8. In general the Dorians had less inclination to aspirated consonants than the other tribes of Greece, and therefore in many respects their dialect remained nearer to the primitive language. Thus the Lacedæmonians and Cretans said ἀμπὶ for ἀμφὶ (Koen ad Greg. p. 344), the latter in the derivative ἀμπέτιξ, the former in ἀμπέσαι, (above, p. [332], note f. [Transcriber's Note: This is the footnote to “orthography,” starting “For instance, ΜΟΥΣΩ.”]) in ἀμπίτταρ (p. [35], note a. [Transcriber's Note: This is the footnote to “ἀμπίτταρες,” starting “I. q. ἀμφιστάντες.”]) ἀμπίθυρον in Hesychius; ἀμφαρμένη, δίκελλα, Hesych. utrinque aptata, makes an exception. So also the Thessalians called the river Ἀμφίρρυσος, Ἀμβίρρυσος (Schol. Apoll. Rh. I. 51); and the same, according to the general rule (vol. I. p. 3, note g.), must be Macedonian and Latin. Some instances of Κ for Χ in the Cretan, Laconian, and Sicilian dialect, see in Koen p. 340, sqq.; Pindar's δέκεσθαι is probably also Doric, as well as in the Heraclean Tables. According to Hesychius in εὔπλουτον, the Dorians called the baskets in which the οὐλοχύται were carried ὀλβακήια, where ὀλβὰ is οὐλὴ, and the termination -κήια is probably formed from χέω, unless (as is probable) [pg 431] we should correct -χήια here and in the word ὀλβάχιον, where Deinolochus (the Sicilian) is quoted as authority. (Compare Suidas in δερβιστήρ.) The aspirate by itself is absent from the words ἀγέομαι,[1974] ἀγησίχορος and the names Ἆγις, Ἀγήσανδρος, Ἀγησίπολις, and Ἀγησίλαος (Ion. Ἡγησίλεως); originally perhaps all these names had the digamma, as Βαγὸς, a general Lacon. in Hesychius. The aspirate was also neglected by the Lacedæmonians in the pronoun ἀμὲς, ἀμῶν;[1975] as well as by the Cretans, as is evident from the words ΠΟΡΤΑΜΕ, i.e. πορτὶ ἀμὲ, in an inscription (Chishull, p. 115. 10.), and by the Dorians. In the word ἰάλλω likewise the lene breathing is Doric, as is shown by ἀπιάλλειν in Thucyd. V. 77: and the Syracusan name Ἐπιάλης (Demetrius περὶ Ἑρμηνείας, § 157. Eustath. ad Il. ε᾽. p. 571. Rom.). On the other hand the digamma was retained nearly as much among the Lacedæmonians and other Dorians, as by most of the Æolians; among the Dorians, however, it generally assumed the form of Β. See Etymol. M. p. 308. 26. Gudian. p. 104. 12. I will only cite a few examples. The Laconian word for “splendour” was βέλα, Ϝέλα (Hesychius), i.e. ἕλη, whence by the prefix α, signifying an union or number, the word ἀβελιος (ΑϜΕΛΙΟΣ) was formed, literally “a collection or mass of brightness;” the Cretan and Pamphylian name for the sun (Hesychius; compare Hemsterhuis ad Hesych. in θάβακον).[1976] The Greek or Æolic word for the “ear” was αὖας, in Latin auris, in Doric ὦϜας (like καππώτας for καταπαύτης), whence the Laconian word ἐξωβάδια (i.e. ἐξωϜάτια) ἐνώτια, in Hesychius. In ὠατωθήσω, ἀκούσομαι, Doric according to Photius, the digamma is lost, as well as in the Tarentine contraction ἆτα, Hesychius. From the root [pg 432] ΔΑΙϜΩ, to burn, are derived the Laconian forms δάβει, καύεται (vulg. κάθηται, otherwise Hemsterhuis), ἐκδάβη, ἐκαύθε; δάβελος, δαλὸς in Hesychius; also τῦρ δάϜιον in Alcman, fragm. 