Etymologically
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θύος

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Pronunciation

  • 5th-century BC Attic: /tʰý.os/[1]
  • 4th-century AD Koine: /ˈθy.os/[1]
  • 10th-century Byzantine: /ˈθy.os/[1]

Forms

θῠ́ος (thúos) n (genitive θῠ́εος); third declension[1] The Linear B tablets have the plural Mycenaean Greek tu-we-a, “aromatic substances”.[2][3]

Etymology

It is a primary derivative from Ancient Greek θύω (thúō, “to offer by burning”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰewh₂- (“to smoke”).[2][4][1][5] Latin tūs (“incense”) was borrowed from it.[2][4][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Mycenaean plural names aromatic products.[2][3] In Homer the plural means burnt offerings of incense and the like: Hecuba is to go to Athena's temple with offerings, and men turn the gods with offerings and libations.[7][5][8]

Semantic evolution

Homer and Hesiod use it mostly in the plural, of fragrant offerings burnt for the gods.[7][5] Pape glosses it as incense used in sacrifice.[9] In tragedy the offerings are animals, and Aeschylus calls a murder a sacrifice with it.[7][5] Later the plural meant incense, and the comic poet Eupolis uses it of a sacrificial cake.[5][3] Papyros sums up the history as a change from aromatic products to offerings to the gods in general.[3]

Timeline

  • Mycenaean period – The tablets record the plural Mycenaean Greek tu-we-a for aromatic products.[2][3]
  • Homer – The Iliad uses the plural for burnt offerings.[10][5]
  • Before the 6th century BC – Hesiod's Works and Days joins it with libations.[5][11]
  • 6th–5th century BC – Aeschylus uses the singular of a sacrifice.[5][11]
  • 5th century BC – Eupolis uses it of a sacrificial cake.[5][11]
  • 4th–3rd century BC – Callimachus uses it of a sacrificial animal.[7][11]

Meanings

Noun

  1. (mostly plural) A burnt offering of incense, cakes and the like.[5][7]
  2. A sacrifice; a sacrificial animal; figuratively, of a murder.[7][5]
  3. (plural) incense.[5]
  4. A sacrificial cake.[5][3]

Word family

  • θυοδόκος (thuodókos)
  • θυόεις (thuóeis)
  • θυοσκέω (thuoskéō)
  • θυοσκόος (thuoskóos)
  • θυόω (thuóō)

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010), Etymological Dictionary of Greek, with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 10, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  3. ^ a b c d e f Πάπυρος–Larousse–Britannica, Μέγα Λεξικό της Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, Athens: Πάπυρος
  4. ^ a b Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
  7. ^ a b c d e f Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  8. ^ Cunliffe, Richard John (1924), A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect, London: Blackie and Son
  9. ^ Pape, Wilhelm (1914), Griechisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 3rd ed., rev. Max Sengebusch, Braunschweig: Vieweg
  10. ^ Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
  11. ^ a b c d Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge