ᾍδης

Forms

ᾍδης (Hāídēs) m (genitive ᾍδου); first declension^[1] Epic Ἀΐδης (Aḯdēs), genitive Ἀΐδαο or Ἀΐδεω, beside a shorter stem in the genitive Ἄϊδος and dative Ἄϊδι.^[2][3] Doric Ἀΐδας, in tragic lyric.^[2][3] Thessalian ἈϜίδας, in a 5th-century BC inscription.^[4]

Etymology

In Beekes's view it is inherited from Proto-Indo-European *n̥wids (“unseen”), “the Unseen”, made of the negative prefix ἀ- (a-) and the root of εἶδον (eîdon, “I saw”).^[2][1] The old root noun survives in the Homeric genitive Ἄϊδος (Áïdos); it was remodelled into an ā-stem, as Beekes argues for φυγή (phugḗ) beside φύγαδε (phúgade).^[2][1] The initial vowel was short and was lengthened only for the metre, and the rough breathing of the Attic form is secondary, from contraction with the article ὁ (ho).^[2][1][5]

Thieme instead derived it from Proto-Indo-European *sm̥-wid-, the gathering of the dead ancestors, comparing a Sanskrit compound of the same root, but Beekes rejects this because in Homer the word names the god rather than the place.^[2][5] Wackernagel took the short vowel as secondary and connected Latin saevus (“fierce”), which Frisk finds less likely.^[5] The New Pauly calls the etymology unclear.^[6] The adjective ἀϊδής (aïdḗs, “invisible”) looks similar but is probably built on εἶδος (eîdos).^[1]

The sense “unseen” was already proposed in antiquity, in Plato's Gorgias and Cratylus.^[5][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

In Homer it is only the name of the god: in the Iliad Hades is the third of the brothers who divided the world, and his house is the world below.^[3][4][8] The helmet of Hades, which made its wearer invisible, appears in the Iliad.^[4] The Iliad also has the first use for the place of the dead.^[3]

Semantic evolution

Attic said “in Hades'” and “to Hades'”, with the word for house understood.^[3][4] Outside Attica the god's name had no rough breathing, and Homer also uses it for the underworld, whose gates the hound Cerberus guards.^[6] After Homer it also meant death and the grave: Pindar speaks of receiving Hades, and Aeschylus of a death at sea.^[3][4] Heraclitus identified Hades with Dionysus.^[4] The genitive with a noun meant “hellish” or “deadly”, as in Aeschylus' “mother of Hades” for Clytemnestra and Euripides' “cook of Hades” for the Cyclops.^[3][4]

The Septuagint uses it to render the Hebrew Sheol, and the New Testament for the place of the dead and of punishment, as in the “keys of death and of Hades”.^[4][7] Astrologers called the region below the horoscope the gate of Hades.^[3][4] It was borrowed as Latin Hādēs and Old Church Slavonic адъ (adŭ).^[1] Modern Greek Άδης (Ádis) is the underworld of myth and of Christian teaching, and its king.^[9]

Timeline

• Homer – The Iliad uses it as the name of the god of the dead and, once, for the underworld itself.^[3][4]
• 6th–5th century BC – Pindar uses it for death.^[3][4]
• 6th–5th century BC – Heraclitus identifies Hades with Dionysus.^[4]
• 6th–5th century BC – Aeschylus uses the genitive with nouns for “hellish”, “deadly”.^[3][4]
• 5th century BC – A Thessalian inscription writes the name with digamma.^[4]
• 1st century AD – The Revelation of John speaks of the keys of death and of Hades.^[4][7]
• 2nd century AD – Vettius Valens uses “gate of Hades” for a region of the horoscope.^[3][4]
• Modern Greek – Άδης (Ádis) names the underworld and its king.^[9]

Meanings

Proper noun

1. The god Hades, lord of the underworld.^[3][4][1]
2. The underworld, the abode of the dead, as in “in (the house of) Hades”, “to Hades”.^[3][4]
3. Death; the grave.^[3][4]
4. (Septuagint, New Testament) Sheol, the realm of the dead; hell.^[4][7][1]
5. (astrology) The region below the horoscope, “the gate of Hades”.^[3][4]
6. In the genitive with a noun: hellish, deadly.^[3][4]

Word family

• Ἀϊδωνεύς (Aïdōneús)

Related words

• Πλούτων (Ploútōn)
• ἀϊδής (aïdḗs)
• Latin Hādēs
• English Hades

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h 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. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
5. ^ a b c d Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
6. ^ a b Cancik, Hubert; Schneider, Helmuth, eds. (2002–2010), Brill's New Pauly: Encyclopaedia of the Ancient World, Leiden: Brill
7. ^ a b c d Thayer, Joseph Henry (1889), A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament, New York: American Book Company
8. ^ Cunliffe, Richard John (1924), A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect, London: Blackie and Son
9. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki