1 Picture 2: Attic vase, ca. 520–510 BCE (detail). Homeric κνίση ICAGL Madrid 2

1 Picture 2: Attic vase, ca. 520–510 BCE (detail). Homeric κνίση ICAGL Madrid 2022 Stefan Höfler (Vienna) hoefler.ling@gmail.com §1 The meaning of κνίση • epic and poetic word, appears 17 × in Il., Od., h.Ap. • unepic variant κνῖσα used by Aeschylus, Aristophanes, Aristotle, & late and Hellenistic authors • on the relationship between κνίση and κνῖσα see Solmsen 1909: 238–9 (viz., κνίση >> κνῖσα) • surprising thing about κνίση is its twofold meaning • in ca. half of the Homeric & most of post-Homeric attestations, the word refers to o ‘the smell or savor of a burnt sacrifice’ o ‘the steam and odor of fat that exhales from roasting meat’ o ‘the odor of savory meat in general’ (1) ἕρδον δ᾿ Ἀπόλλωνι τεληέσσας ἑκατόμβας ταύρων ἠδ᾿ αἰγῶν παρὰ θῖν᾿ ἁλὸς ἀτρυγέτοιο· κνίση δ᾿ οὐρανὸν ἷκεν ἑλισσομένη περὶ καπνῷ. (Il. 1.315–7) ‘And they offered to Apollo perfect hecatombs of bulls and goats by the shore of the unresting sea; and the savor of it went up to heaven, eddying amid the smoke.’ • derivatives and verbs based on this meaning: o πολύ-κνισος ‘steaming (with savor)’ (A. R.), κνισήεις (κ 10, Pi.), κνισωτός (A. Ch. 485), κνισηρός (Achae. 7), κνισαλέος (H.) ‘full of the steam of burnt sacrifice’, κνισώδης ‘steaming like roast meat’ (Arist.) o κνισάω ‘fill with the savour of burnt sacrifice’ (E., Ar. etc.), κνισόομαι, -όω ‘turn into fatty smoke’ (Arist., Ph. etc.) • in roughly the other half of Homeric attestations and the odd post-Homeric instance, κνίση has a quite different meaning o ‘caul fat (also known as lace fat or fat netting)’ o = the thin membrane that surrounds the internal organs of cows, sheep, and pigs o (by extension) ‘animal fat in general’ • this caul fat was used to wrap the sacrificial bones before they were burnt o cf. the etiological narrative in Hes. Th. 535–57 on the origin of this practice (2) μηρούς τ᾿ ἐξέταμον κατά τε κνίσῃ ἐκάλυψαν δίπτυχα ποιήσαντες, ἐπ᾿ αὐτῶν δ᾿ ὠμοθέτησαν. (Od. 12.360–1) ‘They cut out the thigh bones and covered them with a double layer of fat and laid the raw bits upon them.’ • derivatives and verbs based on the meaning ‘animal fat’: o κνισώδης ‘fatty’ (Arist.) • The key to the understanding of this double meaning is that this caul fat was largely responsible for the steam and odor of the burnt offering as the fat would melt in the blistering heat and trickle down into the fire in sizzling drops. • Thus, κνίση is the word for both the savor of the smoldering sacrifice and for that, which causes it. • This semantic dichotomy is not only quite astonishing; it also calls for an explanation. • No literature on this. Picture 1: Attic vase, ca. 420 BCE (detail). 2 §2 Possible Explanations §2.1 Metonymy • Metonymy is “a figure of speech in which a thing or concept is referred to by the name of something closely associated with that thing or concept”1 o the Crown to refer to a monarch o the White House to refer to the Administration of the United States • in cognitive linguistics, several types of metonymies are distinguished • replacing CAUSE by EFFECT, or — to a lesser extent —EFFECT by CAUSE is not uncommon. o Cf. Littlemore 2017: 411. o CAUSE (‘caul fat’) and EFFECT (‘steam, smell, savor of the burnt sacrifice’) EFFECT FOR CAUSE: • Cf. Quint. 