"JOHN FROST."
Paisley.
[Appended to Dr. Brewster's account of curling, quoted in the Encyclopædia Metropolitana, vol. xvii. p. 469., occurs the following historical notice of this winter amusement:—"Curling is a comparatively modern amusement in Scotland, and does not appear to have been introduced till the beginning of the sixteenth century, when it probably was brought over by the emigrant Flemings. It was originally known under the name of kuting, which perhaps is a corruption of the Teutonic kleuyten, kalluyten, rendered by Kilian in his Dictionary, ludere massis sive globulis glaciatis, certare discis in æquore glaciatâ. In Canada it has become a favourite amusement, on account of the great length of the winters.">[
Replies.
SAINT IRENE AND THE ISLAND OF SANTORIN.
(Vol. iv., p. 475.)
Your correspondent Σ asks for information about St. Irene or St. Erini, from whom he thinks the Island of Santorin in the Grecian Archipelago acquired its name; and in reply, you have referred him to Smith's Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography, for particulars of the canonized Empress Irene.
But Σ is, I suspect, mistaken in supposing Santorin to be indebted either to saint or empress for its present appellation; although he errs in company with Tournefort and a succession of later geographical etymologists, who in this instance have trusted too much to their ear as an authority. Another correspondent in the same number, F. W. S. (p. 470.), has directed attention to a peculiarity in the formation of the modern names of places in Greece, the theory of which will guide Σ to the real derivation of the word Santorin. F. W. S. states truly that many of the recent names have been constructed by prefixing the preposition εἰς to the ancient one; thus ATHENS, εἰς τὰς Ἀθήνας, became Satines, and COS, εἰς τὴν Κῶν, Stanco. Lord Byron has explained this origin of the alteration in one of the notes to Childe Harold, I think; but I apprehend that the barbarism is to be charged less upon the modern Greeks themselves, than upon the European races, Sclavonians, Normans, and Venetians, and later still the Turks, who seized upon their country on the dismemberment of the Lower Empire. The Greeks themselves no doubt continued to spell their proper names correctly; but their invaders, ignorant of their orthography, and even of their letters, were forced to write the names of places in characters of their own, and guided solely by the sound. Negropont, the modern name of Eubœa, is a notable instance of this. In the desolation which followed the Roman conquest, Eubœa, as described by Pausanias and Dion, had become almost deserted, and, on its partial revival under the Eastern Empire, the old name of Eubœa was abandoned, and the whole island took the name of Euripus, from a new town built on the shore of that remarkable strait. This, pronounced by the Greeks, Evripos, the Venetians, on their arrival in the thirteenth century, first changed into Egripo and Negripo, and next into Negro-ponte, after they had built a bridge across the Euripus. This last name, the island retains to the present time. Another familiar example is the modern name of Byzantium, Stamboul, by which both Greeks and Turks now speak of Constantinople. The Romans called their capital par excellence "the city" (in which, by the way, we ourselves imitate them when speaking of London). Among the ancient Jews, in like manner, to "go to the city," ὑπάγετε εἰς τὴν πόλιν, meant to go to Jerusalem (Matt., xxvi. 18., xxviii. 11.; Mark, xiv. 13.; Luke, xxii. 10.; John, iv. 18.; Acts, ix. 16.). The Greeks of the Lower Empire followed the example in speaking of Constantinople; and the Turks, on their conquest in the fifteenth century, adopting the provincialism, wrote εἰς τὴν πόλιν, Istampoli, and thence followed Istambol and Stamboul. The same theory will explain the modern word Santorin, about which your correspondent Σ requests information. The ancient name was Thera, and by this the island is described both by Herodotus and Strabo, and later still by Pliny. Thera, submitted to the usual process, became, from εἰς τὴν Θήραν, Stantheran, Santeran, and finally Santorin. In the latter form it almost invited a saintly pedigree, and accordingly "Richard," a Jesuit, whose work I have seen, but cannot now consult, wrote, about two centuries ago, his Relation de l'Isle de St. Erini, in which, for the glory of the Church, he explains that the island obtained its name, not from the Empress Irene, but from a Saint Erine, whom he describes as the daughter of a Macedonian prefect, and from whom he says it was called Νῆσος τῆς Ἁγίας Εἰρήνης. I incline, however, to etymology rather than hagiology for the real derivation.
J. EMERSON TENNENT.
THE OLD COUNTESS OF DESMOND—WHO WAS SHE? NO. II.
(Vol. iv., pp. 305. 426.)
My "NOTES AND QUERIES" coming to me monthly, I am as yet in ignorance whether any of your numerous correspondents have answered my inquiry (Vol. iv., p. 306.): "Whether the portraits of 'the old Countess of Desmond,' at Knowle, Bedgebury, or Penshurst, correspond with my description of that in the possession of the Knight of Kerry?" I have since met a painter of eminence, who assures me that Horace Walpole's criticism is correct, and that the portraits commonly known as those of the Countess are really the likeness of "Rembrandt's mother." If they be identified with that I have described, the idea that we possess a "counterfeit presentment" of this ancient lady, must, I fear, be given up as a delusion.