Istituto Veneto di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti 2005

ISTITUTO VENETO DI SCIENZE, LETTERE ED ARTI

ANIMAL NAMES

edited by ALESSANDRO MINELLI GHERARDO ORTALLI GLAUCO SANGA

REPRINT

VENEZIA 2005

Istituto Veneto di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti 2005

ISBN 88-88143-38-6

This book presents the materials proposed and the results that emerged during the International Conference Animal Names / I nomi degli animali organized by the Istituto Veneto di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti Venezia, 2003 October 2-4

Financial support from the Italian Ministero per i Beni e le Attivit Culturali to the Istituto has contributed towards organizing the Conference and publishing this volume of proceedings

Copyright Istituto Veneto di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti - Venezia 30124 Venezia, Campo S. Stefano 2945 Tel. 041 2407711 - Telefax 041 5210598 ivsla@istitutoveneto.it www.istitutoveneto.it

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INDEX

Part I CLASSIFICATION (Coordinator: Alessandro Minelli) Alessandro Minelli, Classifications, hierarchies, taxonomies, naming . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Brent Berlin, Just another fish story? Size-symbolic properties of fish names . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Franco Crevatin, Bawl ways of thinking (Ivory Coast): generalisations and contextuality . . . . . . . . Gareth J. Dyke - Julia D. Sigwart, A search for a smoking gun: no need for an alternative to the Linnaean system of classification. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Michel Laurin, The advantages of Phylogenetic Nomenclature over Linnean Nomenclature . . . . . . . John B. Trumper, Classification, ethnoclassification and some reflexions on European rodents and hawks in folk culture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Pag. 3 9 21

49 67

99

Part II TAME/WILD (Coordinator: Marta Maddalon) Marta Maddalon, The tame/ wild dichotomy in ethnology and ethno-linguistics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Luciano Giannelli, Essential singular in animal names. Colin P. Groves, Domestic and wild mammals: naming and identity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Pag. 131 143 151

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INDEX

Tim Ingold, Naming as storytelling: speaking of animals among the Koyukon of Alaska. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Grard Toffin, Cow/buffalo: a significant opposition in the Indian and Himalayan world . . . . . . . . . . . . . . John B. Trumper, Markedness, symbolic use and genesis of animal terms, from the point of view of the tame/ wild dichotomy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Part III MEANING (Coordinator: Rita Caprini) Rita Caprini, Meaning, semantics, taboo, onomasiology and etymology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Mario Alinei, Names of animals, animals as names: synthesis of a research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Michel Contini, Zoonyms of phonosymbolical origin classifying and interpretation matters. . . . . . . . . . . . . . Jean-Philippe Dalbera, The reproductive cycle of zoonyms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Glauco Sanga, The wolf and the fox: which is the real name of the animals? With a theory on totemism . . . Edward Tuttle, Zoonymic evolution in the face of accepted structural drift . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Pag. 159 173

185

Pag. 235 245 269 293 307 319

Part IV SYMBOLISM (Coordinator: Nicole Revel) Nicole Revel, The symbolism of animals names: analogy, metaphor, totemism. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Marlne Albert-Llorca, The use of metaphors and analogies in our understanding of the animal world: the Catalan corpus on birds and fishes . . . . . . . . . .

Pag. 339

345

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William Bright, Animal names in native northwestern California . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Florence Brunois, Man or animal: who copies who? Interspecific empathy and imitation among the Kasua of New Guinea. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Diego Poli, Herdsmen and animals. A cultural correspondence in the Indo-European area . . . . . . . . . . Nicole Revel, Palawan highlanders and Dayaks of Borneo: human beings and birds, their relation . . . . . . . Franca Tamisari - John Bradley, To have and to give the law. Animal names, place and event . . . . . . . . .

Pag. 359

369 383 401 419

Part V CONTACT AND SUBSTITUTION (Coordinator: Alberto Zamboni) Alberto Zamboni, Contact and substitution, introductory remarks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Liliane Bodson, Naming the exotic animals in ancient Greek and Latin. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Alessandro Minelli Philip K. Tubbs, Reciprocal loan between vernacular and scientific names of animals . Gherardo Ortalli, Naming animals in the middle ages, between crisis and recovery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Domenico Silvestri, Animals names in the Indo-mediterranean cultural space . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Abstracts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Index of linguistic forms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Index of scientific names . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Author index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Contributors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Pag. 441 453

481 491

507 Pag. 523 543 559 563

573

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Liliane Bodson NAMING THE EXOTIC ANIMALS IN ANCIENT GREEK AND LATIN

So everyone should be neither over-hasty in ones judgments, nor incredulous when considering rarities. Pausanias 9.21.6.

1. Introduction * The earliest pieces of evidence on Greek names of exotic animals (Bodson 1999) are found at present in the Mycenaean tablets in Linear B (Bronze Age, mid-second millenium BC) and are indirect. They refer to raw and worked ivory (elephas) and to a lion (leon)-shaped footrest (Duhoux 1997: 185-186). Both terms leon and elephas are identified as indigenous names borrowed from Eastern languages (Masson 1967: 80-87; Hemmerdinger 1970: 52) when the Greeks be-

* The ancient Greek and Latin names of animal categories are purposely referred to with a non-taxonomic vocabulary (kind, sort, type, and the like) to prevent the anachronism resulting from species, genus, etc., when they are used in ante-Linnean naturalist contexts (Bodson 2003b: 408-411; 2004: XXV). Greek words in text, footnotes, bibliography are given in Latin transliteration. The ancient authors lifetime is stated once only, at the first occurrence in footnotes. Abbreviations: GA = Generation of Animals HA = History of Animals LL = Latin Language NA = Nature of Animals NH = Natural History PA = Parts of Animals.

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came directly or indirectly aware of such animals first in the fauna of Asia. Loanwords prove to be of common use to name exotic animals 1 in ancient Greek and Latin 2 . Yet many more appellatives are original coinages, all of unknown authorship since the present state of evidence provides us with no more than their terminus post quem. Being restricted to some mammals, birds and reptiles, this paper aims at surveying a selection of such coinages to give a preliminary insight into how the distant-land animals were perceived and integrated into the ancient way of understanding the animal kingdom. The main criteria involved in the specifically Greek and Latin names of exotic animals will be overviewed first. The names of the ostrich will then be briefly considered for their relevance as a case study. Comments on the compounds combining the names of two different animals to identify a third one will follow before a conclusion is reached.

2. Criteria involved in specifically Greek and Latin names of exotic animals Geographic origin, morphology and behaviour are the main criteria occurring in the coinage of specifically Greek and Latin names of exotic animals. These names include single nouns, expressions made of nouns and epithets (the latter being sometimes eventually used as substantives and thus turning themselves into names), and compounds of different kinds, each focussing either on a single or on several particular features. Although this paper does not primarily centre on linguistic aspects, those closely involved in the zoological contents will be pointed out in passing. And the fact that the Greek and Latin coinages regarding exotic animals proceed from the same principles as the names of non-exotic animals at both lexical and zoological levels is certainly worth noting at once. As for the appellatives referring to morphological characteristics, they are understandably based on implicit comparisons, sometimes resulting in antiphrasis (see below, sections 2.3.2.2 and 3), between familiar or indigenous and less familiar or exotic animals according to external attributes which were self-evident by ancient standards.
1 Mammals such as big cats (lion [leon], leopards and cheetahs [pardalis], tiger [mantichoras/tigris see Li Causi 2003]), elephants, camels, desert rats of North Africa (zegeries [Camps 1988: 215-216 = 1984-85: 22-24; cf. 1990]); birds (peacock [see below, sections 2.1.2 and 3], parrot [see below, section 3], ibis [Fournet 1989: 60, no6]); etc. 2 Overview of the origin and linguistic bases of the Latin technical vocabulary: Andr (1986).

