Ehimarmenê: genesis. hoti eirêkôs Sophoklês peri Aiantos, heirxai kat' êmar toumphanes to nun tode Aianth' hupo skênaisin, anatrepei tên heimarmenên. hoi philosophoi hena phasin einai theon kai noun kai heimarmenên kai allais onomasiais onomazesthai. esti de heimarmenê aitia tôn holôn eiromenê, ê logos kath' hon ho kosmos diexagetai. ê heirmos tis kai episundesis aparabatos, di' aitian anapodraston: ê dunamis kinêtikê tês hulês. hoi de Christon theon homologoumen dioikein ta panta.
The first of three entries on the word. (See also
epsiloniota 143,
epsiloniota 144). It gives several definitions and/or etymologies for the word, mostly from Stoic philosophers, before ending with a Christian theological credo.
[1] The Greek word is
ge/nesis, a word that acquires the meaning "lot, that which is the lot for everyone from birth" from early astronomers on.
[2]
Sophocles,
Ajax 753-4 (with comment from the
scholia there); see already at
epsilon 1067. The seer Calchas asks Teucer, in vain, to shut Ajax inside the tents to avoid Athena's wrath; the logical subject of the sentence is therefore not
Sophocles but Calchas or Teucer. Here is perhaps a rather inept attempt to etymologize
ei(marme/nh from
ei)/rw(2) "say", probably as the result of misunderstanding the common (but also wrong) ancient etymology of the word, which put it in relation with
ei)/rw(1) "fasten together, chain". See further below.
[3] What follows is a series of definitions of "Fate" by the Stoics. Fate had a central role in Stoicism:
Zeno,
Chrysippus,
Posidonius and Boethius all wrote treatises
On Fate.
[4] An almost literal quotation from the Stoic philosopher (C3 BC)
Chrysippus (SVF 2.580 von Arnim =
Diogenes Laertius 7.135). The quoted text says: "the divinity and intelligence and fate and Zeus are all one, and he [sc. the divinity] is also called by other names".
[5] A quotation from
Chrysippus or some of his disciples: SVF 2.915 von Arnim = Diog.Laert.7.149. In this quotation and the following, there is an etymology of
ei(marme/nh from the root of the verb
ei)/rw. This was a common interpretation in antiquity: see
Aristotle,
de Mundo 401b10. The word, however, does not relate to
ei)/rw, but to the root of the verb
mei/romai ("receive as one's lot) and the substantives
me/ros ("lot") and
mo/ros ("fate"). See Chantraine,
Dict.Etym. s.v.
mei/romai. The quoted text (ed. Marcovich) says "everything that exists" (
o)/ntwn) instead of "everything" (
o(/lwn).
[6] cf.
Chrysippus, SVF 918 von Arnim = Nemesius,
de nat. hom. cp. 37 p.299.
[7] cf.
Chrysippus, SVF 917 von Arnim =
Aetius,
Placit. 1.28.4.
[8]
a)napo/drastos, "unavoidable". The word is used by the first century CE Stoic philosopher L. Annaeus
Cornutus (
De natura deorum, p.13) in a chapter devoted to fate. The goddess Ananke (Necessity) is said to have given birth to Adrastea, who bears a name from the same root of this word. At the beginning of this chapter,
Cornutus relates
ei(marme/nh with
mei/romai etymologically.
[9] Words attributed to the founder of the Stoa, the C4/3 BCE philosopher
Zeno of Citium ( SVF 176 von Arnim =
Aetius,
Placit. 1.27.5).
[10] The 'we' is emphatic in the parallel entry in ps.-
Zonaras (
h(mei=s de/.... And cf. also
tau 1234: 'we Christians...'.
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