76. ed. Welcker. In Crete also we find the forms ἀβηδὼν for ἀηδὼν, βαλικιώτης for ἡλικιώτης, βαίκα for αἴκα or ἐὰν (Hesychius and Koen ad Greg. p. 251.); according to the same grammarian the Cretans called their shields λαῖβαι, i.e. lævæ, the left; thus by a reverse analogy the Greeks said παρ᾽ ἀσπίδα for “to the left.” The Laconian word for “the dawn,” was ΑϜΩΣ (also retained in μιργάβωρ, λυκόφως, Hesych. i.e. μισγ-άϜως), among the other Greeks ΗΩΣ: and as from the latter form the name of the east-wind εὖρος was derived (answering to ζέφυρος, ὃς ἐκ ζόφου πνεῖ), so from the Doric ἄϜως came the word αὖρα, which had in this dialect the peculiar sense of “morning;” hence ἐναύρω πρωῒ, Κρῆτες, and ἀβὼ, Λάκωνες, Hesychius. At Argos the digamma occurs in ὤβεα for ᾠὰ (ova) Hesych.; at Hermione a double digamma in βεῦδος for ἕδος, ἄγαλμα, Etymol. M. p. 195. 52.; at Syracuse in ἔβασον for ἔασον, which was also a Laconian form, ib. p. 308. 26. Hesych.
9. If we except the changes of the vowels, semivowels, and aspirates, there are not many others peculiar to the Doric dialect, since the mediæ and tenues were seldom inverted, and not often letters which are not cognate. It is worthy of remark that the Dorians frequently changed both Β and Γ into Δ, the former in δέλτον, good, compared with βέλτιον, and ὀδελὸς for ὀβελός;[1977] the latter in δᾶ for γᾶ, δένος for γένος, δίφουρα for γέφυρα in Laconian, δεῦκος for γλυκὺς in Ætolian, which likewise was preserved in the Latin dulcis.[1978] I should also remark that πέδα for μετὰ is pure Doric, as is proved by Alcman ap. Athen. X. p. 416 A. the Laconian word πέδευρα, ὕτερον, in Hesychius, πεδάϜοικοι for μέτοικοι in an Argive inscription (Boeckh. No. 14.), and the [pg 433] Corcyræan inscription in Mustoxidi, tom. II. p. 70. (as it appears.)
The Doric dialect is also marked by a strong tendency to the omission of letters both in composition and flexion. In composition the prepositions κατὰ, ἀνὰ, ποτὶ become monosyllables by the suppression of the last vowel: and even with the first syllable short in καβαίνων, Alcman. fragm. 34. κάπετον, Pindar. Olymp. VIII. 48. compare Hesychius in κάβλημα and κάβασι. The Venus ἀμβολογήρα of Sparta (Pausan. III. 18. 1.) has been already explained from ἀναβάλλειν τὸ γῆρας, as also Ζεὺς καππώτας (ib. III. 22. 1.) as Ζεὺς καταπαύτης. Κάκκη, κάθευδε, Laconice in Hesychius, shortened by apocope from κάκκησι, i.e. κατάκειθι, as ἔμβη for ἔμβησι in Aristoph. Lys. 1303. In conjugation the Dorians frequently shortened the ancient longer forms by apocope, and not, like the other cases, by contraction; as in the infinitives δόμεν for δόμεμαι, εἶμεν or ἦμεν for ἤμμενκι, &c. the uncontracted form being seldom used, as ἤμεναι Aristoph. Ach. 775., ἀλεξέμεναι, Thucyd. V. 77., or the contracted, as σκιρωθῆναι in Sophron. ap. Etym. M. p. 717, ext. and in Alcman. fragm. 23, Welcker is probably right in changing χαρῆθαι into χαρῆναι. Also the shortened third persons of the aorists, διέγνον in the Heraclean Tables, ἔδον (Corp. Inscript. No. 1511.), ἀνέθεν (ib. No. 29.), διελέγεν in the decree of the Oaxians, διελέγην in that of the Istronians; as well as the infinitives in εν and the second persons in ες, for ειν and εις, and many other similar changes. The forms εἴμειν, γεγόνειν are not merely Agrigentine; the former also occurs in an inscription (probably of Rhodes) in Chandler, p. 14. No. 38: the Sicilian adverbs τῶ, τουτῶ (τουτῶ θάμεθα Sophron. fragm. 34. Mus. Crit. vol. II. p. 347.) for πόθεν, τουτόθεν, also come under this head. Ammonius adds πῦς for πόσε and ποῖ for πόθε.