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2.1. Zoogeography Some exotic animals were named in ancient Greek and in Latin with expressions made of a general noun and an adjective referring to their true or supposed geographical background. In the present state of data, this applies to birds mainly. The theoretical risk of confusion when two of them were given the same name was limited by the contexts in which it was used. 2.1.1. Example of expression later turning into a single name Phasianos (ornis), Phasianikos 3 , literally bird of the Phasis river 4 , Phasian. Latin: phasianus 5 . English: pheasant. French: faisan. Binominal nomenclature: Phasianus colchicus (Johnsgard 1986: 202-213). Greek: 2.1.2. Example of expressions Greek: Persikos ornis, literally bird of Persia, Persian bird, either cock 6 or peacock 7 , both originating in the Indian area 8 , yet first known to the Greeks through their relationship with Persia (Miller 1997: 109-133). gallus gallinaceus 9 , pavus (later -o) 10 .

Latin:

3 Earliest extant occurrences: Aristophanes (c. 445-c. 380) Clouds (represented in 423 BC) 109 (Phasianous), Birds (in 414 BC) 68 (Phasianikos). Further references in Thompson (1936: 299); see also Pollard (1977: 93-94). Etymology: Chantraine (1999: 1181); Karttunen (1997: 209). 4 River of Colchis (modern Rioni), in West Asia, South-West Caucasus. Von Bredow (2000). 5 Earliest extant occurrences: Pliny the Elder (c. 23-79) NH 10.132, 144. Further references in Andr (1967: 125-126); Capponi (1979: 408-409). Etymology: Ernout and Meillet (1985: 505). 6 Aristophanes Birds 485, 707. Further references in Thompson (1936: 33-38); see also Pollard (1977: 88-89); Karttunen (1997: 208-209). See below, section 3. 7 Schol. in Aristophanes Birds 707 Dbner (1877: 225-226). Also Medikos ornis (Median bird, bird of Media): Souda M 884 Adler (1933: 383). Further references in Thompson (1936: 277-281); see also Pollard (1977: 91-93). See below, section 3. 8 Johnsgard (1986: 116-122, cock; 267-272, peacock). 9 Plautus (c. 250-184) Aulularia 465, cf. 849 (pullos gallinaceos). Further references in Andr (1967: 82-83); Capponi (1979: 260-264). Etymology: Ernout and Meillet (1985: 266). 10 Ennius (239-169) Annals 15 Vahlen (1903: 4). Further references in Andr (1967: 121-122); Capponi (1979: 260-264, 389-393). Etymology: Ernout and Meillet (1985: 490).

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English: cock; peacock. French: coq; paon. Binominal nomenclature: Gallus bankiva, Gallus gallus f. domestica (Crawford 1984; Johnsgard 1986: 116-122); Pavo cristatus (Grahame 1984; Johnsgard 1986: 267-272). 2.1.3. Example of names and expressions Greek: meleagris 11 . Latin: meleagris 12 . English: African guineafowl. French: pintade africaine. Binominal nomenclature 13 : Numida meleagris meleagris (formerly ptilorhyncha) (East Africa; Madge and McGowan 2002: 347-348, pl. 54.165a). Greek: Latin: Africana gallina 14 , (gallina) Numidica 15 , Africana 16 . English: Numidian guineafowl. French: pintade numidienne. Binominal nomenclature: Numida meleagris galeata (formerly meleagris) (West Africa; Madge and McGowan 2002: 347348, pl. 54.165d).

2.2. Bio-ecology The mammal nowadays called hippopotamus (Hippopotamus amphibius) was first named in the Greek language with an expression made of the noun of another mammal hippos (namely horse) and
Mistakenly located by Sophocles (497-406) fr. 830a Radt (1977: 551) in India (see Pliny the Elders criticism in NH 37.40). Further references in Thompson (1936: 197-200); see also Pollard (1977: 94). Etymology: Chantraine (1999: 681). 12 Varro (116-27) Rural Economics 3.9.18; Pliny the Elder NH 10.74, 144. Further references in Andr (1967: 99-100); Capponi (1979: 322). No entry in Ernout and Meillet (1985). 13 Madge and McGowan (2002: 347) (given complexity of forms [...] sensible to treat them as one polymorphic species). 14 Varro Rural Economics 3.9.18. Further references in Andr (1967: 81, 110); Capponi (1979: 258-259). Etymology: see above, n. 9. 15 Pliny the Elder NH 10.132. 16 Columella (first century AD) Rural Economics 8.2.2 (The African fowl, which most people [my italics] say Numidian ).
11

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the adjective potamios (namely of the river) 17 . Varro transliterated the Greek into Latin: hippos potamios (ms. yppo potamios) 18 . By the first century AD, the two terms fused into hippopotam(i)us 19 . In his account of the wild beasts of the Nile, Diodorus of Sicily does not use any qualifying adjective but simply writes the so-called horse (hippos) 20 . As once suggested by Thompson (1932: 253), an Egyptian word or words (might have been) lying at the root of Gk hippos potamios, hippopotamus, a make-shift word, of which Volksetymologie has made the best Greek it can 21 . Be that as it may, Diodorus location and description of the animal identified the species plainly and his restrictive so-called explicitly stated that the word hippos in the sentence hippos potamios should not be, and indeed was not, taken at face value 22 .

2.3. Morphology Not unexpectedly, many names of exotic animals are coined on morphological features and manifest the flexible, and at times humorous, approach of their authors. In all such cases, the contexts supply information on the relevant meanings.

17 First occurrence: Herodotus (c. 480-430) 2.71 (see Debrunner 1917: 45-46, 56). Further ancient Greek and Latin sources in Strk 1977: 307-368. 18 Varro LL 5.78. On equus fluviatilis, see below, section 4 and n. 118. 19 Pliny the Elder HN 5.10 (hippopotamis), 6.173 (hippopotamiorum). Compare Greek hippopotamos: Dioscorides (first century AD) Materia medica 2.23, and later authors. Cf. Risch (1949: 286-287). Thesaurus Graecae Linguae (1841: 647B) and Debrunner (1917: 45, 93, no reference to books and chapters being stated) recorded the Greek compound hippopotamos in Strabo 15.1.13.690C. and 45.707C. None of these references is found in Liddell & Scott ([1940] 1968, 1996), s. v. hippopotamos. Mller and Dbner (1853: 588, l. 52; 602, l. 14), Meineke ([1877] 1925: 962, l. 8; 985, l. 2), Jones (1930: 20, 78) read hippos potamios. 20 Diodorus of Sicily (born c. 60 BC) 1.35.1 (Greek ton kaloumenon hippon). Compare Achilles Tatius (second century AD) Leucippe and Clitophon 4.2.1: ho hippos tou Neilou (the river beast [...] the Egyptians [my italics] called [Greek ekaloun] it Nile horse), unmentioned by Thompson (1932). 21 The Egyptian vocabulary for hippopotamus is listed by Behrmann (1996: 187-197). See also Strk (1982: 504, n. 1). 22 Compare Pausanias (second century AD) 9.21.2 (the Ethiopian bulls, [my italics] named [Greek onomazousi] rhinoceroses owing to the fact that each has one horn [ceras] at the end of the nose [rhis], over which is another but smaller one.).

