Demosthenes:
…καὶ ὅλως ἄπιστον, οἶμαι, ταῖς πολιτείαις ἡ τυραννίς, ἄλλως τε κἂν > ὅμορον > χώραν ἔχωσι.
I had read Demosthenes’ first speech on the Olynthus circumstance before, but it had been a few years, and I picked it up again while on vacation. I was pleasantly surprised at how straightforward his sentence flow now seemed, as opposed to a few years before, when he was very tough.
However, the above word stumped me. I had seen it before, but couldn’t remember what it meant exactly. The prefix seemed to be ὁμός. But what was the -ρος there for? And what did the word mean exactly?
As always, this seemed like an opportunity to read some random Greek and to improve my word-guessing abilities. I first tried a general search and read the 100 or uses in Greek texts before Aristotle (see below for a selection) to see if I could figure it out.
These narrowed down the meaning quite a bit. Happily the word seemed always to be used in quite readable sentences (to me), even in Thucydides. Some guesses that came to mind, as I read, were “neighbor”, “near,” or “of friendly/enemy disposition” (this last, however, was quickly discarded as I continued to read).
But the meaning was still hazy for me. And now there was something else to explain: Why did the word only refer to land or cities? Why was the context so often war? If it just meant something like “same region”, I would think that it should have a more general application, not just political relations between states. And how did ὁμός relate?
But thinking about “same region” was what clued me in. ὅμ-ορος. It was actually simple all along.
Thucydides:
εἰ ξύμμαχα ταῦτα ἔχοι ὅμορα ὄντα τὰ χωρία
εἰσὶ δ’ οἱ Γέται καὶ οἱ ταύτῃ ὅμοροί τε τοῖς Σκύθαις καὶ ὁμόσκευοι
ἐκ δὲ τῆς Βοττίας καλουμένης Βοττιαίους, οἳ νῦν ὅμοροι Χαλκιδέων οἰκοῦσιν
τούτων δὲ οἱ Τραχίνιοι πολέμῳ ἐφθαρμένοι ὑπὸ Οἰταίων ὁμόρων ὄντων
ὄντες γὰρ ὅμοροι τοῖς Αἰτωλοῖς καὶ ὁμόσκευοι
ὁ πρὸς Ἱππωνιᾶς καὶ Μεδμαίους πόλεμος ὁμόρους τε ὄντας καὶ ἀποίκους
Ἰλίου δὲ ἁλισκομένου τῶν Τρώων τινὲς διαφυγόντες Ἀχαιοὺς πλοίοις ἀφικνοῦνται πρὸς τὴν Σικελίαν, καὶ ὅμοροι τοῖς Σικανοῖς οἰκήσαντες ξύμπαντες μὲν Ἔλυμοι ἐκλήθησαν, πόλεις δ’ αὐτῶν Ἔρυξ τε καὶ Ἔγεστα
Isocrates:
ἄλλους δὲ περὶ χώρας τοῖς ὁμόροις ἀμφισβητοῦντας
Herodotus:
Ἐοῦσα δὲ Αἴγυπτος ὅμουρος τῇ Λιβύῃ οὐ μάλα θηριώδης ἐστί
τοὺς ὁμούρους φεύγοντας ὑπὸ Σκυθέων
ὑποφεύγοντες οἱ Σκύθαι ἐς τοὺς Ἀγαθύρσους. Ἀγάθυρσοι δὲ ὁρῶντες καὶ τοὺς ὁμούρους
Isocrates
τοὺς ὁμόρους καὶ τοὺς πλησίον οἰκοῦντας
Xenophon:
τοῖς Λακεδαιμονίοις τὸ μὲν ἐπ’ Ἀθηναίους ἢ ἐπὶ Βοιωτοὺς στρατεύειν οὐκ ἐδόκει ἀσφαλὲς εἶναι ὄπισθεν καταλιπόντας ὅμορον τῇ Λακεδαίμονι πολεμίαν καὶ οὕτω μεγάλην τὴν τῶν Ἀργείων πόλιν
καὶ τὸν πρὸς τοὺς ὁμόρους πόλεμον
τῶν δ’ ἐν τῇ Λακεδαίμονι πολεμίων Ἀρκάδες μὲν καὶ Ἀργεῖοι καὶ Ἠλεῖοι πολλοὶ ἀπεληλύθεσαν, ἅτε ὅμοροι οἰκοῦντες, οἱ μὲν ἄγοντες οἱ δὲ φέροντες ὅ τι ἡρπάκεσαν.
Σάκαι γε μὴν ὅμοροι ἡμῖν
Lysias
τοὺς μὲν ὁμόρους ὄντας Λακεδαιμονίοις, τοὺς δ’ ἐγγὺς οἰκοῦντας