Ἀκέραιον

Notes (2)

1. This entry (= Photius alpha725 Theodoridis) connects the adjective, here in the neuter singular nominative or neuter/masculine accusative singular, with the noun kh/r 'evil spirit, spirit of doom', used in the plural (and rarely the singular) for '(moral) blemishes', associated with a(marti/ai ('character flaws, unpremeditated crimes, sins') by Plutarch, Cimon 2.5 (LSJ entry at web address 2). This latter usage is particularly common in discussions of moral frailty in Plutarch (Moralia 464B, 484C, 784A, 819F, etc.) and Philo Judaeus (LA 3.193, Sac. 15-16, etc.). The entry perahps suggests an etymological relationship between the adjective and this noun (cf. a)kh/ratos, and the Latin translation, immaculatus). Current etymologies from the roots of mixing (cf. kera/nnumi) or destroying (cf. keraï/zw) are inadequate, and this one would be semantically more plausible, but difficult to justify philologically. Those instances where LSJ (web address 1) translates it 'unmixed', as if from a root of mixing, should in fact be translated 'uncontaminated' (of wine and of cattle's drinking water, also of silver). Other appropriate translations include 'immaculate (its Latin translation), uncorrupted, untainted, untarnished, undamaged, unspoiled, uncontaminated, intact, undefiled, unadulterated, pure, innocent, fresh'. See also alpha 834, alpha 836, alpha 837, epsilon 1519, epsilon 1520.
   See also discussions of a)kh/ratos at alpha 869, cf. alpha 868, alpha 964, alpha 966.
1. 1= Synagoge alpha224 (Codex B alpha667 (53.17 Bachmann)); cf. Hesychius alpha2331, which Latte connects with the scholia to Euripides, Trojan Women 922, where the headword occurs in the nominative masculine (cf. also Lexicon Vindobonense alpha134). ↩
1. 1This phrase (also found in Timaeus, Platonic Lexicon s.v. a)ke/raioi) seems to mean "the man without blemish". The form kh/ras is impossible from kh/r and would be the genitive singular of a first declension noun kh/ra. The likely emendation is khrw=n.
   A less likely error is the abbreviation of the phrase "the man not having external blemishes" (cf. the philosopher Timaeus, in a passage cited by Proclus, in R. 2.49.23, distinguishing 'a body free from external blemishes' sw=ma a)kh/raton te tw=n e)kto\s khrw=n) from 'internal or moral blemishes', tw=n e)nto/s). Again kh/ras must be replaced, by kh=ras.
   If the reading is by any chance correct, the word read is kh/ra or kh/rh 'beeswax, wax tablet, candle', a borrowing from Latin cera, and the phrase "without wax" renders the false etymology, prevalent in antiquity, for Latin sincerus, 'sincere' as "open (in character), as a letter without a wax seal is open. The relationship between the Latin and Greek words for "wax" (cera and khro/s) is not clear; both may be borrowed from some other language.