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2.3.1. Direct or indirect reference to a morphological feature Examples direct reference in single noun Greek: kerastes, noun derived from keras (horn), namely the horned (snake) 23 . Latin: cerastes 24 . English: Saharan or desert horned (snake). French: (serpent) cornu, craste. Binominal nomenclature: Cerastes cerastes (Mallow and Nilson 2003: 128-130, plates 6.1 and 6.2). direct reference in descriptive-possessive expressions based on attributive or determinative compounds (either adjective-stem + nounstem or noun-stem + noun-stem) 25 and combining zoogeographical and morphological features Greek: Indikos onos monokeratos 26 . Latin: unicornis 27 . English: literally Indian unicorned-noose donkey, inherited in modern languages as unicorn (Ritvo 1997: 20, 95, 176178, 186), original ancient Greek and Latin meaning (in all likelihood) the great Indian one-horned rhinoceros. French: literally ne indien unicorne, rhinocros indien. Binominal nomenclature: Rhinoceros unicornis (Prater [1971] 1997: 229-230). Greek: rhinokeros Aithiopikos 28 , literally Ethiopian hornnose.

23 Nicander (second century BC) Theriaka 258; cf. Herodotuss description in 2.74, 4.192. Etymology: Chantraine (1999: 518). 24 Pliny the Elder NH 8.85. No entry in Ernout and Meillet (1985). 25 Khner and Blass (1892: 312-314, 338.2-4); Debrunner (1917: 43-44); Schwyzer (1939: 428-431); Smyth (1956: 252, 896, most often the first part modifies or determines the second part, the modifier stands first, the principal word second, conversely to copulative compounds on which see below, sections 2.5 and 4). 26 Aristotle (384-322) HA 2.18.499b19; PA 3.2.663a19 (the Indian ass, as it [my italics] is called [Greek kalousin]), 23 (the so-called [Greek kaloumenos] ass of India). Etymology: Chantraine (1999: 517-518). 27 Pliny the Elder NH 8.76. Etymology: Ernout and Meillet (1985: 748). Compare this calque with naricornus (n. 30). On linguistic calque in Latin, see Adams (2003: 459-460) (natural sciences deserve to be added to his list of technical languages evidencing calques). 28 Callixenus of Rhodes (third century BC) 627 F 2.32 Jacoby (1958: 174, l. 13); Diodorus of Sicily 3.35.1 (an animal... which [my italics] is called [Greek kaleitai]... rhinoceros).

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Latin: rhinoceros 29 , 6th cent. calque: naricornus 30 . English: African rhinoceros. French: rhinocros africain. Binominal nomenclature: Diceros bicornis; Ceratotherium simum (Kingdon 1997: 318-322). indirect reference (based on a possessive compound, that is an adjective later used as noun, expressing a quality with the idea of possession understood 31 ). kunokephalos 32 , adjective formed with two noun-stems kun- and kephal- 33 , the former grammatically depending on the later, literally dog-head, first as epithet of pithekos (monkey) 34 , second as substantive 35 . Latin: cynocephalus 36 . English: dog-faced baboon. French: babouin. Binominal nomenclature: Papio hamadryas (Kingdon 1997: 33-34). 2.3.2. Transfer based on similarity or opposition 2.3.2.1. Similarity in both morphology and behaviour Example (noun) Greek: drakon
29 Gaius Lucilius (second century BC), fr. 117-118 Krenkel (1970: 144); Pliny the Elder NH 6.173, 185. The species identification in NH 8.71 still remains open to discussion (see Jennison 1937: 34-35; Toynbee 1973: 126). No entry in Ernout and Meillet (1985). 30 Verecundus (died in 552 AD) Commentarii super cantica ecclesiastica. VI (In canticum Habacuc) 2 Demeulenaere (1976: 126, l. 30). 31 Smyth (1956: 253, 898). Cf. Risch (1949: 54-55, plant names). 32 Herodotus 4.191. Cf. Diodorus of Sicily 3.35.5 (The animals which [my italics] bear the name [Greek onomazomenoi] cynocephali). Compare 3.35.6 (The animal [my italics] said [Greek legomenos] cepus [my italics] received its name [Greek onomastai] from...). 33 Khner and Blass (1892: 313-314, 318-319, 338.4; 327, 340.3); Debrunner (1917: 65, 66-67, 127, 129, 131). Etymology: Chantraine (1999: 604). 34 Compare the flexibility of the determinative compounds in Greek kerkopithekos (Strabo 15.1.29.699C.): two noun-stems, namely a body part kerko- (tail), and an animal name pithekos (ape, monkey), literally (long-) tail ape, and in choiro-pithekos (Aristotle HA 2.11.503a19): two animal names as noun-stems, namely choiro- (hog) and pithekos (ape, monkey), literally pig-faced ape. See McDermott (1938: 88-108). On derogatory determinative compounds demopithekos literally peoples ape, that is charlatan, and deipnopithekos literally ape of the meal, that is parasite, see Risch (1949: 256, 278). 35 Plato (438/7-348/7) Theaetetos 161c, 166c. 36 Cicero (106-43) Ad Atticum 6.1.25. No entry in Ernout and Meillet (1985).

Greek:

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1. European grass (non-poisonous, prey-constricting) snake, Elaphe gen., especially Elaphe quatuorlineata (English: four-striped snake, French: couleuvre quatre raies), the largest of all snake species in the Balkanic area (Bodson 1981: 65-77). 2. extended to giant, non-poisonous, prey-constricting snakes in Africa and in India 37 . Latin: draco (Biville 1995: 232). 1. Grass snake 38 . 2. Indian python 39 . English: inherited as dragon (large imaginary reptilian creature with wings and the power to breathe out fire). French: inherited as dragon. Binominal nomenclature: (Africa) Python sebae (Pitman 1974: 68-72); (India) Python molurus (Walls 1998: 131-142). Example (compound) Greek: hustrix, noun composed of hus- and strix, literally swine-hair, porcupine 40 . Latin: hystrix 41 . English: porcupine. French: porc-pic. Binominal nomenclature: Hystrix cristata (Kingdon 1997: 187). 2.3.2.2. Opposition (or antiphrasis: the use of a word in a sense opposite to or different from its normal one, especially for ironic effect) Greek: krokodeilos, Ionian name for the lizard (literally) living in dry-stone walls 42 . NB: (for instance) The ubiquitous Podarcis muralis (in Asiatic Turkey: North-West area) is up to about 7.5 cm from snout to vent, but usually smaller; tail 1.7-2.3 times as long (Arnold and Ovenden 2002: 145); Lacerta ana-

37 Diodorus of Sicily 3.36-37 (cf. Bodson 2003a); Pausanias 2.28.1; Aelian (c. 170235) NA 16.39. 38 Cicero De divinatione 2.65, 135, 141. 39 Pliny the Elder NH 8.32-34. 40 Herodotus 4.192; Aristotle HA 1.6.490b29, etc. Etymology: Chantraine (1999: 192). 41 Pliny the Elder NH 8.125. Etymology: Ernout and Meillet (1985: 302). 42 Herodotus 2.68-69 (includes the Greek adaptation champsai of the Egyptian name for crocodile; Fournet 1989: 68, n. 7).

