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THINGS CAN ONLY GET BETTER FOR SOCRATES AND HIS CROCODILE: HOW ONOMASTICS CAN BENEFIT FROM DIGITAL HUMANITIES

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 March 2020

Yanne Broux
Yanne Broux*
Affiliation:
KU Leuven
*
[email protected]
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Extract

In a forthcoming article, Willy Clarysse presents an overview of the name Socrates in Egypt. He argues for an evolution from a ‘normal Greek name’, with no specific reference to the Athenian philosopher (Ptolemaic period), to a Greek name with Egyptian connotations (Roman period).

Type
Research Article
Information
The Classical Quarterly , Volume 69 , Issue 2 , December 2019 , pp. 825 - 845
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 2020

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References

1 Clarysse, W., ‘Sokrates and the crocodile’, Chronique d’Égypte 94 (2019), 127–33CrossRefGoogle Scholar. I would like to thank Professor Clarysse for letting me read the draft and build on his preliminary database of Socrates attestations.

2 Since this page includes several interactive visualizations, it may take a while to load.

3 Preisigke, F., Namenbuch enthaltend alle griechischen, lateinischen, ägyptischen, hebräischen, arabischen und sonstigen Menschennamen, soweit sie in griechischen Urkunden Ägyptens sich vorfinden (Heidelberg, 1922)Google Scholar. It was updated by Foraboschi, D., Onomasticon alterum papyrologicum. Supplemento al Namenbuch di F. Preisigke (Milan, 1971)Google Scholar, which received considerable criticism: e.g. Bingen, J., ‘Critique et exploitation de l'onomastique: le cas de l’Égypte gréco-romaine’, in Harmatta, J. (ed.), Actes du VIIe congrès de la F.I.E.C., vol. 2 (Budapest, 1983), 557–65Google Scholar.

4 Ranke, H., Die ägyptischen Personennamen. Band I. Verzeichnis der Namen (Glückstadt, 1935)Google Scholar, supplemented by Thirion, M., ‘Notes d'onomastique: contribution à une révision du Ranke PN’, Revue d'Egypte 31 (1997), 81–96Google Scholar; 33 (1981), 79–87; 34 (1982–3), 101–14; 36 (1985), 125–43; 37 (1986), 131–7; 39 (1988), 132–46; 42 (1991), 223–40; 43 (1992), 163–8; 45 (1994), 175–88; 46 (1995), 171–86; 52 (2001), 265–76 ; 54 (2003), 177–90; 55 (2004), 149–59; 56 (2005), 177–89.

5 Lüddeckens, E., Demotisches Namenbuch (Wiesbaden, 1980–2000)Google Scholar.

6 Masson, O., Onomastica Graeca Selecta I–III (Paris and Geneva, 1990–2000)Google Scholar.

7 These are now collected by W. Clarysse in a separate database, TM Ghostnames: www.trismegistos.org/ghostnames.

8 See, for example, Speigelberg, W., Ägyptische und griechische Eigennamen aus Mumienetiketten der römischen Kaiserzeit gesammelt und erläutert (Leipzig, 1901)Google Scholar.

9 Quaegebeur, J., Le dieu égyptien Shaï dans la religion et l'onomastique (Leuven, 1975)Google Scholar.

10 Torres, A.I. Blasco, ‘The ancient Egyptian dialects in light of the Greek transcriptions of Egyptian anthroponyms’, in Guidotti, M.C. and Rosati, G. (edd.), Proceedings of the XI International Congress of Egyptologists. Florence, Italy 23–30 August 2015 (Oxford, 2017), 41–5Google Scholar.

