γήτειον, κήτειον
(Philemo [Laur.] 357)

D. General commentary

Philemon’s Atticist lexicon (A.1) favours the spelling κήτειον for ‘(wild) onion’ or ‘leek’, against the relatively well-attested spelling γήτειον (the word actually reads γήγειον in cod. L, an evident majuscule error corrected by the editors). The severe epitomisation undergone by this entry makes the nature and motivation of Philemon’s prescription unclear. Nonetheless, comparison with other erudite sources may shed some light on this apparently obscure entry, which has no direct parallel in other Atticist lexica. Indeed, an entry in Hesychius’ lexicon (B.2) dealing with the meanings of κήτειον does mention γήτιον as a variant. Although Hesychius’ entry has probably incorporated some extraneous material (see F.1), it states that κήτειον – among other meanings – may refer to a wild plant used as an emetic in Cratinus (C.4) but that it may also refer to a kind of onion. The former definition is confirmed by Theognostus (B.3) and Photius (B.4); with the exception of these lexicographical sources, κήτειον is never attested as a plant name but only as an adjective meaning ‘monstrous’, ‘of a sea-monster’ (κῆτοςκῆτος). γήτειον, meanwhile, is arguably a derivative in -i̯o- of the s-stem noun γῆτοςγῆτος, an Attic word equivalent to κρόμ(μ)υονκρόμμυον ‘onion’ according to Moeris (B.1), although the existence of the variant γήθυον (whence the derivative γηθυλλίς, which Didymus [279a–b Coward-Prodi] considered equivalent to ἀμπελόπρασον ‘wild leek’; on the identification of the species see Arnott 1996, 388–9; Stama 2014, 102–3) suggests a Pre-Greek substrate origin on account of the irregular correspondences τ/θ and ι/υ (see Furnée 1972, 187–8, EDG s.v. γηθυλλίς, van Beek 2022, 394–5; DELG s.v. γηθυλλίς hypothesises that γήτειον was folk-etymologically remodelled after γηθέω ‘rejoice’; note, however, that γῆτος, not mentioned by the etymological dictionaries, would plead in favour of γήτειον as the older form). Nonetheless, γήτειον is not uncommon in Classical Attic, being relatively well-attested both in comedy (C.1, C.2, C.3, C.5, C.6) and in technical writings (Diocl. fr. 196.6, Thphr. 4x). In later Greek, this word becomes quite rare, appearing only occasionally in poetry (Call. fr. 178.25, Mel. AP 7.195.7) and prose (Ph. De somniis 2.49.2, Plu. 663d.2); one occurrence in Lucian’s Lexiphanes (C.7) attests to its antiquated status (see F.2). From this time on, γήτειον almost exclusively features in erudite and grammatical works (schol. Ar. Eq. 677a [VEΓ²MLh], Hsch. γ 500, Et.Gud. 311.15, EM 230.21–3, [Zonar.] 435.32–436.1). As can be expected given the meaning, the variant γήθυον – be it a mere formal variant of γήτειον or the name of a different species – shares an almost identical distribution, being attested in Attic comedy (Ar. fr. 5, Alex. fr. 179.6) and Theophrastus (15x) but very rarely afterwards, except for Atticising authors (Alciphr. 3.13.1) and erudite sources.

If γήτειον and κήτειον were really two different words for two different plants, both mentioned in Attic comedy, Philemon may simply be cautioning against confusing them: more precisely, given the more numerous attestations of γήτειον, it stands to reason that some speakers would have mistakenly used it instead of the even rarer κήτειον. Both, at any rate, were rare words, associated with Old Comedy and most likely extraneous to the spoken language of the 2nd century CE: Philemon’s prescription, then, was ideally addressed not to any contemporary user of Greek, but to someone attempting to master the language of classical Attic authors. Interestingly, an Aristophanic scholium (B.5) expressly attests that some lexicographical authorities wrongly explained γήτειον as a plant similar to an ἀνθέρικος (‘asphodel’), which corresponds to the definition of κήτειον given by Theognostus and Photius. In light of this scholium, we may not exclude the possibility that Philemon’s entry also intended to caution against the confusion of γήτειον and κήτειον in the transmission of comic texts.

It is also conceivable, in principle, that some contemporary speakers said γήτειον rather than κήτειον due to a phonetic shift of /k/ to /g/ and that Philemon wished to condemn such a pronunciationPronunciation; the resulting confusion with the word for ‘onion’ would be an additional consequence. Atticist lexicographers, including Philemon himself, discuss consonantal alternations between /k/ and /g/ elsewhere, particularly in the position before /n/ or /r/, where voicing alternations already appear to have been a reality in classical Attic (see entries ἄκναπτος and κράστις, γράστις). The confusion between /k/ and /g/, however, may point to a later phenomenon: as Gignac (1975, 76−7) remarks, ‘γ and δ interchange very frequently with κ and τ respectively, throughout the Roman and Byzantine periods in all phonetic conditions […]. This reflects the identification of the voiced and voiceless phonemes by many speakers in a single velar /k/ and dental /t/ phoneme’. This appears, in fact, to have been a specific development of Egyptian Greek owing to linguistic contact with the CopticCoptic substratum, as Coptic phonology did not distinguish between voicedVoiced stops and voiceless stopsVoiceless stops, except for labials (see Dahlgren 2017, 58−9). This interpretation is less likely, however, since both γήτειον and κήτειον were, as already stated, archaic words that had likely fallen out of general use (both are, in fact, unattested in papyri; see further E.). It is unlikely, therefore, that the learned word κήτειον was affected by a sound change that was typical of contemporary spoken Greek.

