βρωμᾶσθαι
(Moer. β 21, Poll. 5.88)

D. General commentary

Three items from Atticist lexica are concerned with the verb βρωμάομαι (‘to bray’), discussing its meaning and usage (A.2), its etymology (Β.1), and its Attic pedigree (A.1), respectively. βρωμάομαι derives from the verb βρέμωβρέμω (‘to roar’), which may be onomatopoeicOnomatopoeia, though its etymology is uncertain (see DELG and EDG s.v. βρέμω). From βρέμω derive two separate series of words: the first consists of terms specifically associated with thunder and characterised by the cluster -ντ- (e.g. βροντή, ‘thunder’, and βροντάω, ‘to thunder’), while the other, characterized by -μ-, is more generally associated with sounds (see βρόμος, ‘any loud sound’ [LSJ s.v.]). βρωμάομαι, which belongs to the latter group, has an /o:/ (like βρώμησις, βρωμητής) and is a technical word that indicates an animal sound, typically applied to donkeys (and, more tenuously, to deer: see below). The presence of /o:/ is likely one of the reasons that accounts for the grammarians’ interest in this word as well as the confusion that it produced, encouraged by βρωμάομαι’s similarity to forms of βρωμέω (‘to smell’, ‘to stink’, whose etymology is disputed and does not appear to be related to βρωμάομαι, see DELG, EDG s.v. βρωμέω) and derivatives of βιβρώσκωβιβρώσκω (‘to devour’, ‘to eat’) with a long vowel, such as βρῶσις (‘eating’) and βρῶμα (‘food’; on these forms see DELG, EDG s.v. βιβρώσκω).

The Ἐπιμερισμοί erroneously attributed to Herodian (B.2, see Dickey 2014, 329) state that words beginning with βρο- invariably have a short vowel in their first syllable and posit the existence of two different verbs: βρομάομαι (from βρόμος and with a short vowel), which would be synonymous with ὀγκάομαι (‘to bray’), and βρωμάομαι (with the long vowel, being an exception to the rule), associated with βρῶμα (‘food’). The doctrine of the Ἐπιμερισμοί (B.2) appears to be incoherent: it matches βρωμάομαι (from βρῶμα, ‘food’) with the lion’s roar and regards it as a synonym of βρυχάομαι, while the grammarians were more concerned with disambiguating these forms (cf. [Ammon.] 507.5–6[Ammon.] 507.5–6: βρωμᾶσθαι ἐπὶ ὄνων, βρυχᾶσθαι δ’ ἐπὶ λεόντων, ‘βρωμᾶσθαι, to bray, [is said] of donkeys, while βρυχᾶσθαι, to roar, [is said] of lions’). Nevertheless, the connection of βρωμάομαι with the food sphere is paralleled by the doctrine that Eustathius ascribes to the Atticist Pausanias (Β.1), according to whom βρωμάομαι would have a long vowel owing to its derivation from βρώμη (‘food’). The association between βρωμάομαι and food is reinforced by the item in Photius, repeated in the Suda (B.4), which ascribes the word to hungry donkeys; meanwhile, the definition of βρῶμα as ‘bray’ (rather than ‘food’) is unparalleled.

βρωμάομαι aroused the Atticists’ interest by virtue of its Attic pedigree in relation to the synonymous ὀγκάομαι (on which see DELG and DGE s.v.). Pollux (A.2), who attests to the use of ὀγκάομαι in poetry, and the Lexicon Vindobonense (B.8) simply present the two as acceptable synonyms of one another (although Pollux affords greater attention to βρωμάομαι and its related forms). Adopting a stricter policy, Moeris (A.1) selects βρωμάομαι as correct Attic and proscribes ὀγκάομαι, followed by Thomas Magister (B.6). The lexicon De vocibus animalium (B.3) and the so-called Zonaras’ lexicon (B.7, whose item has been dubiously included among Orus’ fragments), in classifying ὀγκάομαι as a rarer form, likely mirror this doctrine. The proscription of ὀγκάομαι as a rare form initially appears to be unfounded, given that it occurs roughly twice as frequently as βρωμάομαι and its associates, but when it comes down to canon, it finds its justification: ὀγκάομαι is not attested before the 4th century BCE with the exception of its occurrence in a fragment by the comic poet Theopompus (fr. 5), in which its occurrence is dubious and is now typically excluded in favour of its derivative ὀγκάς (‘brayer’) (see Farmer 2022, 42–3). βρωμάομαι, however, is attested in Aristophanes’ Wasps (C.1). This occurrence may have had an impact on the devaluation of ὀγκάομαι: while Aristophanes occupies a robust position in the canon selected by Atticist lexicographers, Theopompus’ status is precarious, as is often the case for later representatives of Old Comedy. This is even more true for Moeris (A.1), who narrows his canon to a few major authors of Old Comedy and indisputably favours Aristophanes (on the Atticist lexicographers’ approach to Old Comedy, see Tribulato 2024). The only other classical occurrence of βρωμάομαι – in Aristotle (C.2) – instead is dubious: while the vulgate βρωμᾶται – ‘bellows’ – referred to the calls of deer in heat, the manuscript tradition oscillates between βρωμᾶται (βρωμάομαι) and βρωμεῖ (βρωμέω, ‘to smell rank’). βρωμάομαι was later revived in the 2nd century CE and was subsequently employed mainly by grammarians and lexicographers, with the exception of Aelian’s NA (C.3). The verb ὀγκάομαι, by contrast, circulated widely and is likely to have been easily understood, as suggested by its frequent employment as an interpretamentum.

