Homer’s νηυσὶ κορωίσιν
BY JOHN R. LENZ
Shelley Wachsmann makes the interesting suggestion that Homer’s phrase “beaked (?)” ships describes the abstract bird-head devices he himself has detected at the stems and sterns of ships of the Bronze Age, the Geometric, and other periods. This depends on the meaning of the adjective κορωνίς used of ships in formulae such as παρα νηυσί κορωνίσι(ν). A standard etymology derives this adjective from the nou n κορώνη, a seabird, perhaps a shearwater, with reference to its curved beak.1
Homer applies the adjective κορωνίς only to ships.2 The noun κορώνη, from which it probably derives, has two distinct meanings: either (A) a seabird or a crow,3 or (B) a curved extremity of various types. Both senses occur in Homer. Of type B, Homer has a door handle and the golden tip of a bow.4 Other, later usages of this type include the tip of a plow-pole, any tip, a crown, or a culmination of a festival.5 Aratus once uses κορώνη to describe a ship’s stern.6
The Greek lexicon considers the latter-named (type B) uses of κορώνη as secondary, derived from the similarity of each of these objects to a bird’s curved beak.7 If Homer’s kορωνίς likewise derives independently from κορώνη (A), this would support Wachsmann’s idea that the ships’ curved devices themselves originated as birds’ beaks.
However, κορώνη (A) and (B) must be dissociated etymologically. Both Latin and Greek show two distinct roots, kor/cor, one (A) meaning “crow” and another (B) “curved.” Words for “horn” often exhibit a root kor/cor, as well.8 I classify related Greek and Latin words as in Table 1.
Since a crow’s beak is not markedly curved, Indo-European words for “crow” probably reflect the onomatopoeic root kor. The English “crowbar” preserves the sense of “bent” and has no connection with the bird.
Where does Homer’s adjective kορωνίς, used of ships, fit in? If derived from the noun κορώνη (B), it should mean curved—but how? The objects called κορώνη (B) always represent curved extremities, added onto something that they cap or “crown.”13 Thus, the adjective κορωνίς implies something more than the natural prolongation of a ship’s stem- and sternposts. The epithet probably refers to curved elements crowning the ships’ stems and sterns. That is, besides meaning “curved,” it seems to embody a sense of a crowning element such as a head or horn, which have virtually homonymous Indo-European roots.14
Homer also calls ships “straight-horned”15 and uses κόρυμβα, a word derived from “horn,” for the “projecting terminal elements at the stem and/or stern of a ship.”16 As noted, Theocritus uses κορωνίς for (probably) “horned.”17 Homer’s word, too, might imply “horned.”
The lexicographer Hesychius once equates κεραΐς (apparently a “horned” bird) with κορώνη (“crow”).18 If there is no strict etymological connection between “horn” and “crow” (columns C and A of Table 1), the semantic connection he draws shows that the two may be conflated, or confused, in ordinary usage. Similarly, our example of κορωνίς may exhibit some overlapping between types A and B (“crow” and “curved”) in the above table, besides (as already discussed) B and C (“curved” and “horn”).
Thus, there is some room for ambiguity. Homer loved wordplay, and poetically κορωνίς may still evoke κορώνη (A), a “seabird.”19 But etymologically, its closest connection is with κορώνη (B), which we must consider further. After Homer, we find κορωνίς used as a noun to indicate various curved extremities.20
The Greek and Latin words listed above under “curved” have sometimes been taken to mean “bent” but must originally have meant “circular.” It is easier to derive a sense of “curved” or “bent” from “rounded” or “circular” than vice versa.21 The meaning “bent” has resulted from an improper derivation of κορώνη (B) from a supposedly curved beak implied in κορώνη (A). Its Latin cognate, corona, or “crown,” always designates a circular crowning ornament,22 and the Greek noun κορωνίς, when first attested, means “garland” or “wreath.”23 Later Greek uses, as noted above, maintain the sense of “crowning” but without requiring a circle.
Homer’s uses of κορώνη (B), a bow-tip and a door handle, are best seen as secondary usages from an original meaning of “a round crowning element,” instead of from κορώνη (A), “crow.” The κορώνη by which (in Homer) a door is pulled closed,24 which has been imperfectly understood, may indeed be a circular ring. But equally, it may already reflect the sense of “bent.” In both Greek and Latin, other words for door handles, κόραξ and comix, are the same as those for “raven.”25 This shows some semantic overlapping between the two roots I have differentiated as (A) “crow” and (B) “curved,” as in the English “crowbar.” This would provide indirect support for Wachsmann’ s connection of Homer’s κορωνίς with—as commonly assumed—κορώνη (A), or “seabird,” “crow.”
The basic meaning of κορωνίς may be “with curved or rounded extremities,” so it probably refers to curved ornamental devices such as those Wachsmann has identified.26 The exact derivation of the word itself from κορώνη (a bird) is, as indicated, difficult or ambiguous with respect to Indo-European etymology. The word κορώνη (A), “shearwater” or “crow,” is homonymous with κορώνη (B), “a rounded or curved projecting element.” The Greeks, like modern readers, sometimes conflated words with similar roots, either by imagining a common etymology or by semantically assimilating words of similar roots. Even when we distinguish the etymologies (as above) they sometimes blur, and we cannot always tell what resonances a word held for Greek ears or for a great poet such as Homer.27
