Καθιλατρεύομαι

Notes

1. This middle-voice verb appears only here and its meaning is uncertain. If it is not the result of textual error, it seems to be a compound of the prefix kata- and a verb i(latreu/w which does not appear in extant Greek literature. There are however verbs i(lateu/w ("I propitiate") and latreu/w ("I serve, I worship"). In a religious context the meanings of these two verbs becomes very similar and it is not unthinkable that they may have merged to yield a new verb i(latreu/w. On the other hand it is possible that the word should be emended to (unattested) kaqilateu/omai ('I thoroughly propitiate', vel sim.) or to kaqilareu/omai ('I gladden', cf. kappa 108). This latter possibility seems to have occurred to the compilers of LSJ, who cite this entry under kaqilareu/omai (web address 1). kaqilareu/omai also occurs in the Lexicon Syntacticum of Codex Laurentianus 59.16, where we are told (apparently incorrectly, to judge by the surviving instances) that it is construed with a dative.