Greek Semantics

A number of Greek and Roman philosophical authors, including Lucretius, Horace, and Epictetus, draw a connection between wonder and fear. In this paper, I will argue that this connection has its roots in Greek vocabulary of wonder, and specifically in the terms θαῦμα and θάμβος.

Although we know that sunesis denoted some sort of intellectual virtue in Classical Greece, its precise meaning remains unclear. There is not even scholarly consensus as to the domain of objects that fall under its purview. Is sunesis a virtue concerned with ethical life? Does it involve the possession of technical skill? Or is it exercised when we draw upon prior theoretical knowledge in order to learn new things? There is textual evidence for all three suggestions, among others (e.g. Arist. Nic. Eth. 1142b34-1143a18; Hipp. de Arte Med.

In his nome Persae, Timotheus gives the floor to a Phrygian soldier engaged in the Persian army who begs his Greek aggressor to spare his life in broken Greek. Timotheus describes the multiplication of efforts required to speak Greek through a complex system of images. The aim of this contribution is to provide a new semantic interpretation of the most controversial passage (147-148 Page = 159-160 Wilamowitz):

[…] διάτορον | σφραγῖδα θραύων στόματος

Ancient physicians were very concerned about timing. They recognized that the treatments they prescribed—whether medicines or meals, exercises or baths—would only achieve maximum effect if administered at the “right time,” a concept rendered in Greek by the word kairos. This and related terms already preoccupied the Hippocratics in the late Classical period. As Eskin has pointed out, “Two of the three major theoretical treatises by Hippocrates on the nature of medical science and methodology include in the first sentence kairos as a main term.