[Meaning] hollow rocks in water, as
Apion [says]. But
Heliodorus [sc. says that the term refers to] rocks by the sea that are also reached by the waves.[1]
Also [sc. attested is]
spila/zwn ['[he] storming'].
"Against this city, inasmuch as they were darting across, the barbarians were storming down."[2]
*spila/des: ai( e)n u(/dati koi=lai pe/trai, w(s *)api/wn. *(hlio/dwros de\ ta\s paraqalassi/as pe/tras kai\ e)peilhmme/nas u(po\ tw=n kuma/twn. kai\ *spila/zwn. e)pi\ tau/thn th\n po/lin oi(=a dia/|ttontes oi( ba/rbaroi katespi/lazon.
[1] =
Synagoge sigma179 and
Photius sigma463 Theodoridis. All three are close copies of the entry in Apollonius Sophistes,
Homeric Lexicon 126, except that Apollonius uses the participle
pepilhme/nas ['pounded'] rather than the
e)peilhmme/nas ['reached'] of the later lexica. Apollonius' choice of participles may have been in part an attempt to etymologize the word (
pil- >
spil-); cf.
Etymologicum Gudianum 508.60-509.3.
Apion [
alpha 3215] = fr. 125 Nauck;
Heliodorus = fr. 28.
Apion's interpretation, not clearly attested in literature, may reflect an impulse to connect the word to the homoeophonous
sphlai=on ('cave'), vel sim. The present headword is nominative plural, and given the source it is probably a generic lexical reference that refers equally to all three instances of the word in
Homer (
Odyssey 3.298, 5.401, 5.405), although one of these, 5.405 (cf.
scholia ad loc.), actually is in the nominative plural (the others are dative plural). See also
Hesychius sigma1512; scholion to Apollonius Rhodius,
Argonautica 4.788;
Etymologicum Magnum 724.2.
[2] A close approximation of Theophylact Simocatta,
Histories 7.3.3. This secondary headword
spila/zwn -- present active participle, nominative singular masculine, of hypothetical *
spila/zw -- is presumably extracted from a literary source, but not from the quotation which follows here, which instead contains a finite form (imperfect indicative active, third person plural) of the verb compounded with the prefix
kata-. Forms of this compound verb
kataspila/zw are well-attested, but the simple verb is attested only here and at
PG 31.1717 (ps.-Basil,
Consolation for a sick person, also a participle
spila/zousai), where the context corroborates the connection of the word with LSJ s.v.
spila/s C ['storm'], a homograph of the present primary headword (LSJ s.v.
spila/s A). The collocation of the two lemmata may imply that the lexicographer saw an etymological connection between them; and such a connection may in fact exist (cf. Chantraine
DELG s.v.
spila/s and
spi/los 1 and 2).
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