From epic to everyday

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MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. 

I’m Myrna Brown.

NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher. 

Next up—some proof that even if you’ve never read Homer before, you have probably been quoting him! 

Here’s George Grant with Word Play for April.

GEORGE GRANT: Rage—Goddess, sing of the rage of Achilles. This exclamation is the iconic first line of the Iliad, composed orally by the blind bard Homer sometime in the eighth century BC.

The classic poem is generally described by scholars as the first work of European literature, and some would assert, the greatest. Its sequel, the Odyssey, is very nearly equally esteemed. Together, they lyrically describe brief episodes in the Trojan War and its aftermath. 

The poems have had an enormous impact on the literary legacy of the West.

Homer wrote in a distinctive, long, rolling drumbeat rhythm. Scholars call it dactylic hexameter. That same form was later taken up by Virgil in the Aeneid, Ovid in the Metamorphoses, Hesiod in the Theogony, as well as a host of other lyrical works by the likes of Horace, Perseus, Juvenal, Hesiod, and Lucretius.

Because of the limitations and constraints of that meter, Homer employed formulaic epithets at regular intervals throughout the epics, and these too became standard stock and trade devices used by lyricists all across the centuries since.“The rosy-fingered dawn,” “the wine-dark sea,” “everlasting glory,” “undying fame,” “beauty, terrible beauty,” “that star of the waning summer,” “the heat of love,” and “the pulsing rush of longing.”

In addition to those memorably picturesque epithets, Homer profoundly enriched our vocabulary. The word “Amen,” for instance, passed into English from Latin, but the Latin root was derived from the Greek “emen,” meaning true or truthful, a word first found in the Iliad.

The word “humor” comes from Homer’s use of “hemor,” literally meaning wet or juicy, related to the ancient anatomical description of the four bodily fluids: blood, phlegm, choler, and bile. The term did not come to mean 'witty' until well into the 17th century.

The word “money” comes from Homer’s use of “Mnemosyne,” an alternate name for Hera, the mythic goddess of memory. Outside the temple of Hera in Olympia, ceremonial coins were minted adorned with Hera’s image, hence the association with money. Later, this was mirrored at Rome’s mint outside the temple to Hera’s Roman counterpart, Juno.

The word “glamor” originates from the Greek word “grammaria,” again first used by Homer. Medieval alchemists measured their potions and formulas in grams, and the mystique of their trade gave the term its present meaning: fashionable, chic, or stylish.

Then there are any number of other quite obvious Homeric bequests to our common parlance. An odyssey is a grand adventure. An Achilles’ heel is a congenital weakness. To hector is to bluster, bully, or torment. A mentor is a counselor, discipler, or advisor. Stentorian is a thunderously loud voice. And marmalade is a kind of fruit jam or jelly.

Interestingly, the phrase we might most readily associate with Homer is “Trojan horse,” but it doesn't appear in The Iliad. It is only briefly described in The Odyssey, and though the scheme was planned by Odysseus, even there it is not mentioned by name. Instead, the term first appears in Virgil’s Aeneid.

Thus, the old ploy remains a bit of an etymological and linguistic "Trojan horse." How Homeric!

I’m George Grant.

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