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tolica (West and South Anatolia) is up to about 7.5 cm from snout to vent; tail about twice as long (Arnold and Ovenden 2002: 179). 1. with the bio-ecological epithet potamios, identifies the so-called Egyptian lizard-living-in-the-river 43 , that is the Nile crocodile (afterwards, any crocodile either in Africa or in India). Latin: crocodilus 44 . English: crocodile. French: crocodile. Binominal nomenclature: Crocodylus niloticus (Steel 1989: 39-51), Crocodylus palustris (Steel 1989: 60-62). 2. with the bio-ecological epithet chersaios, identifies the so-called terrestrial lizard living in the desert area at the borders of Libya and Tunisia 45 . Latin: crocodilus terrester 46 . English: monitor lizard. French: varan. Binominal nomenclature: likely to be Varanus niloticus (due to size) [or Varanus griseus] (Benett 1998: 205-210, 179-186) in the earliest Greek evidence. The matter is still open to discussion in the Latin evidence. 2.3.3. Metaphoric reference to morphology, combined with behaviour Example (noun) Greek: aspis, 1. soldiers round shield, 2. the Egyptian cobra 47 , then cobra in general, the cobras typical defensive attitude (spreading a hood by inflating the ribs in the neck area) being referred to by the name for a circular shield (Chantraine 1999: 126).

43 Revised etymology in Chantraine (1999: 1411), based on Arnould (1996: 20 and n. 10). Obsolete etymology: Skoda (1997: 376), following Chantraine (1970, 1st edition: 585). 44 Varro LL 5.78; Cicero De natura deorum 1.82, 2.124, 129, 3.47; Pliny the Elder NH 8.89-94. On the metathesis corcodilus (also with reduplication of the r: corcodrilus), see Ernout and Meillet (1985: 151-152); Biville (1990: 354, 364, 366). 45 Herodotus 4.192; Aristotle HA 5.33.558a14-15; Pausanias 2.28.1. 46 Pliny the Elder NH 28.119. 47 Herodotus 4.191.

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Latin: aspis 48 . English: Egyptian cobra, Indian cobra 49 . French: cobra gyptien, cobra indien. Binominal nomenclature: Naja haje (Spawls and Branch 1995: 69-71), Naja naja (Coborn 1991: 448-450).

2.4. Behaviour Behaviour also inspired names of exotic animals. Example (noun) Greek: ichneutes 50 , ichneumon 51 namely tracker, a term referring exactly to the mongooses most conspicuous characteristic, which is to be seen rotting along with its head down. Nowadays this is thought to be scent-tracking along well-established trails (laid by the mongoose itself or by other members of its family) (Kingdon 1997: 240). The ancient Egyptians (see Malaise 1987: 35) and the ancient Greeks knew this animal as a tracker of venomous snakes and crocodiles eggs. Latin: ichneumon 52 . English: ichneumon, Egyptian mongoose. French: ichneumon. Binominal nomenclature: Herpestes ichneumon (Kingdon 1997: 240). The above criteria mostly focus on one single zoological feature, occasionally combined with a bio-ecological characteristic (krokodeilos potamios versus krokodeilos chersaios) or a behavioural characteristic (aspis), admitted as diagnostic and thus granted the role of specifying the considered animal by name. The approach is basically similar in the copulative compounds.

48 Varro Antiquitates Rerum Humanarum, I, fr. 3 Mirsch (1882: 82); Cicero De natura deorum 3.47; Pliny the Elder NH 8.85. Etymology: Ernout and Meillet (1985: 51). 49 The word cobra is borrowed from Portuguese cobra (short for latin colubra) de capelo, lit. hooded snake; Naja in the binominal nomenclature is borrowed from Sanskrit through the Cingalese nga. 50 Herodotus 2.67. Etymology: Chantraine (1999: 474). 51 Aristotle HA 8(9).6.612a16. 52 Pliny the Elder NH 8.87. No entry in Ernout and Meillet (1985).

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2.5. Morphology-and-behaviour In copulative compounds 53 , the names of two animals are placed side by side to identify a third one primarily seen by the ancient people as sharing some morphological and often behavioural traits with both of them. The constituent parts of these vocabulary items more widespread in the Hellenistic and later Greek than in archaic and classical Greek are either of Greek origin, for instance alopex (fox) (Chantraine 1999: 68), chen (goose) (Chantraine 1999: 1256-1257), elaphos (deer Cervus elaphus, whether stag or hind) (Chantraine 1999: 333), hippos (horse) (Chantraine 1999: 467-468), or early borrowings from foreign languages, for instance kamelos (camel/dromedary) (Szemernyi 1968: 196; Chantraine 1999: 469), pardalis (leopard) (Chantraine 1999: 857), tigris (tiger) (Chantraine 1999: 1116), from Iranian through Armenian 54 . Their original meaning referred to birds, for instance chen (goose), strouthos (passerine), or to mammals either wild, for instance alopex (fox), elaphos (deer), pardalis (leopard), or domesticated, for instance hippos (horse), kamelos (camel/dromedary). The resulting copulative compounds implicitly based on the principle of analogy combined either two Greek nouns, as in chen-alopex, hipp-elaphos, or two borrowed nouns, as in kamelo-pardalis, or both Greek and borrowed nouns, as in hippo-tigris. The first name or noun-stem identified the animals general category (Brugmann and Thumb 1913: 203), the second term stated the admittedly specifying or diagnostic characteristic 55 . Linguistically speaking, they fitted the Greek system of word composition. Their zoological accuracy was eventually questioned (see below, section 4). Yet neither their etymology nor their intended meaning substantiate Bivilles approach (1997: 63-65, 75) of the so-called hybrides linguistiques monstrueux 56 . chen-alopex 57 , literally goose-fox, that is, in the Egyptian conKhner and Blass (1892: 317-318, 338.8); Debrunner (1917: 46-47, 94); Risch (1949: 56-57, 255-257, 268). Cf. Benveniste ([1967] 1974: 147-149). Below, 4 (with n. 95). 54 Varro LL 5.100. 55 On the determinative compound choiropithekos, see above, n. 34. 56 On linguistic hybrids (that is, for instance, Latin words formed with a Greek and a Latin term either as first or second element), see Bader (1962: 404-410). 57 Herodotus 2.72. Etymology: Chantraine (1999: 1256-1257; agreeing with Kuentz 1934 to refer the second term alopex to the russet colour of the birds feathers, against Thompson 1936: 330, who regarded the compound chenalopex as probably rendering an Egyptian word corrupted by false etymology). Aelian NA 5.30 referred to the birds behaviour to define the composite name chenalopex as a kind of goose as mischievous as the fox, a more courageous and fierce fighter than geese. On aggressive behaviour in Alopochen aegyptiacus, see Cramp ([1977] 1986: 449).
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text 58 , the Egyptian goose-with-fox-like-red-feathers (Alopochen aegyptiacus [-ca]; Houlihan 1986: 62-65). Latin: chenalopex 59 . hipp-elaphos 60 , literally horse-stag, located in Arachosia (modern East Iran-West Afganistan 61 ) and admittedly identified as Boselaphus tragocamelus (Nilgai) 62 . Latin: kamelo-pardalis 63 , literally dromedary-leopard, that is the dromedary-with-leopard-like-pattern (Giraffa camelopardalis; Osborn and Osbornov 1998: 148-151) 64 . Latin: camelopardalis 65 . hippo-tigris 66 , literally horse-tiger, that is the horse-with-tigerlike-stripes (Zebra grevyi; Kingdon 1997: 216). Latin:

