Φοινίκειον αἷμα

purplish blood

Translated by William Hutton7 Feb 2014Vetting: high4 revisions

6 words

Also [sc. attested is] 'purplish wine'.

Greek original · Adler’s text

Φοινίκειον αἷμα. καὶ Φοινίκειος οἶνος.

Betacode

*foini/keion ai(=ma. kai\ *foini/keios oi)=nos.

Both of these unglossed phrases appear to be illustrations of the behavior of the rare adjective foini/keios, when applied to, respectively, neuter nominative/accusative singular and masculine singular nouns. The adjective may be an alternative for the more common adjectives foini/kios, foinikh/i+os or foini/kinos, and may denote 'purplish', 'Phoenician', or 'pertaining to the date-palm'.
The primary headword phrase (which could hence mean 'Phoenician blood' just as well as 'purplish blood) is unattested elsewhere. The supplementary phrase does appear in the dative case in Hecataeus of Abdera [epsilon 359] FGrH 264 F25.1521 (= Diodorus Siculus 1.91.5) with the meaning 'date wine' (cf. Herodotus 1.194, Archestratus fr. 190 Lloyd-Jones-Parsons, Ephippus fr. 24 Kock and K.-A.), and for this phrase Adler compares Lexicon Ambrosianum 423.

Revision history4 revisions · last 30 Dec 2014