Αρχιμαγειρος chef cook or captain of the guard

Greek Koine and Biblical and Medieval Greek
1

In Gen (37:36, 39:1, 41:10, 41:12), IV Kings 25:8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 15, 18, 20) Jerem. (47:1, 2, 5, 48:10, 52:12, 14, 16, 19, 24, 26) and DAniel 2:14 the LXX has αρχιμαγειρας. Brenton translates this with “captain of the guard” (except Gen 41:10: chief baker), NETS has only “chief baker/butcher/cook”.

Only in Gen 41:1 there is a reading αρχιδεσμοφυλακος = chief of the prison-guards)

Since μαγειρος means cook/butcher/baker/slaughter, I think chief-cook would be the best rendering; in all instances?

Conybeare-Stock 1904, 114 (Selections from the Septuagint : according to the text of Swete : Swete, Henry Barclay, 1835-1917 : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive) try to explain that the rendering should be “captain of the guard”, arguing from the hebrew-text. THat’s fine, but the LXX-translators must have known, that for Greek-speakers μαγειρος just means cook, not guard.

An Eunuch as chief of the guard in ancient Egypt? I doubt that.

Could it be, that the LXX-translator(s) of Gen/Kings/Jerem/Daniel mixed-up αρχιμαγειρος and αρχιμαχιμος (chief of the native-egyptian soldiers, papyri.info PN Search).

If they really meant chief of the guard (bodyguard), they probably should have used αρχισωματοφυλαξ (I Kings 28:2, Esther II 2:21. Ezra I 3:4, Samuel I 28:1) or something like αρχι-δορυφορος (compare δορυφορος Bodyguard, spearbearer: II Mac 3:24, IV Mac 5:2, 6:1,8,23, 8:13 etc.; very often in classic greek).

And if they realy thought αρχιμαγειρος to mean captain of the guard, one would expect to have used something like αρχισιτοποιος/αρχισιτοκοπος for the baker/cook.

Are there maybe other explanations?

2

The confusion with “cook” is in the Hebrew word too, apparently.

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The Plutarch story uses the identity with “μάγειρος” as a joke/insult:

Ἀντίγονον δὲ τὸν βασιλέα τῶν Μακεδόνων ἑτερόφθαλμον ὄντα τὴν πήρωσιν προφέρων εἰς οὐ μετρίαν ὀργὴν κατέστησε. τὸν γὰρ ἀρχιμάγειρον Εὐτροπίωνα γεγενημένον ἐν τάξει πέμψας παραγενέσθαι πρὸς αὐτὸν ἠξίου καὶ λόγον δοῦναι καὶ λαβεῖν. ταῦτα δ’ ἀπαγγέλλοντος ἐκείνου πρὸς αὐτὸν καὶ πολλάκις προσιόντος “εὖ οἶδ’,” ἔφησεν, “ὅτι ὠμόν με θέλεις τῷ Κύκλωπι παραθεῖναι,” ὀνειδίζων τὸν μὲν ὅτι πηρός, τὸν δ’ ὅτι μάγειρος ἦν. κἀκεῖνος “τοιγαροῦν” εἰπών “τὴν κεφαλὴν οὐχ ἕξεις ἀλλὰ τῆς ἀθυροστομίας ταύτης καὶ μανίας δώσεις δίκην,” ἀπήγγειλε τὰ εἰρημένα τῷ βασιλεῖ, ὁ δὲ πέμψας ἀνεῖλε τὸν Θεόκριτον.

(Speaking about Theocritos, my trans.): He brought Antigonos, king of the Macedonians, a one-eyed man, into a state of unreasonable anger by bringing up his disfigurement. For he (Antigonos) had sent Eutropion, having the position of ἀρχιμάγειρος, to him (Theocritos) requesting to trade arguments. Having communicated this to Theocritos, and coming to him often, Theocritos said to him, “I well know that you want to serve me up raw to the Cyclops,” making fun of the one for his disfigurement, and of the other for being a μάγειρος. And he saying, “And so you won’t get the head (=have your head, μάγειρος joke, yuk yuk), but you will pay the penalty for your ungated mouth and madness,” reported the words to the king. And he sent for Theocritos and executed him.

There are two cooking jokes here, the Cyclops joke and the joke about getting the head. But the important thing is that you don’t want to make the mistake of calling an ἀρχιμάγειρος a μάγειρος.