3. A case study: the ostrich As a rule, exotic animals are known by a single name, except those which were designated by zoogeographical expressions. Sooner or later, they were also given another name either of Greek origin, such as alektruon, namely fighter (Chantraine 1999: 57-58, 1376), ap-

58 When thought to be a European species as in Aristophanes Birds 1295; Aristotle HA 6.2.559b29, 7(8).3.593b22, no geographic area being stated, chenalopex is identified as Tadorna ferruginea. See Pollard (1977: 65). 59 Pliny the Elder NH 10.56. 60 Aristotle HA 2.1.498b32-499a2 (The hippelaphos, as it [my italics] is called [Greek kaloumenos], also has a mane on its withers, [...] extending from the head to the withers, horns and cloven footed ). See also Timotheos of Gaza (fifth-sixth century AD): [my italics] as if coming from horse and stag together, in Aristophanes of Byzantium Epitome 2.508 (Lambros 1885: 131, l. 14-18). 61 Kuhrt (1996). 62 Sinclair et al. (2001: 532-533). On Pliny the Elders tragelaphos (NH 8.120; Solinus 19.19: tragelaphus. Below, n. 95) possibly referring to Aristotles hippelaphos, see Knig and Winkler (1976: 217-218). 63 Callixenus of Rhodes 627 F 2.32 Jacoby (1958: 174, l. 12-13). Agatharchides of Cnidus (second century BC) fr. 72 Mller (1881: 159; English translation: Burstein 1989: 121, n. 73a). Schol. in Oppianus Cyn. 3.162 (see below, n. 94 and section 4). 64 On the Egyptian names for giraffe, see Cannuyer (1989), Goldwasser (2002: 18). 65 Varro LL 5.100; Pliny the Elder NH 8.69. 66 Cassius Dio (c. 163-c. 230) Roman History 75.14.3 Boissevain (1901: 352), 77.6.2 Boissevain (1901: 380). Keller (1909-1913: 274); Jennison (1937: 88-89); Toynbee (1973: 167). Revised interpretation in Liddell et al. (1996: 159); still unrevised in Chantraine (1999: 1116).

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plied to the cock or rooster 67 otherwise known as the Persian bird (Persikos ornis) (see above, section 2.1.2), or borrowed from indigenous languages, such as tahos 68 , for peacock (see above, section 2.1.2), otherwise known as the Persian bird (Persikos ornis) or Median bird (Medikos ornis), and such as bittakos 69 (other forms psittake 70 , psittakos 71 , etc.) for the Alexandrine Parakeet (Psittacula eupatria) (Juniper and Parr 1998: 403-404), otherwise known as the Indian bird (Indikon orneon) 72 . So far the only exotic animal designated by more than one or two names is the ostrich (Struthio camelus). It is evidenced in four different, albeit related, ways. The ostrich (Struthio camelus) (Del Hoyo et al. 1992: 76-83) is first listed in Herodotuss (c. 480-405 BC) inventory of the fauna of Northern Africa. He named it strouthos on-the-ground (strouthos katagaios) 73 twice, stressing the ostrichs typical, yet paradoxical inability to fly (Houlihan 1986: 1-5). By sheer coincidence, Aristophanes (c. 445-380 BC) alluded to it twice also, once merely as strouthos 74 , in a context which leaves no doubt as to the birds identity, second as strouthos megale 75 , that is the tall strouthos. It was referred to four times, always as the African strouthos, in Aristotles (384-322) biological treatises, his Parts of Animals including the earliest preserved description 76 . Diodorus of Sicily (first century BC) got the compound

Aristophanes Birds 483 (compare above, n. 6); Aristotle HA 8(9).8.614a7. On the loanword tahos borrowed from an Eastern language, probably old Tamil, see Karttunen (1989: 27; 1997: 207-208); Chantraine (1999: 1098). 69 Ctesias (fifth-fourth century BC) 688F45 Jacoby (1958: 488, ll. 2-8 = Lenfant 2004: 172); Bigwood (1993); Karttunen (1997: 202-205). Etymology: Chantraine (1999: 1292). 70 Aristotle HA 7(8).12.597b27. 71 Callixenus of Rhodes 627F2.32 and Jacoby (1958: 174, ll. 3-5). 72 Aristotle HA 7(8).12.597b27. Further references in Thompson (1936: 335-338, especially 336-337); see also Pollard (1977: 133, 137-138); Karttunen (1997: 202-205). 73 Herodotus 4.175, 192. Compare Diodorus of Sicily 3.28.2 (a nature mingled with that of the land animal [chersaion zoon]; see below, section 4); Aelian NA 14.13 (chersaios: living on dry land); Lucian (c. 120-180) Dipsades 2 (chamaipetes: flying on the ground). Further references in Thompson (1936: 270-273); Pollard (1977: 86, 106). Etymology of strouthos: Chantraine (1999: 1065). 74 Aristophanes Acharnians (425 BC) 1105. 75 Aristophanes Birds (414 B. C.) 875; Xenophon (c. 430-355) Anabasis 1.5.2; Aelian NA 2.27, 4.37, 5.50, 8.10, 9.58, 14.7. Also masculine: e.g. Galen (129-199) On Wholesomeness and Unwholesomeness of Foods 6 (the tall birds [my italics] now called ostriches [Greek strouthokameloi]) Khn (1823: 6.788). 76 Aristotle PA 2.14.658a13; 4.12.695a17, 13.697b14-23 (the size not of a bird but of quadruped); HA 8(9).15.616b5. Cf. Athenaeus Deipnosophists 4.26.145E (the Arabian ostriches); Herodian (second-third century AD) Ab excessu divi Marci 1.15.5 (the Mauretanian ostriches).
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strouthokamelos from one of his sources 77 , a term later transliterated by Pliny the Elder as struth(i)ocamelus 78 . The expressions and names fall respectively into the categories related to a bio-ecological or a morphological or a zoogeographical criterion. Regarding the compound strouthokamelos (Risch 1949: 57, 256, 268), the second element stressed the ostrichs three distinctive features, two of them with respect to morphology, that is its general shape and size, the third one with respect to ethology, that is its capacity for running, all in reference to a quadruped, namely the dromedary. The first element, the noun strouthos (later strouthion) identified it at once as a bird. This noun without definite etymology (Chantraine 1999: 1065) is more specific than ornis (the Greek term for bird in general) and first means small bird, passerine 79 , as its Latin counterpart passer 80 which applied to the ostrich as the overseas bird (marinus passer) 81 . In both languages, the names, expressions and compound designating the African, tall, running bird are based on the same kind of antiphrasis as evidenced in the Nile crocodiles designation (see above, 2.3.2.2). Conversely to his extensive account on the Nile crocodile, Herodotus added no comments of any kind to the item bird on-theground in his list of the African species. This different dealing with these two exotic animals implies that he had no doubt that the phrase strouthos katagaios would be correctly understood by his Athenian audience notwithstanding the original meaning of strouthos. The ostrich was thus already known in 5th century BC Athens. It might indeed have been described by Hecataios of Milet, one of Herodotuss predecessors, in the account on Egypt in his now lost Description of the Inhabited World (Meister 1998: 265). There is however a less speculative reason to believe that ostriches had not only been reported, but brought to Greece in or by the end of the 6th century, similarly to specimens of cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus) (Ashmead 1978). The depiction of ostriches mounted by parading riders on a sixth-fifth century BC Attic
Diodorus of Sicily 2.50.3; 3.28.2-5. Pliny the Elder NH 10.1-2, 56; 11.130; 28.66; Seneca (4 BC-65 AD) De constantia sapientis 2.17.1; Petronius (first century AD) Satiricon 137.4. Etymology: Ernout and Meillet (1985: 658). Fourth-cent. Greek: strouthion (pseudo-Gregory of Nazianzus [c. 329-c. 389] Against the Astronomers Migne [1857: 676, l. 39]); Latin: struthio (e.g. Isidorus of Sevilla [deceased in 636] Etymologiae 12.7.20). Further references in Andr (1967: 147); Capponi (1979: 469-472). 79 Homer (eighth century BC) Iliad 2.311. 80 Pliny the Elder NH 10.107. Further references in Andr (1967: 120-121); Capponi (1979: 384-387). Etymology: Ernout and Meillet (1985: 486). 81 Plautus (c. 250-184) Persa 198-199.
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skyphos (Fig. 1) is realistic enough to suggest that it was executed from life in the very city where the parade, whatever its meaning, took place 82 .

