Δέπας in Homer: Possible Traces of the Mycenaean Layer in the Epic Tradition

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Abstract

The article analyses the usage of the vessel’s name δέπας in the Ilias and the Odyssey from historical and linguistic perspective. In Homer, δέπας denotes two types of vessels: a drinking bowl and a large crater vessel. Two types of di-pa are also found in Mycenaean texts, which is confirmed by their definitions: me-zo-he (large vessels) and me-wi-jo-e (smaller vessels). The variety of ideograms and multiple synonymous terms used by Homer (κύπελλον, ἄλεισον and δέπας) demonstrate an absence of a clear understanding of the form of the vessel called δέπας. Three examples of the form δέπαϊ have an inflection with a long ῑ, which cannot be explained by positional elongation. We suggest that this form is a relic of the ancient dative *-ei, which was widespread in the Mycenaean period. Thus, the archaism of the Homeric epic is expressed both in the description of objects of the Achaean period (δέπας/di-pa) and in the grammatical forms of lexemes describing these objects.

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Anastasia A. Braylovskaya

Lomonosov Moscow State University

Author for correspondence.
Email: anasta.bray@gmail.com
ORCID iD: 0000-0002-1269-6709

старший преподаватель

Russian Federation, Moscow

Kapitolina V. Kruglova

Lomonosov Moscow State University

Email: kapitolina93@gmail.com

преподаватель

Russian Federation, Moscow

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2. Fig. 1. Ideograms for the word di-pa in the Knossos and Pilos tablets. 1 - KN K 829; 2 - KN K 740; 3 - KN K 875; 4-6 - PY Ta 641

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3. Fig. 2. Pylos tablet Ta 641 listing the vessels (after: Duhoux, Morpurgo Davies 2008, 319)

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4. Fig. 3. Bronze vessel of the SE III period (after: Vandenabeele, Olivier 1979, 237)

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