11 Peremans, W., Dack, E. van't et al. , Prosopogaphia Ptolemaica (Leuven, 1950–2002)Google Scholar.

12 Ainiala, T. and Östman, J.-O., Socio-Onomastics: The Pragmatics of Names (Amsterdam and Philadephia, 2017)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

13 Clarysse, W., ‘Ethnic identity: Egyptians, Greeks and Romans’, in Vandorpe, K., A Companion to Graeco-Roman and Late Antique Egypt (Blackwell Companions to the Ancient World) (Malden, Mass. and Oxford, 2019), 299–314CrossRefGoogle Scholar, with references to previous literature.

14 E.g. in Vandorpe, K., The Bilingual Family Archive of Dryton, his Wife Apollonia and their Daughter Senmouthis (P. Dryton) (Brussels, 2002)Google Scholar.

15 A rare exception is Bagnall, R.S., ‘The people of the Roman Fayum’, in Bierbrier, M. (ed.), Portraits and Masks: Burial Customs in Roman Egypt (London, 1997), 7–15Google Scholar.

16 E.g. Rowlandson, J., ‘Gender and cultural identity in Roman Egypt’, in McHardy, F., Marshall, E. (edd.), Women's Influence on Classical Civilization (London and New York, 2004), 151–89Google Scholar. See also id., ‘Dissing the Egyptians: legal, ethnic, and cultural identities in Roman Egypt’, in Gardner, A. et al. (edd.), Creating Ethnicities & Identities in the Roman World (London, 2013), 213–47Google Scholar.

17 Samuel, D.H., ‘Greeks and Romans at Soknopaiou Nesos’, in Bagnall, R.S. et al. (edd.), Proceedings of the Sixteenth International Congress of Papyrology (Chico, 1981), 389–403Google Scholar.

18 Broux, Y., Double Names and Elite Strategy in Roman Egypt (Leuven, 2015), 71–5Google Scholar.

19 Bingen, J., ‘La dédicace O.G.I.S. I 130 (Notes d’épigraphie grecque. II.6)’, in Bingen, J. (ed.), Pages d’épigraphie grecque: Attique – Égypte (1952–1982) (Brussels, 1991), 103–7Google Scholar.

20 Dogaer, N. and Depauw, M., ‘Horion & co. Greek hybrid names and their value for the study of intercultural contacts in Graeco-Roman Egypt’, Historia 66 (2017), 193–215Google Scholar.

21 E.g. Ranke (n. 4); Hopfner, T., ‘Gräzisierte, griechisch-ägyptische, bzw. ägyptisch-griechische und hybride Theophore Personennamen aus griechischen Texten, Inschriften, Papyri, Ostraka, Mumientäfelchen und dgl. und ihre religionsgeschichtliche Bedeutung’, Archiv Orientální 15 (1946), 1–64Google Scholar; Lüddeckens, E., ‘Die theophoren Personennamen im pharaonischen, hellenistich-römischen und christlichen Ägypten’, Ägypten. Dauer und Wandel: Symposium anlässlich des 75-jährigen Bestehens des deutschen archäologischen Instituts Kairo am 10. und 11. Oktober 1982 (Mainz, 1985), 105–13Google Scholar.

22 Kaper, O., The Egyptian God Tutu: A Study of the Sphinx-God and Master of Demons with a Corpus of Monuments (Leuven, 2003)Google Scholar.

23 The only overview of the different types is the unpublished PhD dissertation by Jennes, G., Inspired by the Gods. Theophoric Names in Late Period and Graeco-Roman Egypt (Leuven, 2013)Google Scholar.

24 The first is summarized in Bagnall, R.S., Reading Papyri, Writing Ancient History (London and New York, 1995), 85–9Google Scholar; the second in Clarysse, W. and Depauw, M., ‘Christian onomastics: a reply to Frankfurter’, VChr 69 (2015), 327–9Google Scholar.

25 See Depauw, M. and Beek, B. Van, ‘People in Greek documentary papyri: first results of a research project’, JJP 39 (2009), 31–47Google Scholar for more information regarding this method.

26 https://dev.ulb.ac.be/philo/bad/copte/baseuk.php?page=accueiluk.php.