Fig. 1 - Two-handled cup (skyphos) depicting chorus scenes. Greek, Archaic Period, about 520-510 BC. Place of Manufacture: Greece, Attica, Athens. Ceramic, black-figure technique. Height: 16 cm (6 5/16 in.); diameter: 22 cm (8 11/16 in.). Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Gift of the Heirs of Henry Adams, 20.18. Photograph 2004 Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

4. Compounds combining the names of two different animals to identify a third one As all other classes of exotic animal names, the copulative compounds chenalopex, hippelaphos, kamelopardalis, strouthokamelos or hippotigris combining two animal names to designate a third one were formed on preexisting models. Some of these models were evidenced as early as the Iliad, others occurred in the fifth-fourth century BC literature. Yet none of them referred to real animals. Indeed, the Hom-

82 Bronze statue of Arsinoe mounting an ostrich (Helicon, Boeotia): Pausanias 9.31.1. The first exhibition of ostriches in Rome took place in the third-second century BC at the latest (see above, n. 81). Further references on exhibitions and representations: Toynbee (1973: 18-19, 237-240).

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eric kunamuia 83 , literally bitch-fly, or Aristophaness kunalopex 84 , literally dog-fox, were intended as derogatory witticisms (Faust 1969: 69-81, 109-125), the former for shameless impudent by reference to both the dogs shameless and the flys over-bold behaviour, the latter for rascal by reference to both the dogs offensive and the foxs cunning behaviour. Being based on accurate observation of each of the involved animals, these compounds applied to human or to human-like behaviour 85 by implicit comparison and were used as insulting metaphors. As for the terms hippalektruon 86 , literally horse-cock, tragelaphos 87 , literally he-goat-stag, or the double-compound hippotragelaphos 88 , literally horse-he-goat-stag, they were first coined for fanciful zoomorphic representations or unnatural monsters (see below, n. 94) of Eastern art in carpet designs, precious metal drinking cups and the like mixing parts of two or more animals (Green 2000) identified by the Greeks as horse, cock, stag or he-goat. The unreal tragelaphos repeatedly examplified Aristotles philosophical arguments on the signification of names, their conventional meaning and the essence of what was named 89 . In the present state of evidence, neither kunamuia nor kunalopex (except for the anonymous reference to the Laconian hounds in Hesychiuss Lexicon) 90 were taken otherwise as nicknames. It is worth noticing that the Laconian hounds, admittedly a crossbreed of bitch (kuon) and fox (alopex) 91 , were given no particular appellative with respect to their generation in Aristotles History of Animals and were named by Xenophon alopekides 92 , notwithstanding kunolukos, literally dog-wolf, commonly a kind of hyena otherwise known as
Homer Iliad 21.394 (of Athena), 421 (of Aphrodite). Cf. Dubielzig (1994). Aristophanes Knights (424 BC) 1067, 1069; Lysistrata (411 BC) 957; Schol. in Aristophanes Knights 1069 Dbner (1877: 71), Lysistrata (ibidem: 259). 85 Kunamuia was said of goddesses (see above, n. 83), kunalopex of despicable characters (Cleon, Philostratos) in Aristophanes comedies (see ref. above, n. 84). 86 Aeschylus (525/4-456/5) Myrmidons fr. 134 Radt (1985: 249); Aristophanes Birds (414 BC) 800; Frogs (405 BC) 932, 937. Williams (1990). 87 Aristophanes Frogs 937 (with hippalektruon, see n. 86); Diphilus (c. 360/50-c. 275) fr. 81 Kassel and Austin (1986: 101); Plato Republic 6.488a. On zoological meaning, see below n. 95. 88 Philemon the Elder (fourth-third century BC) fr. 90 Kassel and Austin (1989: 274). 89 Aristotle De interpretatione 1.16a16; Analytica priora 1.38.49a24; Analytica posteriora 2.7.92b7; Physics 4.1.208a30-31 (along with sphinx). Cf. Bolton (1985). 90 Hesychius K 4560 Latte (1966: 547). Cael. Rhod. 10.47 in Thesaurus Graecae Linguae (1841: 2111A) still remains to be retrieved. 91 Aristotle HA 7(8).28.607a3. 92 Xenophon (c. 430-c. 354) Cynegetica 3.1. See Keller (1909: I.121-123).
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k(o)roko(u)ttas 93 . Giraffe, ostrich, antelope or zebra were indeed as strange-looking and wonderful as the figments of Eastern imagination, except for the fact that the former were all but unreal 94 . With the exception of chenalopex evidenced in fifth century writings (see above, section 2.5) and of tragelaphos (see above, n. 87) eventually relocated to a real animal 95 , the copulative compounds naming these animals are Hellenistic and Roman coinages (Debrunner 1917: 45, 93; Risch 1949: 255-257), including strouthokamelos (see above, n. 75: Galen), even though ostriches were imported to Athens as early as the sixthfifth century (see above, section 3). Their word formation and meaning gave rise to occasional comments by travellers, geographers or historians who observed some of the distant-land animal species either in their countries of origin or when they were conveyed to Europe, especially for Roman shows (Jennison 1937; Toynbee 1973). These authors took advantage of the opportunity to collate their own first-hand information with their sources contents and, although they were not prepared nor supposed to enter technical arguments in the discussion of the biology of exotic animals, they sometimes broached this puzzling matter. Animal interbreeding had been formerly considered by Aristotle who admitted it in equids 96 , canids, birds and sea-animals 97 , provided that 1) they were closely allied in their nature, 2) not very different in kinds, 3) of comparable size and 4) had periods of gestation