In stating that ὀγκάομαι occurs rarely, therefore, erudite sources are likely to refer not to its usage but to its literary pedigree. Stricter Atticists favoured βρωμάομαι over ὀγκάομαι because it was recognised as peculiar to the Attic dialect and thus as a clear marker of Atticism. Thomas Magister’s statement (B.6), which enriches the canon relying on Libanius, should be interpreted accordingly: in asserting that ‘none of the rhetors has used it’, he is implying that ὀγκάομαι is not considered to be sufficiently Attic and that it is not admissible within a strict canon.

E. Byzantine and Modern Greek commentary

In the Byzantine era, βρωμάομαι (‘to bray’) occurs outside lexicographical sources only a few times. Procopius of Caesarea (6th century) employs it in describing the detention of a senator almost reduced to an animal (C.5), and Michael Choniates (12th century) uses it in the frame of a complex metaphor comparing the Greeks with the Latin invaders (C.6). Here, the donkey’s braying is cited as exemplifying the Latin’s roughness and ignorance, whereas the horse – the nobler animal – denotes Carystus, son of the centaur Chiron and eponymous hero of the city and thus the Greeks as legitimate inhabitants of these territories (the reference to Carystus is due to the fact that the epistle is addressed to George Bardanes, son of Demetrius Bardanes, bishop of Carystus). It is not implausible that Choniates, in using both verbs in succession to emphasise the donkey’s braying, consciously invokes the lexicographic tradition in which the two are associated. After all, his disciple George Bardanes may have been an interlocutor who was responsive to such allusions.

After the 12th century, βρωμάομαι no longer appears to be attested outside grammatical and lexical works. In the later Byzantine period, at least, it seems to have been rare in everyday language and rather confined to erudite discussions. Several forms connected to βρωμάομαι in the TLG are actually forms of the verb βρωμέω (‘to smell’, ‘to stink’), which is used continuously in Medieval Greek and survives in Modern Greek as βρωμώ (see ILNE, s.v. βρωμώ, βρῶμα ‘smell’, βρωμερός ‘smelling’): see, among others, occurrences of βρωμώ in Pseudo-Methodius’ Apocalypsis (13.4 Lolos; 7th century) and in the Chronicon Toccorum (9.11, l. 2447 Schirò, 14th century). The confusion between forms of βρωμάομαι and βρωμέω was not rare; it is also evident in the oscillation between βρωμεῖ and βρωμᾶται in Aristotle’s tradition (C.2, see D.). Another lexical family with the stem βρωμ- (from βρῶμα ‘food’) survives in Modern Greek in relation to food and nutrition (see ILNE, s.v. βρωματίζω, ‘to nourish an infant’, βρωμάτισμα ‘the nourishing of an infant’); these forms appear to be characteristic of the area of Karpathos (Dodecanese).

ὀγκάομαι, by contrast, survives in Modern Greek, with the suffix -ίζω, as oγκανίζω (high-register and dialectal) and γκαρίζω (‘to bray’, Standard Modern Greek), see ILNE, s.v. γκαρίζω. See also γκάρισμα (‘bray’, rarely γκαρισιά, see ILNE, s.v.); for the noun ‘bray’, the already-ancient ὀγκηθμός occurs only in very high-register katharevousa.

F. Commentary on individual texts and occurrences

(1)    Michael Choniates Epistulae 110.52–5 (C.6)

The hendiadys ὀγκώμενοι καὶ βρωμώμενοι (‘braying and braying’) resting on the synonymic association of the two verbs in lexica, is not the only allusion to the erudite tradition in this passage. The immediately preceding κανθήλιοι ἐννεάμυκλοι (‘nine-year-old pack-mules’) is in fact a reference to a fragment that lexica and scholia attribute to Callimachus (fr. 650 PfeifferCall. fr. 650 Pfeiffer: see EM 594.20–5; cf. Hsch. ε 3188; schol. Lyc. 771b). The expression is instead attributed to Antimachus (fr. 154) by [Hdn.] Philet. 30.