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Headword: *morfno/s
Adler number: mu,1269
Translated headword: dusky one
Vetting Status: high
Translation:
A kind of eagle.[1]
As if being some slaughter-toil [moro/fonos], that which is always in toil with regard to slaughter:[2] for these alone of the eagles do not hunt, but feed on dead bodies.[3]
Greek Original:
*morfno/s: ei)=dos a)etou=. oi(onei\ moro/fono/s tis w)/n, o( a)ei\ peri\ fo/nou memorhme/nos: mo/noi ga\r ou(=toi tw=n a)etw=n ou) kunhgou=sin, a)lla\ nekroi=s sw/masi tre/fontai.
Notes:
A variant spelling of the headword exists, with accent on the penult, but the sense is dubious in either case: see Cunliffe, p. 273 and LSJ s.v. mo/rfnos, -o(.
The headword and glosses (see n. 1-2 below) are generated from Homer, Iliad 24.316 (web address 1) and its scholia, where the masculine accusative singular form of the headword, mo/rfnon (dusky), appears as an epithet of the eagle; cf. mu 1268 and Richardson, p. 305. As a substantive, though, the headword occurs at Aristotle, History of Animals 618b26. The change in accentuation from ultima to penult may indicate a change from adjective to substantive in the word's usage (Chantraine s.v. mo/rfnos).
[1] For the masculine accusative singular form of the headword, other lexica (see the references at Photius mu542 Theodoridis) and a scholion to Homer, Iliad 24.316 (see above) all provide the same gloss; cf. Etymologicum Magnum 591.16 (Kallierges).
[2] cf. (e.g.) the scholia to Homer, Iliad 24.316 (above) and Etymologicum Magnum 591.22 (Kallierges). The term moro/fonos occurs only in the explanations of this passage.
[3] The Suda appears to associate the ominous bird with a carrion eater; however, the reference at Homer, Iliad 24.316 (see above) is to a bird that is a mo/rfnon qhrhth=ra (dusky hunter, masculine accusative singular). The one plausible identity for the bird, assuming the treasury-door imagery for the huge wingspread at Homer, Iliad 24.317-18 (web address 1) to be accurate, is the Golden Eagle, Aquila chrysaetos (Richardson, pp. 305-6; Peterson, p. 77).
References:
R.J. Cunliffe, A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect, Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 1963
N. Richardson, The Iliad: A Commentary, vol. VI, gen. ed. G.S. Kirk, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993
P. Chantraine, Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue grecque, ed. 2. Paris 2009.
R.T. Peterson, G. Mountfort, and P.A.D. Hollom, A Field Guide to the Birds of Britain and Europe, 4th edn., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1983
Associated internet address:
Web address 1
Keywords: definition; dialects, grammar, and etymology; economics; epic; food; imagery; zoology
Translated by: Ronald Allen on 4 August 2009@00:38:12.
Vetted by:
David Whitehead (adjusted Homer ref; expanded n.2; another keyword; tweaks and cosmetics) on 4 August 2009@03:12:28.
David Whitehead on 27 May 2013@06:14:06.
Catharine Roth (deleted duplicate link) on 14 September 2013@00:39:45.
Catharine Roth (cosmetics) on 14 September 2013@01:14:52.
Catharine Roth (tweaked link, cosmetics) on 18 April 2015@23:28:07.
Catharine Roth (tweaked note) on 21 April 2015@22:26:05.

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