93 [Ctesias] fr. 87 Mller (1862: 105) = F76 Lenfant (2004: 222). Compare Agatharchides fr. 77 Mller (1881: 161-162): a kind of composite of wolf and dog (in Bursteins transl. 1989: 124, n. 78a); Strabo 16.4.16.775C. (see Biffi 2002: 294): a mixed progeny of wolf and dog; Diodorus of Sicily 3.35.10: The animal which is (my italics) said (Greek legomenos) in Ethiopia crocottas has a nature which is a mixture of that of a dog and that of a wolf. Pliny the Elder NH 8.72: (my italics) hyenas like a cross between a dog and a wolf., in spite of 8.107: When crossed with this race of animals (= hyenas) the Ethiopian lioness gives birth to the corocotta. 94 Schol. in Oppian (third century AD) Cynegetica 3.462 Cats Bussemaker (1878: 256): giraffes: a (my italics) natural monster and altogether a wonder, somehow uniting two species in one. 95 For instance, to render the Hebrew name of a wild goat or antelope of Arabia or of Colchis in the Septuagint translation of Job 39.2 Vigouroux (1902: 808); Diodorus of Sicily 2.51.2 (cf. Pliny the Elder NH 8.120; see above, n. 62; etc.). Compare hippelaphos (above, n. 60), onelaphos (Callixenus of Rhodes 627F2.32 Jacoby 1958: 173, l. 13), taurelaphos (Cosmas Indicopleustes [sixth century AD] Christian Topography 11.3), choirelaphos (ibidem 11.8). Neither Aristotles hippelaphos nor Cosmas Indicopleustess taurelaphos (neither name nor depictions of the fanciful hippalektruon, see n. 86) confirm Schwyzers translation (1939: 453): Hirsch, der etwas vom Bock hat and Casevitzs analysis (2002: 92, n. 21) of tragelaphos as a determinative compound (see above, n. 25) in Diodorus of Sicily 2.51.2. 96 Aristotle HA 6.23.577b5-29; GA 2.8.747a25-749a3. 97 Aristotle HA 7(8).28.607a1-8; GA 2.7.746a34-b8.

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equal in length 98 . As regards Africa proverbially said to always bring forth something new with respect to fauna 99 , his account, although repeated twice, was more allusive. Whatever the reason (lack of information or of means of investigation), he did not explicitly state a position of his own, but borrowed arguments from sources he left unidentified to cautiously explain how the so-called African hybrids could be generated by animals of different kinds having sexual intercourse at the rare water-holes where they were forced to meet 100 . Of the copulative compounds chenalopex, hippelaphos and tragelaphos evidenced in his treatises, the last one insistently related to a fanciful creature (see above, n. 89). The other two designated real animals with no possible reference to the process of generation. Indeed, whatever the intended species (see above, n. 57, 58), hybridization was out of the question in chenalopex, since goose and fox are too different in kinds to fit the second of Aristotles criteria of animal interbreeding. As for hippelaphos (see above, n. 60), Aristotles phrase as it is called and ensuing description proved beyond doubt that the copulative compound was formed with the names of two male animals, namely horse and stag, because three morphological characteristics analogous with the formers mane and the latters horns and feet were regarded as the zoologically distinctive features of the Eastern quadruped in which these attributes combined. In short, the composites chenalopex and hippelaphos 101 were significant not by nature but only because they had become a symbol 102 . In all likelihood, the later copulative coinages (strouthokamelos, kamelopardalis, etc.) derived from these prototypes rather than from the metaphorical appellatives. Be that as it may, the Greek compounds for giraffe, ostrich or zebra were by no means to be taken literally. Understandably, Diodorus of Sicily, Strabo of Amasia and the other Greco-roman writers did not walk in Aristotles footsteps to further inquire into the generation of exotic animals about all of which it

Aristotle GA 2.7.746a29-33. Aristotle HA 7(8).28.606b19-20, GA 2.7.746b8-9. Cf. Diodorus of Sicily 2.51.2-3. 100 Aristotle HA 7(8).28.606b19-24, GA 2.7.746b8-13. Pliny the Elders unreserved and simplifying echo (NH 8.42) of this idea gave it a firmness it did not have in Aristotles. Compare Diodorus of Sicily 3.25.1-2 (only focussing on indigenous hunting techniques at water-holes). 101 On the zoological meaning of tragelaphos, see above, n. 95. The word sphinx (see above, n. 89) was also reused in zoology. It applied to an African monkey (see McDermott 1938: 67-68, 84-85). On art depictions of this real sphinx, see Diodorus of Sicily 3.35.4 (in shape they are not unlike those depicted in art save they are...). Compare below, n. 119. 102 Aristotle De interpretatione 2.16a25-28.
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would be a long task to write in detail 103 . In a way foreshadowing Pliny the Elders plan some decades later, that is to point out the manifest properties of objects, not to search for doubtful causes 104 , they aired their views on what these animals looked like much more than on how they might have been produced. In Diodoruss assessment of the Arabian fauna, the part of the country which borders upon Syria was said to produce animals which are of double form and mingled in their natures, to which belong the bird-camel/dromedaries, which, as their name implies (Greek onomazomenai), embrace in their form the compound of a bird and a camel 105 . In his account of the African fauna, he described the ostrich as a kind of bird having a nature which is mingled with that of the land animal, and this explains the appellation (Greek prosegoria) it bears,... an animal not inferior in size to the largest deer (elaphos) 106 , ... fashioned by Nature 107 with a long neck and a round body, which is covered with feathers 108 . As for the giraffes, as they are called (Greek kaloumenai), they represent the mixing of the two animals which are included in the appellation (Greek prosegoria) given to it 109 . Whereas Diodorus confined himself to describing exotic animals and to underlining the double form of some of them and their resulting names, Strabo turned out to be in a critical mood, for instance when dealing with the camel/dromedaryleopards though they are in no respect like leopards 110 . He defined them as closer to domesticated animals than to wild beasts, for they show no signs of wildness 111 . He wrongly questioned Artemidoruss

