A Lydian Gloss and Some Names1

J. H. Jongkees

doi:10.2307/626663

A Lydian Gloss and Some Names1

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 23 December 2013

J. H. Jongkees

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J. H. Jongkees: Affiliation:
Bussum, Holland, Gen. de la Reylaan 17.

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1. For the word κόθορνος (high boot which Greek men and women used on their travels) we have no Greek etymology. Herodotus points to Lydia: after the Persian conquest the Lydian soldiers and wide Lydian clothes. Many Lydian coins of the Imperial period shew κ., whereas I am not aware of any specimen of non-Anatolian origin shewing them. We do not know of any other people wearing κ., so that we may safely take it for granted that those boots were introduced from Lydia into Greece with the word for them.

The Lydians were famous for their boots: we know yet another sort mentioned by the Greeks: the ἀσκέρα. Buckler rightly placed this word in Index IV (‘ Words possibly Lydian ’) of Sardis, VI, 2. When Croesus is called in the Delphian oracle: Λυδέ πυδαβρέ (Hdt. I, 55), it is for these luxurious boots.

Type: Notes
Information: The Journal of Hellenic Studies , Volume 55 , Issue 1 , 1935 , pp. 80 - 81

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/626663 [Opens in a new window]
Copyright: Copyright © The Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies 1935

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References

^{page 80 note 2} Aristoph., Aves 995Google Scholar, Lysistr. 657, Ekkl. 346; Lysippus 2 (Kock, , Comic. Att. Fragm. I, p. 700Google Scholar).

^{page 80 note 3} Hdt. VI, 125; Radet, , La Lydie, p. 297Google Scholar.

^{page 80 note 4} E.g. BMC. Lydia, Thyatira 48/9, 86, 93, 99, 117/8, 123, 125/7, et passim.

^{page 80 note 5} Ἀσκέρα: Hipponax fr. 19:

Cf. Hesych.

^{page 80 note 6} It is not clear to me why Buckler l.c. translated κύπασσις by ‘a kind of shoe’ (followed by Keil, , RE. XIIIGoogle Scholar, col. 2140, sub. XVI); Harpocratio, s.v. κύπασσις (117, 8 Dindorf), says very distinctly: .