[Meaning] I rot. Also [attested is] the [participle] 'putrefying', [meaning] rotting. Hence also the 'Pythia',[1] because the body of the serpent rotted in that place.
Lycus of
Neapolis also says that
pu=on ['pus'] gets its name from this source, since it is rotten blood.[2]
Puthô: sêpô. kai to puthomenos, sêpomenos. enthen kai hê Puthia, dia to en ekeinôi tôi topôi sapênai to tou drakontos sôma. Lukos de ho Neapolitês kai to puon enteuthen onomasthênai phêsin: esti gar sesêpos haima.
=
Synagoge pi786,
Lexica Segueriana 355.8,
Photius pi1521 Theodoridis; cf.
Hesychius pi4308 and elsewhere. The headword, present indicative (or subjunctive) active first person singular of the verb, is unattested elsewhere and is probably a generic lexical reference. Adler adduces a scholion to
Homer,
Iliad 9.405, where "Pytho" occurs as a place name (see n. 1 below). See in general
pi 3253.
[1] The title of the priestess of Apollo at
Delphi (see
pi 3218,
pi 3137), this folk etymology, based on the similarity between the sound of the headword verb and an alternative name for
Delphi,
*puqw/ ('that place' mentioned in the comment; cf.
pi 3137,
pi 3140,
delta 210), is frequently cited in antiquity but is probably incorrect on account of the different length of the upsilon in the first syllable (as was recognized in antiquity; see
Strabo 9.419). See Chantraine,
DELG s.v.
*puqw/.
[2] Outside the Suda and the other lexica metioned above,
Lycus of
Neapolis is mentioned only in two passages from
Erotianus'
Hippocratic lexicon (47.17, 85.9) as an authority on medical matters. For more on pus, see
pi 3178,
pi 3179.
No. of records found: 1
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