8.6.27: Illud quoque et poetis et oratoribus frequens, quo id quod efficit ex eo quod efficitur ostendimus. ‘Another type [of metonymy] common both in poets and in orators is that by which we indicate cause by effect.’ o She is my joy. ‘She makes me feel happy.’ (Radden & Kövecses 1999: 93) o Lat. vulnera derigere (Verg. Aen. 10.140) ‘to aim wounds (i.e., missiles that inflict wounds)’ o SVSPIRIVM / PVUELLARVM / CELADVS TR(AX) (CIL 4.4397, Pompeii) ‘The sigh of girls: Celadus, the Thracian.’ • mostly contextual and situational, sometimes conventional o dictionaries don’t cite ‘person that brings joy’ as a meaning of joy, or ‘missile that inflicts wounds’ as a meaning of vulnus, etc. • sometimes metonymical usage becomes successful enough to lead to a separate dictionary entry o Gk. μῖσος n. ‘hate, hatred’ → ‘hateful object (i.e., person that causes hate)’ (cf. LSJ s.v. μῖσος mean. II) § ὦ μῖσος, ὦ μέγιστον ἐχθίστη γύναι / θεοῖς τε κἀμοὶ παντί τ᾿ ἀνθρώπων γένει (E. Med. 1323) ‘O detestable creature, utterly hateful to the gods, to me, and to the whole human race’ CAUSE FOR EFFECT: • less common o General Motors had to stop production. (Hilpert 2010) cause (obligation to act) → effect (action) o Ved. sóma- ‘soma plant, soma juice’ → “thoughts that appear under the influence of the juice” (Jurewicz 2019: 65) • also mostly contextual/situational o Gk. τράγος m. ‘he-goat’ and ‘smell of a goat’ (?) (thus Frisk s.v.) § Οὐ μόνον αὐτὴ πνεῖ Δημοστρατίς, ἀλλὰ δὴ αὐτῆς τοὺς ὀσμησαμένους πνεῖν πεποίηκε τράγου. (AP 11.240 Lucillius) ‘Demostratis not only breathes herself the stink of a he-goat, but makes those who smell her breathe the same.’ § cf. also Lat. caper m. ‘he-goat’ and ‘goatish smell’ (Cat., Ov.) o But πνεῖν + gen. = ‘smell of X’ (οὐ μύρου πνέον ‘did not smell of myrrh’ S. Fr. 565) • The predominance of EFFECT FOR CAUSE over CAUSE FOR EFFECT could mean that o κνίση originally ‘steam, savor’ (EFFECT) and was then used metonymically for ‘caul fat’ (CAUSE) • This scenario is also etymologically (see below) more plausible than the reverse direction • the only caveat being that both EFFECT FOR CAUSE (and/or CAUSE FOR EFFECT) very rarely lead to two well- established separate meanings of a word 1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metonymy (May 5, 2022). 3 • Without context: o joy ≠ ‘person that brings joy’ o suspīrium ≠ ‘person that causes sighs’ o τράγος ≠ ‘smell of a goat’ • In this light, a successful metonymy à la κνίση ‘steam, savor’ (EFFECT) → ‘caul fat’ (CAUSE) would be even more outstanding • Alternative explanation? §2.2 Two different lexemes • when a word has two very different meanings, we might very well be dealing with two homophonous words o e.g., Att.