10. With regard to the differences of syntax, we may remark that the article was much used by the Dorians; as is evident from several passages in the Spartan choruses in the Lysistrata of Aristophanes.[1979] It may be also observed [pg 434] that the article occurs very frequently in all the early monuments of Doric nations;[1980] and that in the Doric poetry, particularly of Alcman, it was first introduced into the literature of Greece: the earlier language having been quite destitute of it. Hence perhaps it may be inferred that it was the Dorians who introduced the general use of the article; which would afford some idea of the changes which the Greek language experienced in consequence of the revolution caused by the Doric invasion.
Every dialect has peculiar words; but it is remarkable when these are radical forms, expressing very common ideas, and when they are quite foreign to the other dialects of the same language. This at least is true of the Laconian word χάος, χάϊος, ἀχαῖος, “good” (Aristoph. Lys. 90, 1157. Hesychius in ἀχαία, where Heinsius would without reason omit the α, Theocrit. VII. 4.), of κόος, “large” (Etymol. M. p. 396. 29.), which words stand quite isolated in the common language: also λῆν, “to wish” (Koen. p. 252. Maittaire p. 278.), and μάω, “I think,” “I seek,” are pure Doric forms; the latter a Laconian and Sicilian word, see Toup Emend, in Suid. vol. I. p. 462. Meineke Euphorion. p. 162.[1981]
11. As yet we have considered the Doric dialect in general, as spoken by the whole race, only marking out the Laconian as its purest variety; we will now annex a brief list of those shades of difference which can be perceived in the language of the several states. The broad peculiarities of the Doric dialect of Laconia are partly known from the remains of Alcman (who however avoided in his poetry such harsh forms as μῶἁ for μῶσα, λιπῶἁ for λιπῶσα or [pg 435] λιποῖσα, and never uses Σ for Ρ, &c.); and more fully from the Spartans in the Lysistrata. On comparing these with the Spartan and Argive treaty in Thucydides V. 77., there is indeed a general agreement; yet in this document the contractions ἀναιροῦντας, πεντηκονταέτη, δοκῇ, πόλει (but πολίεσι and αὐτοπόλιες), also ἐρίζοι and δικάζεσθαι, together with ως in the accusative of the substantives, but ους of the adjectives, can hardly be considered as pure Doric; nor is there any instance of the change of Σ into the aspirate, and Σ for Θ only in the word σιῶ. With regard to the indiscriminate use of Ω and ΟΥ our copies of Thucydides are not much authority: for these two sounds were not distinguished in the writing of the time, being both expressed by Ο; and it is probable that some forms have been modified either by Thucydides or his copyists, or both. On the whole, however, it is probable that the popular dialect of Peloponnesus, which is preserved in all its harshness in the famous treaty of the Eleans, was about the time of the Peloponnesian war softened down in public documents and treaties. Thus in a Lacedæmonian inscription of later date, we still find the ancient forms στατερας, αιγιναιος, αργυριο, Ϝικατι, δαρικος οκτακατιος, from a restoration, but also χιλιους δαρ[ικους], Corp. Inscript. No. 1511. In the Spartan decree preserved by Plutarch in his Life of Lysander c. 14., we should probably write, ταῦτα ΚΑ δρῶντες τὰν εἰράναν ἔχοιτε, ἃ χρὴ ΔΟΝΤΕΣ καὶ τὼς φυγάδας ἀνέντες. περὶ τᾶν ναῶν τῶ πλήθεος ὁκοῖόν τι ΚΑΤΗΝΕΙ δοκέοι, ταῦτα ποιέετε, as has been partly emended by Haitinger Act. Monac. vol. III. p. 311. In the time of Pyrrhus much of the ancient peculiarity of the dialect was still in existence, although in the following saying all the forms are not those of the ancient Laconian language, αἂ μὲν ἔσσι τύ γε θεὸς, οὐδὲν μὴ πάθωμεν, οὐ γὰρ, ἀδικεῦμεν; αἂ δ᾽ ἄνθρωπος, ἔσεται καὶ τεῦ κάρρων ἄλλος, Plutarch. Pyrrh. 