ἔλεος

Forms

ἔλεος (éleos) m (genitive ἐλέου); second declension^[1]

Etymology

It has no etymology.^[2][3] It may come from a cry of lament, like ἐλελεῦ (eleleû, “alas”) and ὀλολύζω (ololū́zō, “to cry aloud”).^[2][3] The DGE sets up an older *ἔλεϝος (*élewos), and Beekes tentatively a root Proto-Indo-European *h₁lew-, both with question marks.^[4][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

In the Iliad (24.44) Apollo says that Achilles has lost all pity.^[5][6] Schadewaldt argued that the Homeric sense was rather “pain, lament”, but Pohlenz criticised this.^[2]

Semantic evolution

In tragedy, history and the Attic orators it is the compassion felt for someone's suffering, the pity a defendant sought from the court; in the plural it meant shows of pity, and Dinarchus uses it scornfully of an orator's pleas.^[7][5] Euripides uses it for a pitiful thing.^[5] Eleos was worshipped as a god at Athens and Epidaurus, and the comic poet Timocles calls him a fair god to the dead.^[5][8]

From Polybius and the Septuagint on it is often neuter, τὸ ἔλεος.^[5][7][8] In the Septuagint and the New Testament it is above all the mercy of God, and it joins grace and peace in the greetings of letters.^[9][8] The modern Modern Greek έλεος (éleos) is neuter, after Modern Greek πάθος (páthos).^[10][11]

Timeline

• Homer – The Iliad uses it for pity.^[5][6]
• 5th century BC – Thucydides and Euripides use it for compassion.^[7][6][4]
• 4th century BC – Timocles calls Eleos a fair god.^[8][4]
• 2nd century BC – Polybius uses the neuter τὸ ἔλεος.^[5][4]
• 1st century AD – The New Testament uses it for human and divine mercy.^[8]
• Modern Greek – Modern Greek έλεος (éleos) is neuter.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. Pity, compassion, mercy (with the genitive, for someone).^[7][5]
2. (plural) Feelings or shows of pity; pitiful pleas.^[7]
3. A pitiful happening, an object of pity.^[7][5]
4. (personified) Eleos, Pity, worshipped as a god.^[5]
5. (Septuagint, New Testament) The mercy of God; mercy shown to others.^[8][9]

Word family

• ἐλεεινός (eleeinós)
• ἐλεέω (eleéō)
• νηλεής (nēleḗs)
• ἐλεήμων (eleḗmōn)
• ἐλεημοσύνη (eleēmosúnē)

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d 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 Chantraine, Pierre (2009), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue grecque: histoire des mots, new ed. with a supplement (Chroniques d'étymologie grecque 1–10), Paris: Klincksieck
4. ^ a b c d Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
7. ^ a b c d e f Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
8. ^ a b c d e f Bauer, Walter; Danker, Frederick W., et al. (2000), A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, 3rd ed., Chicago: University of Chicago Press
9. ^ a b Lust, Johan; Eynikel, Erik; Hauspie, Katrin (2003), Greek-English Lexicon of the Septuagint, rev. ed., Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft
10. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
11. ^ Kriaras, Emmanuel, Επιτομή του Λεξικού της μεσαιωνικής ελληνικής δημώδους γραμματείας 1100–1669, Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, https://www.greek-language.gr