Declension - ἡ Λυκαίνιον, τῇ Λυκαινίῳ Longus 3.15.2, 3.17.1

Greek Learning Greek
1

This is my first time to chance upon this declension ἡ Λυκαίνιον, τῇ Λυκαινίῳ.

My thinking vasillates between:

  • Is this woman’s name sui generis in its declension? AND
  • Is this the pet name that this γύναιον would have been called by, used together with the articles and participles of the female gender?

If it is that second option, ie. a diminutive (for emphasis - caricature - tenderness - pathos??) of the name the has been tup’s esposita, is it a common literary device to put the diminutive with the original article?

2
3

Here is another example of a neuter name given to a girl: St. Eustochium (Εὐστόχιον), who was one of the spiritual daughters of St. Jerome.

4

This differs from the Longus example by not having the article, but Palladius (5th century AD) (or a later redactor) constructs the syntax in the feminine.

5

Female PN’s in -ιον/-ίον (originally hypocoristico-deminutival) were relatively common. That ἡ Λυκαίνιον is no more peculiar than e.g. ἡ ὁδός.

6

Smyth 228 - 234 doesn’t mention ἡ + -ιον/-ίον as a class, and nor does any other source available online that I could find.

Peculiar or not according to mere-exposure, I think the reasons for the feminine ἡ being with ὁδός is different from the reason for it being with Λυκαίνιον. I guess that ὁδός is feminine in grammatical gender (v. Smyth 232.c), while Λυκαίνιον is female in natural gender.

The designation natural gender by choice of the article is common enough for some animals as far as I’ve seen in Greek. Unless there is a gender bias in the standard grammars against the inclusion of this class of female names as a class of feminine nouns, then in the case of females with -ιον/-ίον names it seems that ἡ is used more demonstratively, ie. “the (= that woman) Lycenium”.

It seems to come down to the question of whether this is an unacknowledged class of nouns or a pragmatic exception to the grammatical rules.

7

You should use better grammars than Smyth. For example Kühner—Gerth does mention it (§ 96 III):

8

I should be a better user of Smyth!

9

And Smyth has taken that straight out of Kühner, as you probably knew/guessed.

This grammar point is (of course) mentioned also in Schwyzer—Debrunner, p. 37.

10

Taking from others is commonplace.

Is the authority ἡ Γλυκέριον ultimately derived from Lucian’s Dialogues of the Courtesans 1, or are there other examples?

In that first dualogue, the name of the character is Γλυκέρα, while she is addressed by the other hooker by the (presumably) familiar Γλυκέριον. So far as I can see, Γλυκέριον is not grammaticalised as feminine, by either article, participle or adjective in that dialogue. [In my opinion, Γλυκέρα / Γλυκέριον “sugar-thing” sounds like a working name.]

11

I think you may have misunderstood my point. It has been noted previously on these forums (by other commentators) that Smyth is all but an abridged version of Kühner. It could even be considered a plagiarisation of Kühner. I haven done only very little comparing myself, as I never use Smyth, but it’s always “fun” to note these points when they pop up, as I did in my previous comment.

Schwyzer and Debrunner mention also ἡ Ἀβρότονον and ἡ Βοΐδιον, and note similar features in Latin comedy, citing as an example mea Phronesium.

12

Completely missed it more likely. I had been of the opinion that because many of the example sentences were the same, that Smyth’s work was indebted to his predecessor Goodwin’s.