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Search results for sigma,729 in Adler number:
Headword:
*sma/ragdos
Adler number: sigma,729
Translated headword: emerald
Vetting Status: high
Translation: It is spoken in the feminine. It is a kind of valuable stone.
"The surest proof of the piety of Polykrates the Samian [was] the discovery of the emerald that had been thrown into the sea, and the capture of the fish that had swallowed this."[1]
Also [sc. attested is the word] smaragdeion, a mineral of earth.[2]
Greek Original:*sma/ragdos: qhlukw=s le/getai. e)/sti de\ ei)=dos li/qou poluti/mou. e)/legxos de\ bebaio/tatos th=s qeosebei/as *polukra/tous tou= *sami/ou h( th=s smara/gdou th=s e)mblhqei/shs ei)s to\ pe/lagos eu(/resis, kai\ qhraqei\s o( i)xqu\s o( tau/thn katapiw/n. kai\ *smara/gdeion, me/tallon gh=s.
Notes:
[1] For the story see
Herodotos 3.41–2 (web address 1). The present allusion to it is unattributable. (Adler suggests
Aelian.) The writer's assertion that the recovery of the emerald was a proof of divine favour seems to misunderstand the point of Hdt.'s story, since it was in fact a warning of inevitable destruction -- unless we are meant to understand the warning as a boon. [Adler notes Bernhardy's rejection of the proposal of Urbanus Chevraeus to emend
qeosebei/as "piety" to
eu)tuxi/as "good luck".]
[2] Adler reports
smaragdeion metallon ("emerald mine") in the
Ambrosian Lexicon (595), which seems preferable both in itself and given the fact that the plural phrase "emerald mines" occurs five times in
Heliodorus.
Web address 1
Keywords: biography; definition; dialects, grammar, and etymology; ethics; historiography; history; religion; science and technology
Translated by: D. Graham J. Shipley on 2 June 2009@01:20:44.
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