Talk:Megalai Ehoiai

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Creating over redirect[edit]

This title has been a redirect to the Catalogue of Women for some time. The ME now has enough coverage of its own, in addition to discussions of whether or not it was truly independent of the Catalogue, to warrant an article. As I expand the Catalogue article, I will do so here, too. The Cardiff Chestnut (talk) 23:34, 2 November 2011 (UTC)[reply]

/h/[edit]

Is the Latin spelling a folk etymology? The name is/was thought to come from ἢ οἵη, so maybe that's why there's an h in the Latin, but it doesn't mean there was an /h/ in the Greek. — kwami (talk) 01:53, 29 November 2013 (UTC)[reply]

We already worked this out elsewhere, but since the question's been posed here, I answer it here, too. The title indeed derives from the construction Kwami mentions, and the prevailing view of scholarship is that the /h/ was pronounced in the title during the period in which the poem was actually read. After that, who knows? Once the poem went out of circulation, the ἠ' οἵη formula occasionally suffered corruption in surviving quotations (e.g. Cat. fr. 181), so it's pretty likely the source of the title became obscure and the aspiration disappeared. As late as the 17th century François Guyet thought the ἠ' οἵη at the beginning of the Shield of Heracles (=Cat. fr. 195 Scut. 1) ought to be printed ἠοίη, an adjective meaning "in the morning". davidiad { t } 22:59, 30 November 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Your comment on my talk page: "The /h/ isn't represented in the Greek because modern editorial practice does not represent word internal aspirations like the one in this portmanteau. The title derived from the common use of ἠ' οἵη, ē' hoiē, "or such as she", to introduce sections of the poem." — kwami (talk) 01:09, 1 December 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you, Kwami. davidiad { t } 02:15, 1 December 2013 (UTC)[reply]