-Ion. μῆλον₁ ‘sheep, goat’ (< *mē̃lon; cf. OIr. míl) and μῆλον₂ ‘apple’ (< *mā̃lon; cf. Dor., Aeol. μᾶλον) • but assuming two etymologically unrelated κνίση’s is not very plausible given the real-life connection between κνίση ‘caul fat’ and κνίση ‘savor’ • a less dogmatic view could see κνίση ‘caul fat’ and κνίση ‘savor’ as etymologically related, but as eventually continuing two different (but formally identical) formations • or one formation that had two different meanings right from the beginning (and whose derivational background would have to be elucidated; to be specified below) o compare a similar case: μύξα f. ‘discharge from the nose’ and ‘nostril’ §3 Etymology of κνίση • analysis as *knīd-s-ā (cf. Solmsen 1909: 238; Frisk I: 885) is very attractive because of the quasi-synonym Lat. nīdor, -ōris m. ‘vapor, steam, smell, from anything boiled, roasted, burned’ (Lucr.+) < *knīdōs, -ōses (masc. s-stem) • traditionally ascribed to root *knei̯d- ‘scratch, poke’ (LIV²: 366) of Gk. κνίζω ‘scratch, tickle, tease’ (*knid- i̯e/o-) and ON hníta ‘poke’ (*knei̯d-e/o-). • for the conceptual metaphor SCRATCH, STING > SMELL compare Goth. stigqan ‘to clash’ : E. stink, G. stinken ‘smell (bad)’, *h₃ed- ‘bite’ > ‘smell’ (acc. to van Beek 2011: 51–2), or a penetrating/biting/sharp smell, stench. o this leaves the ī in κνίση unexplained (NB: Lat. nīdor could be *knéi̯dōs) o another ī in κνῑ́δη f. ‘stinging nettle’ (which fits nicely to a root ‘scratch, itch’) • Proposal: the root is *knihₓd- ‘scratch, sting, poke’ instead o κνῑ́δη < *kníhₓdeh₂-, κνίση < *kníhₓdseh₂-, Lat. nīdor < *kníhₓdōs o ON hníta < *knihₓd-e/o- o Gk. κνίζω <*knid-i̯e/o- < *knihₓd-i̯é/ó- (loss of the laryngeal by the Weather rule; cf. Neri 2017) • Morphology of κνίση < *kníhₓdseh₂-: o basis is a neut. s-stem *kníhₓd-os (or a masc. s-stem *kníhₓd-ōs = Lat. nīdor) ‘scratching’ > ‘strong smell, steam’ o possessive adjective (*-ó-): *kníhₓd-os ‘smell, steam’ → *knihₓd-s-ó- ‘having smell, steam’ • parallel to: o *k̑éu̯h₁-os ‘strength’ (Ved. śávas- n.) → *k̑uh₁-s-ó- ‘having strength’ (Ved. śūṣá- ‘strong’) o *k̑eh₂d-os ‘strong negative emotion’ (Gk. κῆδος n. ‘care, anxiety, grief’, W. cawdd ‘anger’) → *k̑h₂d- s-ó- ‘having a strong negative emotion’ (W. cas ‘hateful, hated, nasty’) o *u̯léi̯kʷ-os ‘moisture, liquid’ (cf. Lat. liquor m. ‘a liquid’) → *u̯likʷ-s-ó- ‘having moisture’ (Welsh gwlych ‘wet’) o *méu̯k-os ‘slime’ (cf. Lat. mūcor m. ‘mold’) → *muk-s-ó- ‘having slime’ (cf. Gk. μύξος ‘gray mullet’) • This *knihₓd-s-ó- ‘having smell, steam’ might be attested in Gk. κνῑσός: 4 (3) ὁ δὲ ἐσχαρίτης καὶ ἀπὸ τηγάνου διὰ τὴν τοῦ ἐλαίου ἐπίμιξιν εὐεκκριτώτερος, διὰ δὲ τὸ κνισὸν κακοστομαχώτερος. ‘Brazier bread and bread made in a frying-pan are easier to excrete, because oil has been mixed into them, but are harder on the stomach because of their [κνῑσόν / being κνῑσός].’2 (Ath. 3.115e) • Traditionally seen as a retrograde formation based on κνίση (cf. Frisk s.v.) and translated uploads/Religion/ ho-fler-homeric-kni-si.pdf

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