Substance in the names of things (1)

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One of the Stoic techniques used to investigate connections between the gods and earthly matter, the links between macrocosm and microcosm, was based on the theory that the names of things, regardless of language, contain cryptic evidence from which the essential substance can be extracted. It uses the kind of etymological play enjoyed by modern crossword puzzlers; for example, the goddess Athena is equated with ‘air’, aither, because both words contain the letters ATHE. The same kind of technique is found in the Babylonian Creation Epic, in which the epithets of Marduk are dissected one by one into various syllables and logographic elements, which can each be given independent meanings of their own. For instance, the name Marduk could be understood as mar ‘son’ and duku ‘holy mountain’. Likewise Bardesanes of Edessa (154-222 CE) believed that composition and formation of words was analogous to the composition of essential natures. Much later the same technique was used by Michael Scot, the remarkable scholar who served Frederick II of Sicily from 1224 CE. He had studied in Toledo where he would have read, for instance, the encyclopaedic work Etymologies written by Isidore of Seville in the sixth century CE, and widely popular in the Middle Ages, a compilation showing the technique used in simplistic ways.

Bibliography

Stephanie Dalley

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