E. Byzantine and Modern Greek commentary

Neither γήτειον nor κήτειον, already obsolete in the 2nd century CE, survived into Post-classical Greek. The Modern Greek word for ‘onion’, κρεμμύδι, already attested in medieval sources as κρεμμύδιον, is a diminutive of the ancient κρόμ(μ)υον, showing either a late dissimilatory change /o/ > /e/ before a labial sound or the old e-grade *krem- seen in Hsch. κ 4051 κρέμυον· κρόμυον, in the placename Κρεμμυών (a variant of Κρομμυών), and in other Indo-European branches (cf. Middle Irish crem‘(wild) garlic’, Lithuanian kermušė ‘wild garlic’, and Old Church Slavonic črěmošъ ‘ramsons’). The modern word for ‘leek’, πράσο, is a direct descendent of the Ancient Greek πράσονπράσον: notably, in ancient texts, both κρόμ(μ)υον and πράσον are often mentioned together with γήθυον / γήτειον (cf., e.g., C.5, where all three occur, and see van Beek 2022, 395–6).

F. Commentary on individual texts and occurrences

(1)    Hsch. κ 2574 (B.2)

This synonymic-differential gloss (on this concept see Bossi, Tosi 1979–1980, 15) from Hesychius’ lexicon deals with the various meanings of κήτειον. The first meaning given, ‘big’, arguably belongs to the adjective κήτειοςκήτειος ‘monstrous’, which is derived from the s-stem noun κῆτος ‘sea monster’. Several of the other interpretamenta, however, likely belonged to different lemmas and were wrongly included here: so, Schmidt (1858–1868 vol. 2, 478) recognised that the second meaning given probably refers to κήθιον or κηθάριον ‘voting-urn, ballot-box’, while the further definition μέλος τι ‘a limb’ pertains to κηπίον ‘appendage’. It is more difficult to judge the correctness of the other definitions given. Hesychius reports that κήτειον may also refer to a wild plant used to induce vomit in Cratinus’ Horae (C.4), a play which, indeed, featured vomiting in one scene (fr. 271); Kock (CAF vol. 1, 92) assumed that the latter information also originally referred to a κηθάριον used for vomiting in Cratinus’ play, but Theognostus' independent testimony (B.3) confirms that κήτειον was indeed the name of a wild plant used as an emetic (as Alpers 1964, 40–8 decisively demonstrated, Hesychius is not a direct source of Theognostus). The following definitions ἥδυσμα ‘condiment, seasoning’ and νεαρὸν κρόμμυον ‘young onion’, however, are congruent with the attested usage of γήτειον, which Aristophanes twice describes as a ἥδυσμα by Aristophanes (C.1, C.2) and is glossed as κρόμ(μ)υον in lexica (note also the compound κρομμυογήτειον, a hapax in Thphr. HP 4.6.2); at the end of the entry, indeed, it is added that a variant γήτιον is found in cookery-books, an observation that makes sense only with reference to an ἥδυσμα. Fiorentini (2022, 246) remarks that Theognostus’ testimony nullifies the hypothesis that the plant-name κήτειον is merely a formal variant of γήτειον ‘onion’ (see also Kassel, Austin PCG vol. 2, 265).

(2)    Luc. Lex. 3 (C.7)

In this passage from the pseudo-Atticising Symposium composed by the title character in Lucian’s Lexiphanes, Callicles describes several food items that his slave Atticion has bought at the market. As commentators have noticed, this list makes little sense from the culinary perspective and is mainly an occasion for showing off Attic vocabulary (see Weissenberger 1996, 185). Since the pattern of attestation of γήτειον suggests that ‘already by the time of Lucian […] γήτειον was obsolete and generally unintelligible’ (Arnott 1996, 389), its presence in this list is most likely motivated by its status as a word associated with Old Comedy (on the relationship between the Lexiphanes, Old Comedy, and lexicography, see now Stifler 2023, 82–4). Lucian may also have been aware that the word was discussed in contemporary erudite circles, as its attestations in lexicography prove (see Baldwin 1973, 50–2 on the links between Lexiphanes’ diction and words discussed by Atticists). One may wonder whether the possibility of confusion between γήτειον and κήτειον, highlighted by both Philemon (A.1) and Hesychius (B.2), was also instrumental in the selection of this word: as Harmon (1936, 291) recognised, ‘a conspicuous feature of Lucian’s parody of Lexiphanes is the use of words no longer generally employed in the old sense but in a new and very different one, so that double meanings result’, and an additional comical effect may arise here from the double entendre between an old Attic name for an onion and the name of a plant used as an emetic. Such a joke would align with the theme of vomit, which features prominently in the Lexiphanes (see Martin 2018; Kazantzidis 2019). Admittedly, however, the joke would have been more effective if Callicles had said κήτειον while intending to say γήτειον, rather than the opposite.