26. The remains of it in the decrees of the Eleutherolacones and Spartans in the time of the emperors are less considerable. That the Messenians retained the ancient idiom, from ancient recollections, or perhaps from affectation, was remarked above, p. [414], note c. [Transcriber's Note: This is the footnote to “Messenians of Sicily,” starting “The coins.”] The Argive [pg 436] dialect has been more than once observed to agree with the Cretan, a correspondence which may be even traced in unimportant particulars; thus the name of the Argive βαλλαχράδαι (above, p. [355]. note n [Transcriber's Note: There is no such footnote on that page.]), was derived from ἀχρὰς, which Hermonax ap. Schol. Nicand. Ther. 512. calls a Cretan, and Hesychius a Laconian word. The grammarians likewise particularly remark that in the Argive dialect Ι was frequently changed into Ν, as in μέντον for μέντοι (Argive and Cretan, Maittaire p. 255), αἰὲν, ἔννατος (Etymol. M. p. 402, 2.) φαεννὸς (see Boeckh Not. crit. ad Pind. Olymp. I. 6.); the Sicilians in many cases made the contrary change—the Rhegini, however, the same as the Argives (Etymol. M. p. 135, 45. Gud. 73, 44.); which peculiarity they had evidently borrowed from the Messenians. Dercyllus wrote in the ancient Argive dialect; see Etymol. M. p. 391, 20. above, p. [385], note c. [Transcriber's Note: This is the footnote to “Ionians and Athenians,” starting “This is only true.”] The Cretan has a singularity which does not appear to have been observed in any other dialect of Greece, viz. of changing λ before a consonant and after ε or α into υ (analogous to the French forms aumóne, haubergeon, &c. from the German Almosen, Halsberge, &c.); thus αὖσος for ἄλσος, αὖμα for ἅλμα, likewise αὐκυόνα, αὔκαν; θεύγεσθαι and εὐθεῖν for θέλγεσθαι and ἐλθεῖν, according to Hesychius, Koen. p. 354. The Ætolian word δεῦκος also shows the same formation, as it comes from the ancient root δέλκυς, dulcis. There is an analogous change in the Cretan forms Πραῖσος from Πρῖανσος, and γεροίταν, πάππον (Hesych.) i.e. for γέροντας from γέρων, and directly the reverse of that observed above in the termination of the participles τιθὲνς, &c. where the Cretans retained the ancient form τιθὲνς, which other Greeks softened into τιθεὶς, &c. The Cretan βέντιον for βέλτιον is paralleled by the Sicilian forms ἦνθον and φίντατος. The words peculiar to the Cretan town Polyrrhenia, such as σέρτης “a crane,” ἅμαλλα “a partridge,” κόμβα “a crow,” (see also Hesychius in κάρα and λάττα) are probably remains of an ancient Cydonian language, having no affinity with the Greek. See Hoeck's Kreta, vol. I. p. 146, note b. In the Cretan inscriptions of the beginning of the second century before Christ, the ancient dialect is still preserved [pg 437] in some words, but not regularly and constantly; peculiarities such as αὖσος no longer appear: and if they were found in a writer named Cypselas, he must have been of a much earlier date (Joann. Gramm. ad calc. H. Steph. Thes. Gr. p. 13.). Some peculiarities of the Doric dialect of Corinth and Sicyon have been noticed above; in general, however, we know little of these dialects; but of the Megarian we are better informed by means of the Acharneans of Aristophanes, and this probably gives a tolerably correct notion of the Doric of Peloponnesus, except Sparta. The Dryopians of Hermione also spoke Doric; at least an Hermionean inscription contains such Dorisms as ἐπιδαμῶντι, ποττὰν πόλιν, τοὺς δὲ λαΐναν δόμεν στάλαν, Boeckh No. 1193. and see others cited vol. I. p. 399, note y. The Rhodians still spoke Doric in the time of Tiberius (Sueton. Tiber. 