"nósos" and "hósíe": etymological and sociocultural observations on the concept of disease and divine (dis)favour in ancient Greece

• Autores: Andreas Willi
• Localización: Journal of hellenic studies, ISSN 0075-4269, Nº 128, 2008, págs. 153-171
• Idioma: inglés
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• Dialnet Métricas: 1 Cita
• Resumen

  • After a brief discussion of earlier etymological theories, this article proposes a new analysis of the Greek noun ??s?? �disease� as a possessive compound *n-osw-os �not having *(h1)osu�, the second constituent of which is cognate with Hitt. assu �well-being�; just like the latter, Greek ??s?? are characteristically sent or removed by divinities. Moreover, the reconstruction of an abstract noun *(h1)osu �well-being (resulting from divine favour)� can serve as the etymological basis for the somewhat obscure Greek notion of ?s??, which refers to the state of something that is endowed with such *(h1)osu; in fact, phraseological parallelisms between texts from various parts of the Greek world as well as ancient Anatolia point to a common conceptual framework behind all these words.