27 TM 128338 [www.trismegistos.org/text/128338; see www.trismegistos.org/about_how_to_cite on the use of stable identifiers and how these can be used to cite sources, people and names], published in Messeri, G., ‘Registro di pagamenti: della λαογραφία?’, Archiv für Papyrusforschung und verwandte Gebiete 55 (2009), 380–9CrossRefGoogle Scholar [P.Poethke 27]. The full text is not yet available at papyri.info. The names in this text are included in the Wörterlisten compiled by D. Hagedorn and K. Maresch, which captures all words and names occurring in recently published volumes of papyri and is now available online at https://papyri.uni-koeln.de/papyri-woerterlisten/index.html. However, since this tool does not offer the full text, it is currently not possible to match the entries with TM People to automatically make up our data deficit.

28 It can be downloaded as a CSV file at www.trismegistos.org/tmcorpusdata/10.

29 Each individual has a unique numerical identifier in TM People, which is preceded by ‘TM Per’. These numbers are also used in stable URIs (www.trismegistos.org/person/ followed by a number, e.g. www.trismegistos.org/person/118753), where all information regarding this person is made available. See also www.trismegistos.org/about_how_to_cite on the use of stable identifiers and how these can be used to cite sources, people and names.

30 See Coussement, S., ‘Because I am Greek’. Polyonymy as an Expression of Ethnicity in Ptolemaic Egypt (Leuven, 2016)Google Scholar; and Broux (n. 18) on these ‘double names’ in Ptolemaic and Roman Egypt respectively. One Socrates has a rather unusual second name, Maximus Paaipis, that is, a Roman cognomen, here apparently used as a sort of ‘pseudo-gentilicium’, followed by an Egyptian name (TM Per 20750).

31 TM Per 125479 and 240705.

32 TM Per 368429.

33 Both for TM Per 307815.

34 TM Per 127087.

35 TM Per 160485, 258046, 261108, 299627 and 432898.

36 TM Per 301119. In O. Wilcken 2 1157 = TM 77560 (a.d. 110). In line 1 the name is abbreviated as Σωκ( ); line 6 reads Σακράτων, which is corrected by the editor into Σωκράτων.

37 TM Per 13771, 13772 and 53753.

38 TM Per 53548.

39 TM Per 40808.

40 TM Per 13766.

41 TM Per 94356 and 96388 respectively.

42 TM Per 287994.

43 Socratiaina: TM Per 209429 (a.d. 172–5) and 279935 (third century a.d.); Socration: TM Per 364724 (a.d. 368).

44 Beek, B. Van and Depauw, M., ‘Quantifying imprecisely dated sources. A new inclusive method for charting diachronic change in Graeco-Roman Egypt’, Ancient Society 43 (2013), 101–14Google Scholar.

45 Individuals with a date range spanning more than 200 years are excluded from this overview.

46 See www.trismegistos.org/archive/256 for more information on this archive.

47 La'da, C., Prosopographia Ptolemaica. Tome X: Foreign Ethnics in Hellenistic Egypt (Leuven, 2002)Google Scholar.

48 Depauw, M., ‘Elements of identification in Egypt (800 b.c.–a.d. 800)’, in Depauw, M. and Coussement, S. (edd.), Identifiers and Identification Methods in the Ancient World. Legal Documents in Ancient Societies III (Leuven – Paris – Walpole, 2014), 75–101Google Scholar.

49 The principles applied to the new method are explained in Broux, Y., ‘An improved weighed dates method for ancient people’, Ancient Society 49 (2019), 103–21Google Scholar.

50 One must keep in mind, however, that, with a total of only 44 individuals, statistics for this period are far less reliable than for the Roman period. The same goes for the late Roman data (figure 7). The maps in figures 5–7 were created with Palladio (https://hdlab.stanford.edu/palladio).

