ἕ

Forms

ἕ (hé), enclitic ἑ: accusative singular of the third-person pronoun; genitive οὗ, dative οἷ (enclitic οἱ); for the plural see σφεῖς (spheîs).^[1][2][3] Epic also has the accusative ἑέ, the genitives ἕο, εἷο, εὗ and ἕθεν, and the dative ἑοῖ.^[1][2][3] Dialect forms include Lesbian ϝε, ϝέθεν and ϝοῖ, Pamphylian ϝhε, Locrian ϝέος, Cretan (Gortyn) ϝιν and Boeotian ἑίν in Corinna.^[1][4]

Etymology

It continues the Indo-European reflexive pronoun.^[1][4] The older view, given by Frisk, derived the epic forms that show no trace of a digamma (ἑ (he), εὑ (heu), ἕθεν (héthen), οἱ (hoi)) from a reflexive stem Proto-Indo-European *se-, the stem of Latin sē, and the dative from *soi.^[4][1] Beekes, following Petit, holds instead that Indo-European had only inherited from Proto-Indo-European *swé (“self”), which survives in Pamphylian ϝhε (whe) and the dative ϝοῖ (woî); the two-syllable epic ἑέ (heé) would come from a full-grade *sewe.^[1]

Made into an adjective, the same pronoun gave the possessive ἑός (heós), later ὅς (hós) “his own”, which matches Latin suus and Lithuanian sãvas.^[1][5] Beekes also connects ἑαυτοῦ (heautoû), ἑκάς (hekás), ἕκαστος (hékastos) and σύ (sú).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Homer uses it both as a plain pronoun of the third person, “him, her, it”, and as a reflexive, “himself, herself”; the enclitic forms are the anaphoric ones.^[1][2][3] Homer sometimes uses it for a plural, “them”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Outside epic and lyric the pronoun shrank.^[3][2] Attic prose rarely uses the genitive οὗ, and LSJ notes that the accusative ἕ never occurs in tragedy, comedy, Herodotus, Thucydides or Xenophon, though Plato has it.^[3] The enclitic dative οἱ lived on in Attic prose as an indirect reflexive: in a subordinate clause, above all in reported speech, it points back to the subject of the main verb.^[2][3] Thucydides reports an announcement “that Archidamus was a guest-friend of his” (ὅτι Ἀρχίδαμος μέν οἱ ξένος εἴη).^[2][3]

Elsewhere its work passed to ἑαυτοῦ (heautoû), which began as ἕο αὐτοῦ “of him himself”, and to forms of αὐτός (autós).^[5][2] Learned Hellenistic poetry revived the old forms freely: Apollonius Rhodius uses them for the first person, “myself”, and for the plural, “themselves”, and doubles them as οὗ ἕθεν “of him himself”.^[2][3]

Timeline

• Homer – The Iliad and the Odyssey use ἕ and its forms as “him, her” and as a reflexive “himself”.^[2][3]
• Before the 6th century BC – Hesiod uses the pronoun in both ways.^[2]
• 6th–5th century BC – Pindar uses the stressed accusative ἕ.^[3]
• 5th century BC – Thucydides uses the enclitic dative οἱ as an indirect reflexive in reported speech.^[2][3]
• 5th–4th century BC – Plato still uses the accusative ἕ, which tragedy, comedy and the historians avoid.^[3]
• 3rd century BC – Apollonius Rhodius uses its forms for “myself” and for “themselves”.^[2][3]

Meanings

Pronoun

1. (anaphoric, mostly enclitic) him, her, it; in Homer sometimes them.^[2][3]
2. (reflexive, stressed forms) himself, herself, itself, sometimes with forms of αὐτός (autós); in Apollonius Rhodius also myself or themselves.^[2][1]
3. (indirect reflexive, Attic prose) In a subordinate clause, referring to the subject of the main verb: of him, to him.^[2][3]

Word family

• ἑός (heós)
• ὅς (hós)
• ἑαυτοῦ (heautoû)

Related words

• σφεῖς (spheîs)
• ἑκάς (hekás)
• ἕκαστος (hékastos)
• σύ (sú)
• Latin sē
• Latin suus

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
3. ^ 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
4. ^ a b c Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
5. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org