56.), and indeed, as Aristides de Conc. boasts, in great purity (see Meurs. Rhod. II. 3.). Inscriptions of Cos (in Spon), Calymna (Chandler. Inscript. p. 21. No. 58.), Astypalæa, and Anaphæ (in Villoison's papers) are written in a Doric style, common in such monuments. The same was also adopted by the Æginetans after their re-establishment; see the inscription in Æginetica, p. 136, and the remarks on it in p. 160. Among the inscriptions of Corcyra, collected by Mustoxidi, a series might be arranged according to the greater and less traces of the Doric dialect; the large one in Boeckh's Staatshaushaltung, vol. II. p. 400. contains several peculiarities, as, e.g. the imperative δόντω. In a Theræan inscription, containing the will of a certain Epicteta (Boeckh, No. 2448.), several pure Dorisms occur, as e.g. the accusative plural in ος, the infinitives ἀγαγὲν, θύεν, (Eustathius ad Od. τ᾽. p. 706. 49. quotes λέγες for λέγεις as Theræan); at the same time several peculiar forms, such as ἐστάκεια, συναγαγόχεια; and upon the whole there is little archaic in the language. But the Byzantine dialect was in the time of Philip, as we know from the decree in Demosthenes, rich in Dorisms: not so many occur in the more recent inscription in Chandler Inscript. App. p. 95. No. 10. How much of the language of the surrounding nations had [pg 438] been introduced into the Cyrenæan dialect cannot be determined: according to Hesychius βρίκος was the Cyrenæan word for “ass;” which resembles the Spanish word borrico; both probably were derived from Africans. All that we know of the Tarentine dialect appears to have been taken from the Phlyaces of Rhinthon, who lived in the time of Ptolemy the First; although very different from the ancient Laconian dialect, it has many peculiarities:[1982] but besides the vulgar language of Tarentum there was also spoken a polished (Attic) dialect, which was alone used in public transactions. See Dionys. Hal. Exc. p. 2239. ed. Reiske. With regard to the exchange of words with the neighbouring Italian nations (above, p. [413], note z [Transcriber's Note: This is the footnote to “the Siculians,” starting “E.g. besides.”]), it is sometimes doubtful which party borrowed from the other. Thus Alcman uses πόλτος for puls; are we to suppose that this word was so early brought over from Italy? Κάρκαρον is used for “prison” by Sophron, for “stall” by Rhinthon: it is the same word as the Latin carcer; but possibly both are derived from the Laconian word γέργυρα in Alcman. That the Italian Heracleans should have preserved the ancient language and writing to the fifth century after the building of Rome so faithfully as the famous Heraclean Tables show us, is very remarkable. At Syracuse the dialect was nearly the same as that in which Epicharmus and Sophron wrote: the laws of Diocles too were probably drawn up in this dialect, but the circumstance of their requiring an interpreter in the time of Timoleon is a proof of the rapid preponderance of the Attic language in this city ([B. III. ch. 9. § 7].). The language of Sophron is also nearer to the common dialect, and less strictly Doric than that spoken in Peloponnesus in his time; e.g., he always says τοὺς and not τώς. On the spreading of the Doric dialect in Sicily see Castelli Proleg. p. 25. We have not as yet touched on the Delphic dialect, the strong Doric character of which is proved [pg 439] by an inscription (Boeckh No. 1690.) in which ὀδελοὶ and τέτορες occur, and still more, as I believe, by a monument of Olymp. 