51 N = 311.

52 That is, people who are attested in texts attributed to the Fayum or to one of its districts in general; 44 examples.

53 TM Per 433031.

54 TM Per 306152.

55 TM Per 224221.

56 TM Per 433033.

57 TM Per 433035.

58 TM Per 128281.

59 TM 24027.

60 See Veïsse, A.-E., ‘L'usage des ethniques dans l’Égypte du IIIe siècle’, in Capdetrey, L. & Zurbach, J. (edd.), Mobilités grecques. Mouvenments, réseux, contacts, en Méditerranée, de l’époque archaïque à l’époque hellénistique (Bordeaux, 2012), 57–66Google Scholar for the so-called ‘Nomenklaturregel’, a Ptolemaic royal decree that regulated the use of various elements of identification.

61 La'da, C.A., ‘Ethnicity, occupation and tax-status in Ptolemaic Egypt’, Acta Demotica: Acts of Fifth International Conference for Demotists. Pisa, 4th–8th September 1993 (Pisa, 1994), 183–9Google Scholar. In the Roman period, foreign ethnics again refer to actual origin, but they are rarely attested in papyri.

62 Bickermann, E., ‘Beiträge zur antiken Urkundengeschichte. I: Der Heimatsvermerk und die staatliche Stellung der Hellenen im ptolemäischen Ägypten’, APF 8 (1927), 216–39Google Scholar.

63 A preliminary study on designations of origin that could possibly point to elite status is presented in Broux, Y., ‘Tracing the elite from Ptolemy to Diocletian. Identifiers as clues of privileged status in Graeco-Roman Egypt’, in Guicharousse, R., Ismard, P., Vallet, M. and Veïsse, A.-E. (edd.), L'identification des personnes dans les mondes grecs (Paris, 2019), 91–110Google Scholar.

64 Not distinguishing between the written and the found provenance of these texts did lead to an interesting onomastic network though: Broux, Y., ‘Graeco-Egyptian naming practices: a network perspective’, GRBS 55 (2015), 706–20Google Scholar.

65 P.Mich. 8 490 = TM 27100 (a.d. 100–99).

66 P.Petaus 90 = TM 8751 (a.d. 183–4).

67 Egypt was divided into some four dozen nomoi or districts (the exact number fluctuated throughout the Graeco-Roman period), each with their own capital, called the metropolis in the Roman period.

68 There are 7 individuals from Hermopolis (and its immediate neighbour Antinoopolis) and 5 from Oxyrhynchos.

69 Gignac, F.T., A Grammar of the Greek Papyri of the Roman and Byzantine Periods. Volume I: Phonology (Milan, 1976), 275–7Google Scholar.

70 P. Sijpesteijn 27, line 25 (this individual is not yet incorporated in TM People).

71 A video showing the evolution of the geographical spread over time is available at the website accompanying this paper (www.trismegistos.org/tmcorpusdata/10/sokrates_video.php).

72 Krokodilopolis is over-represented, since the people who are pinpointed to the Fayum in general are attributed to this metropolis.

73 For a general introduction, see e.g. Barabási, A.-L., Linked: The Science of Networks (Cambridge, Mass., 2002)Google Scholar.

74 See Broux (n. 64) for a preliminary case-study.

75 The derivations of the name Socrates (including feminine counterparts) have not been taken into account in these graphs to avoid excessive cluttering.

76 I left out the labels of the nodes in these screenshots, to avoid cluttering. They are visible in the online version of the network, however.

77 For practical reasons, only those examples that fall entirely within one of the five specified ranges are included in the network. Melas, son of Socrates, dated to a.d. 275–325 (TM Per 202128), for example, is not taken into account, since his date-range runs from the Late Imperial into the late antique periods.

78 TM Per 199212.

79 Broux (n. 64), 715–16.

80 Broux, Y., ‘Creating a new local elite: the establishment of the metropolitan orders of Roman Egypt’, APF 59 (2013), 142–52CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

81 Clarysse, W., ‘The Coptic martyr cult’, in Lamberigts, M. and Van Deun, P., Martyrium in Multidisciplinary Perspective: Memorial Louis Reekmans (Leuven, 1995), 384–7Google Scholar.

