Etymology of the name "Homer" -- an account in the Aethiopika

[Kyriakos]

I have been reading the Aethiopika, by Heliodoros, which is one of the main greek-roman era romance novels. At around book 4 there is a brief claim about Homer (whose verses are often quoted in the text), according to which this was only a nickname given to him due to his strange thigh (meros, in greek). More specifically, a character in the story (some egyptian priest; or at least that is what he appears to be) suggests that Homer had Mercury as his father, and that the effect of this was to have a sign on his thigh, namely hairs as dense as those usually found on the head.

I was wondering if this origin story of Homer as Wilbur Whitely in the Dunwitch Horror is found elsewhere. I suppose it would, iirc i had once heard of it Any other suggested etymologies?

Re the Aethiopika, it is rather on the boring side of things, all things considered. Or rather it has loads of action but is epidermic. Apparently the main plotline is used in the other romance novels of the first few centuries AD, ie two amazingly good-looking youths fall in love but have to go through hell before being married. And most other characters around them tend to die too Maybe the more striking thing in this telling of the story is that it starts with a massacre, and the two sole survivors.

 

[Flying Pig]

That's not the only one - I think it was Herodotus who said that ho meros meant 'the joiner', and it's in Lucian where he says that homeros means 'captive', because he was a prisoner taken from Babylon. The Greeks (and the Romans) were quite fond of coming up with explanations for names and words, but they rarely had any substance to them - unfortunately, there are (more or less) predictable patterns by which the sounds of words change over time, but they didn't know them. So, for example, the name Romulus is back-engineered from the name Rome, though the story says it was the other way around.

 

[schlaufuchs]

Yep. The classical world loved it some folk etymologies.

 

[Kyriakos]

That's not the only one - I think it was Herodotus who said that ho meros meant 'the joiner', and it's in Lucian where he says that homeros means 'captive', because he was a prisoner taken from Babylon. The Greeks (and the Romans) were quite fond of coming up with explanations for names and words, but they rarely had any substance to them - unfortunately, there are (more or less) predictable patterns by which the sounds of words change over time, but they didn't know them. So, for example, the name Romulus is back-engineered from the name Rome, though the story says it was the other way around.

Well, this is the 3rd century AD, and not a really high-brow work either (The Aethiopika), at least in regards to claims made in it *
Furthermore it doesn't seem correct that etymology hunt in the ancient era was always of this (bad) level. Protagoras was primarily a grammarian, and there are entire socratic dialogues about etymology.

* It is interesting to juxtapose it to Diogenes Lartios' work on the origin of philosophy. Some accounts place the Aethiopika in the 2nd century AD, and iirc Diogenes Lartios wrote in the end of the 1rst century AD. The love for Egypt found in the Aethiopika is spoken against in the other work, which is about philosophy itself anyway.

 

[Flying Pig]

Are any of Plato's etymological ideas actually correct, though?

 

[Kyriakos]

Well, maybe he is right that "anthropos" (human) comes from ano (up) and thrwskw (look at, or similar)

At least it is a poetic idea, and inspirational. Unlike "the thigh"

 

[schlaufuchs]

We actually have no consensus on where ἄνθρωπος comes from. Although no recognized theory I can see suggests "ano+thrwskw". Some notable ones per wiktionary: aner+ops (man-face/appearance); possibly PGK drops ("man"), and ndrehkwo ("that which is below").

As for Homer, this is what wiktionary has to say on the topic:

Identical to ὅμηρος ‎(hómēros, “hostage”), possibly an early nickname.[1] The word itself could stem from a combination of Proto-Indo-European *dʰǵʰm̥mō ‎(“earthling”) + PIE suffix meaning "to join," in the sense of a master carpenter or wheel-maker.[2]

 

[Kyriakos]

A concurrent (and much more high-brow) work, Lucianos of Samosata's "A real story", (as originally noted by Flying) mentions the theory that Homer was a nickname meaning hostage. And yes, the term still means that in current greek as well. That said, Lucianos was writing satire, so it is not like the source is something meant to be taken as seriously. Moreover he has Homer himself speak (they are in the "islands of the blessed", ie heaven) and claim he was originally from Babylon