

 but pedants will purfue or extol it as worthy of attention, ferves to illulfrate obfcurities in Greek authors, wc ftiall 

 As the Greek originated in the Afiatic languages, a know- feled from the Agamemnon of jElchylus. On this para- 

 ledge of thefe languages to a certain extent is abfolutely graph much has been written, and written in vain bv the 

 neceffary, to form a rational and competent etymologiil in critics. Clylemncflra, the lady Macbeth of ancient days 

 the dialeds of Greece : and many paflages muil exifl in the hoafls in it of her tidehty, during the abfence of her lord 

 Greek writers, efpecially tiie more ancient poets, which can ""'d ''i>-' j"}' with which (lie would receive him on his return' 



be underftood only by light refleded from the Eall. It will 

 not be foreign to our purpofe to illuftrate tliis pofition by 



4V2 



The 