82 See Bingen (n. 19).

83 www.lgpn.ox.ac.uk (accessed November 2017).

84 TM Nam 3772 (www.trismegistos.org/nam/3772; see www.trismegistos.org/about_how_to_cite on the use of stable identifiers and how these can be used to cite sources, people and names). For Kronion and Geb, see Holm, C.E., Griechisch-ägyptische Namenstudien (Göteborg, 1936)Google Scholar.

85 Canducci, D., ‘I 6475 cateci greci dell'Arsinoite’, Aegyptus 70 (1990), 211–55, at 252–3Google Scholar.

86 Bagnall (n. 15), especially 8–9 and 14–15.

87 Wolffsohn, M. and Brechenmacher, T., ‘Nomen est omen: the selection of first names as an indicator for public opinion in the past’, International Journal of Public Research 13 (2001), 116–39, at 120CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

88 Broux, Y., ‘Ancient profiles exploited. First results of Named Entity Recognition applied to Latin inscriptions’, in Nowak, M., Łajtar, A. and Urbanik, J. (edd.), Tell Me Who You Are: Labelling Status in the Graeco-Roman World, U SCHYŁKU STAROŻYTNOŚCI STUDIA ŹRÓDŁOZNAWCZE 16 (2017), 36–56Google Scholar.

89 Lyras, D.P. et al. , ‘Using the Levenshtein edit distance for automatic lemmatization: a case study for modern Greek and English’, 19th IEEE International Conference on Tools with Artificial Intelligence – (ICTAI’07), vol. 2 (Los Alamitos, 2007), 428–35Google Scholar.

90 E.g. Gooskens, C. and Heeringa, W., ‘Perceptive evaluation of Levenshtein dialect distance measurements using Norwegian dialect data’, Language Variation and Change 16 (2004), 189–207CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Manni, F., Heeringa, W. and Nerbonne, J., ‘To what extent are surnames words? Comparing geographic patterns of surname and dialect variation in the Netherlands’, Literary and Linguistic Computing 21 (2006), 507–27CrossRefGoogle Scholar, who add an onomastic component to their research.

91 A.I. Blasco Torres, ‘Representing foreign sounds. Greek transcriptions of Egyptian anthroponyms from 800 b.c. to a.d. 800’ (Diss., Leuven, 2017).

92 Dogaer, N., ‘Greek names with the ending –ιανός/–ianus in Roman Egypt’, JJP 45 (2015), 45–64Google Scholar.

93 Jennes, G. and Depauw, M., ‘Hellenization and onomastic change. The case of Egyptian Pȝ-dỉ-/Πετε- names’, Chronique d’Égypte 87 (2012), 109–32CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

94 See Broux (n. 18) for an overview.

95 Broux (n. 18), 280–2.

96 See e.g. Jan, R. Le, ‘Personal names and the transformation of kinship in early medieval society (sixth to tenth centuries)’, in Beech, G.T., Bourin, M. and Chareille, P. (edd.), Personal Names Studies of Medieval Europe: Social Identity and Familial Structures (Kalamazoo, 2002), 31–50Google Scholar and others in the same volume.

97 Jennes (n. 23).

98 A. Keersmaekers and M. Depauw, ‘Bringing together linguistics and social history in automated text analysis of Greek Papyri’, Classics@ 18 (forthcoming). The lexicon itself is available at www.trismegistos.org/words.

99 I say ‘(semi-)analogue’, since thanks to large database projects, such as Trismegistos and LPGN, onomastics has already become a digitized discipline. The difference between most onomastic studies and what is presented here lies in the way in which the data in these databases is processed.

100 TM People currently contains 509,435 attestations, referring to 368,112 different people and 33,871 different names (consulted 26 January 2020).