ἅρπη

Pronunciation

• IPA (5th-century BC Attic): /hár.pɛː/^[1]
• IPA (4th-century AD Koine): /ˈar.pi/^[1]
• IPA (10th-century Byzantine): /ˈar.pi/^[1]

Forms

ᾰ̔́ρπη (hárpē) f (genitive ᾰ̔́ρπης); first declension^[1]

Etymology

The origin is disputed.^[2][3] The word matches Old Church Slavonic срьпъ (srĭpŭ) and Latvian sirpe, both meaning “sickle”, almost exactly, and Frisk took them to be inherited cognates; he also compared Latin sarpō (“to prune vines”).^[4][2] Pokorny groups them under Proto-Indo-European *ser- (“sickle”), extended with -p-.^[5] Beekes, following Ernout and Meillet, finds the vowel hard to explain from an Indo-European form and is inclined to see a non-Indo-European word of the European substrate.^[2] Wiktionary notes that *sr̥p- would be expected to give Greek ⟨ῥαπ-⟩, not ⟨ἁρπ-⟩.^[1]

A Semitic origin, from a word like Biblical Hebrew חֶרֶב (ḥereḇ, “knife, sword”), was proposed in the 19th century and rejected by Frisk and others.^[6][4] Many have connected the word with ἁρπάζω (harpázō, “to snatch”) and ἅρπαξ (hárpax, “rapacious”).^[4][2] Frisk thought ἅρπη or a similar base word could be their source, while Beekes thinks deriving them from ἅρπη improbable.^[4][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

In its one Homeric use it names a bird of prey: in the Iliad Athena darts down from heaven “like a long-winged, shrill-voiced harpē”.^[7][8] Cunliffe and Autenrieth leave the bird unidentified, while LSJ suggests a shearwater.^[7][9][8]

Semantic evolution

Hesiod is the first to use it for a sickle, the tool with which Cronus castrates Uranus in the Theogony.^[10][11] From this the word passed to the curved sword of Perseus, which Pherecydes and Euripides call by this name.^[8][10] Later writers used it for an elephant goad (Aelian), a hippopotamus' tooth (Nicander), a fishing harpoon (Oppian) and a bill-hook (Josephus).^[8][10]

Aristotle still uses it for a seabird, and Hesychius records a Cretan form ἅρπης as the name of a kite.^[10][2] The Hesychian gloss “wind” is unexplained.^[12][10] In the sense of “sickle” the word was replaced by δρέπανον (drépanon), with which Hesychius and the Suda gloss it.^[12][13] Latin borrowed it as harpē, the source of Italian and Catalan arpa.^[1]

Timeline

• Homer – The Iliad uses it for a bird of prey.^[7][8]
• Before the 6th century BC – Hesiod uses it for the sickle, both the farmer's and the one Cronus uses on Uranus.^[10][8]
• 5th century BC – Euripides uses it for the curved sword of Perseus.^[8][10]
• 4th century BC – Aristotle names a seabird harpē.^[8][10]
• 2nd–3rd century AD – Aelian uses it for an elephant goad.^[8][10]
• 3rd–4th century AD – The magical papyri give gods such as Cronus and Harpocrates a sickle under this name.^[14]

Meanings

Noun

1. A bird of prey, perhaps a shearwater or the lammergeier.^[8][11]
2. A sickle or scythe.^[8][11]
3. The curved sword of Perseus; a scimitar.^[8][10]
4. An elephant goad.^[8][10]
5. A fishing harpoon.^[10]
6. A bill-hook.^[8]
7. (figurative) A hippopotamus' tooth.^[8][10]

Related words

• ἁρπάζω (harpázō)
• ἅρπυια (hárpuia)
• Latin harpē

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f 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. ^ Bailly, Anatole (2020), Dictionnaire grec-français, Bailly 2020 Hugo Chávez ed., ed. Gérard Gréco et al.
4. ^ a b c d Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
5. ^ Pokorny, Julius (1959), Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Bern; Munich: Francke
6. ^ Rosół, Rafał (2013), Frühe semitische Lehnwörter im Griechischen, Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang
7. ^ a b c Cunliffe, Richard John (1924), A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect, London: Blackie and Son
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ Autenrieth, Georg (1891), A Homeric Dictionary for Schools and Colleges, tr. Robert P. Keep, New York: Harper and Brothers
10. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
11. ^ a b c Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
12. ^ a b Hesychius of Alexandria, Lexicon, ed. Kurt Latte (Α–Ο, Copenhagen 1953–1966) and Moritz Schmidt (Π–Ω, Jena 1858–1868)
13. ^ Adler, Ada, ed. (1928–1938), Suidae Lexicon, 5 vols, Leipzig: Teubner
14. ^ Muñoz Delgado, Luis (2001), Léxico de magia y religión en los papiros mágicos griegos, Madrid: CSIC