Diodorus of Sicily 2.51.2. Pliny the Elder NH 11.8; cf. Bodson (1986). 105 Diodorus of Sicily 2.50.3-5 (For in size they are [my italics] like a newly-born camel, [...] their eyes are large and black, indistinguishable in general appearance and colour from those of the camel. It is also long-necked [...] it swiftly skims over the land; cf. 3.28.3: it runs more swiftly than any other animal.). See above, n. 63 and 94. 106 Compare Strabo 16.4.11. On deer, stag as reference animal in zoological compounds, see n. 95. 107 Compare Aristotle PA 1.5.645a9 (for instance). 108 Diodorus of Sicily 3.28.2. 109 Diodorus of Sicily 2.51.1 (For in size they are smaller than camel/dromedaries and have shorter necks, but in the head and the arrangement of the eyes they are formed very much [my italics] like a leopard; and although they have a hump on the back like the camel, yet in respect to colour and hair they are like leopards; likewise in the possession of a long tail they imitate the nature of this wild beast.). Cf. n. 94. 110 Strabo 16.4.16.775C. (see Biffi 2002: 293). Compare Diodoruss emphasis of similarities (above, n. 109). 111 Compare Pliny the Elder NH 8.69 (it has been recognized to be more remarkable for appearance than for ferocity, and consequently it has also got the name of wild sheep [ovis fera]).
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statement on their great speed because of their lack of symmetry in hind and front legs. But as regards the name kamelopardalis, his objections against the reference to the leopard since the dappled marking of their skin is more like that of a fawnskin, which latter is flecked with spots and to the camel/dromedary since the giraffes necks rise high and straight up, their heads reaching much higher up than those of camel/dromedaries make clear that in his viewpoint, the compound was more conventional than zoologically relevant 112 . The same conclusion proves to be valid in all other copulative names of exotic animals. In Latin, the process of borrowing the names of Asian and African animals from Greek started in the third-second century BC, as soon as both languages began to be in ever closer contact 113 , and was extensively evidenced in Varros Latin Language 114 and in Pliny the Elders Natural History 115 . Nonetheless, in the early stages as well as later, some exotic animals were given names coined in Latin. They coexisted with the scholarly appellatives, for instance Luca bos 116 cow of Lucania, that is elephant, versus elefas 117 ; ovis fera (see above, n. 111) wild sheep, that is giraffe, versus camelopardalis (see above, sections 2.5 and 4); equus fluviatilis 118 river horse, that is hippopotamus, versus hippopotamus (see above, section 2.2), or marinus passer overseas bird (see above, n. 81), that is ostrich, versus struthocamelus (see above, section 3). Mutatis mutandis was a double way of designating exotic animals in Latin just as modern languages have the vernacular names versus the binominal nomenclature.

5. Conclusion Neither the ancient Greeks nor the Romans developed a zoological nomenclature. All animal names in Greek and Latin belong thus to
Compare Pliny the Elder NH 8.69: Some (my italics) resemblance to these (namely camels) is passed on to two animals. The Ethiopians give the name of nabun to one that has a neck (my italics) like a horse, feet and legs like an ox, and a head like a camel, and is of a ruddy colour picked out with white spots, owing to which it is called camelopard. 113 See above, n. 29 (as instance). 114 See above, n. 12, 18, 44, 48, 54, 65. In Cicero: see n. 36, 38, 44, 48. 115 See above, n. 5, 19, 24, 27, 39, 41, 46, 52, 59, 62 (and 95), 78, 93, 112. 116 Naevius (c. 275/70-c. 201), fr. 65-6 Warmington (1957: 72-73); Plautus Casina 846; Varro LL 7.39-40; Lucretius (c. 94-55) On the Nature of Things 5.1302; Pliny the Elder NH 8.16. See Scullard (1974: 104-105). 117 Similar reference to cattle in the Eastern terms (see Hemmerdinger 1970: 52) in which Greek elephas is rooted. 118 Pliny the Elder NH 8.73.
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the commonly spoken language, with the exception of many Latinized loanwords. This vocabulary in either language is not a heterogeneous mix of nouns and expressions. They form a limited, yet consistent system of their own. It is plain in the names of many European animals and even more conspicuous in the names of the exotic animals because they and the related data shed further light on the concomitant process of perceiving species initially unknown to the Greeks and Romans, as were the Asian and African animals, and of coining their Greek or Latin names, when they were not borrowed from indigenous languages. Referring to zoogeography, bio-ecology, morphology, and behaviour, they were expressed either in nouns, groups of words or in compounds, theoretically a single name, whatever its linguistic form, by animal. Nonetheless, some species, namely birds such as cock, peacock, and parrot were known by two names (see above, section 3), and the ostrich under four, each pointing to another prominent feature and therefore complementing the birds description (see above, section 3). Determinative compounds (rhinokeros, kunokephalos), with their own linguistic features, underlined only one physical characteristic regarded as diagnostic (see above, section 2.3.1). In copulative, analogybased compounds (see above, sections 2.5, with n. 60: Timotheos of Gaza, and 4, with n. 93, 105, 109, 112), the first word related to morphology and denoted the category (or sub-category) to which the concerned animal was referred in ancient zoology: birds (goose in chenalopex, so-called passerine in stroutho-kamelos), quadrupeds (camel in kamelo-pardalis, horse in hipp-elaphos and hippo-tigris, he-goat in trag-elaphos). The second term provided diagnostic features, either one in connection with morphology (tragelaphos, onelaphos, taurelaphos; see above, n. 95), colour (chenalopex, see above, n. 57), or two in connection with morphology and colour in kamelopardalis (see above, n. 109), morphology and behaviour in strouthokamelos (see above, n. 105), colour and pattern in hippotigris (see above, n. 66). The recurrence of the Greek verbs for to call (see above, n. 20, 26, 60 and section 4), to name (see above, n. 22, 32 and section 4) or to say (see above, n. 32, 93) purposely repeated with both the copulative and the determinative appellatives of exotic animals, constantly drew the readerships attention to their zoological signification. In other words, hippelaphos or rhinokeros, hippopotamos or kunokephalos and the like were explicitly pointed up as mere figures of speech. Whatever their literal reference to other animals names (in kunokephalos as well as in kamelo-pardalis) or to animal morphology (as in rhino-keros), their signification had to be found out either directly by means of observation in the field or in exhibitions and shows (see above, sections 3 and 4) or indirectly in referring to more or less infor-

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mative accounts (see above, n. 60, sections 3 and 4) and graphical representations (see above, section 3 and n. 101), depending on their degree of accuracy 119 . When entering the Latin language either by transliteration or by translation, this vocabulary retained its basically conventional meaning which afterwards passed down to modern languages. Indeed, many of them inherited their vernacular names of exotic species from the Greek and Latin, and the binominal nomenclature took an important amount of its materials to coin their scientific names from the same sources. Although the etymological linkage is less widely known nowadays than in the past, the ancient Greek and Latin appellatives regarding the Asian and African animals still remain the external first landmark of the historical role played by the classical people in intercontinental zoological exploration and in the acclimatization of species brought to Europe from distant lands. And for all its conventionalism, this terminology proves to be illuminating to retrieve and understand how the exotic animals were perceived at an early stage and subsequently in Western tradition and how they were granted a place in the general conceptions of both the biological mechanisms and the animal kingdom.

acknowledgements I would like to thank Professor Michel Malaise, former head of the Department of Egyptology (University of Lige), for updating my bibliography on the Egyptian animal names.

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119 For instance, see Meyboom (1995: 283, n. 10, pl. 59; Marissa frieze, Israel, 225-200 BC). In addition to morphological inaccuracies, the earliest extant depiction of a giraffe in ancient Greek art shows the body leopard-spotted from head to foot. Compare the samples of bookish representations of mantichoras in Middle Ages and Renaissance (Li Causi 2003: Fig. 5, 7-8).

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