100. 1, which has futures such as ὀρκεξέω &c., the infinitives ἀπογράψεν, φέρεν, and θύεν, αἴκα for ἐὰν, πάντεσσι, ἱερομναμόνεσσι, διακάτιοι, ἐπικοσμήσωντι, ἐν for ἐς adverbialiter, καττὰν, ἐνιαύτιος, πέμπωντι, ποττὸν (Boeckh No. 1688.). Besides this, all the prose oracles given at Delphi were doubtless written in Doric; as e.g. that in Demosth. in Mid. p. 531, and in Macart. p. 1072, that in Thuc. V. 16. (—ἀργυρέᾳ εὐλάκᾳ εὐλάξειν, is, according to the scholiast, a Laconian expression), and the oracle quoted in vol. I. p. 199. note p, ποῖ τὺ λαβὼν καὶ ποῖ τὺ καθίξων καὶ ποῖ τὺ οἴκησιν (here the sense requires ἀσφαλέως ἕξεις, ἐρωτᾷς, κελεύω...) ἁλιέα τε κεκλῆσθαι, which, however, was probably written in hexameters, since the epic oracles sometimes show traces of Dorisms (Herod. IV. 155, 157; compare that given to the Lacedæmonians, ἁ φιλοχρηματία &c.). Plutarch (Pyth. Orac. 24. p. 289.) quotes from ancient oracles the expression πυρίκαοι (i.e. πυρκέοι, as the Delphians themselves were called, vol. I. p. 254. note b), ὀρεάνας for ἄνδρας,[1983] ὀρεμπότας for ποτάμους; likewise κραταίπους (Schol. Pind. Olymp. XIII. 114.) is probably from an oracle: from the Dorisms of the vulgar dialect we have Γυγάδας for the treasure of Gyges, Herod. I. 14, a half-adjective form in -ας, which occurs frequently in Doric, and ἅρμα for ἀρμὴ, “love,” Plutarch Amator, 23. The name of the month Βύσιος (ap. Plutarch Quæst. Gr. 9. and in Delphian inscriptions) was derived by some from Φύσιος, as being a spring-month; it is, however, far more probable that this sacred oracular month received its name from Pytho, as Πύθιος. In that case the change of θ into σ corresponds with the Laconian dialect; but that of π into β is peculiar to the Delphians, among whom, according to Plutarch, it also occurred in βικρὸς for πικρὸς, and other words. A newly discovered honorary decree of Delphi (Ross, Inscript. Græc. ined. Fasc. I. No. 57.) points to a closer affinity of the Delphian and Ætolian [pg 440] dialects. We find in it the datives ἀγώνοις, ἐντυγχανόντοις, and therefore the same metaplasm of declination as among the Ætolians, to whom the grammarians attribute such forms as γερόντοις, παθημάτοις. The Phoceans appear from the inscriptions to have spoken an Æolic dialect, nearly akin to the Doric. A remarkable peculiarity, which occurs in inscriptions both of Steiris and Daulis, in the territory of the Phoceans, is that the radical vowel of τίθημι and ἵημι remains unlengthened in the active and passive perfect; as in ἀνατεθέκαντι, ἀνατεθεμένους, ἀφεμένα for ἀνατεθείνασι, ἀνατεθειμένους, ἀφειμένη.
Appendix VI. Chronological Tables.
1. An attempt to ascertain the precise date of mythical events would at the present time be considered unreasonable, nor would it be better to arrange them according to generations. It must however be allowed that the mutual dependence of events recorded by mythology can be proved, and by this means, to a certain degree, their succession may be satisfactorily traced. We shall give a specimen from the work before us.