“The Messengers are Called Sangandai”: the Greek σαγγάνδης and its Relationship to  ἀσγάνδης/ ἀστάνδης

Authors

  • Rafał Rosół Adam Mickiewicz University, Institute of Classical Philology, Fredry 10, 61505 Poznań, Poland

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.21638/spbu20.2021.104

Abstract

This article examines the Greek noun σαγγάνδης ‘messenger’ which is attested in two lexica, dated to the Roman or early Byzantine periods: the Cambridge Rhetorical Lexicon by an anonymous author and Difficult Words in the Attic Orators by Claudius Casilo. In both works, σαγγάνδης appears together with three words of likely Iranian provenance: ὀροσάγγης ‘benefactor of the Persian king; bodyguard’, παρασάγγης ‘parasang; messenger’ and ἄγγαρος ‘messenger, courier; workman, labourer’. The word σαγγάνδης is analysed in comparison with ἀσγάνδης/ ἀστάνδης ‘messenger’ occurring for the first time in Plutarch’s works and closely linked to the Achaemenid administration. According to the hypothesis put forward in the present paper, both σαγγάνδης and  σγάνδης (with its secondary variant  στάνδης) are connected to Manichaean Middle Persian/Parthian ižgand ‘messenger’, Sogdian (a)žγand/(ɔ) žγand/ž(i)γant ‘id.’, Jewish Aramaic ʾîzgaddā ‘id.’, Syriac izgandā/izgaddā ‘id.’, Mandaic ašganda ‘helper, assistant, servant; the Messenger’, and go back to Old Persian *zganda- or to early Middle Persian/early Parthian *žgand- (or *zgand-) with the original meaning ‘mounted messenger’. The reconstructed noun is derived from the Proto-Iranian root *zga(n)d- ‘to go on, gallop, mount’, attested in Avestan (Younger Avestan zgaδ(/θ)- ‘to go on horseback, gallop’) and in some Middle and Modern Iranian languages. The original form of the loanword in Greek was probably *σγάνδης which then underwent certain transformations.

Keywords:

etymology, foreign words in Greek, Iranian loanwords, Greek lexicography

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Published

2021-07-28

How to Cite

Rosół, R. (2021). “The Messengers are Called Sangandai”: the Greek σαγγάνδης and its Relationship to  ἀσγάνδης/ ἀστάνδης. Philologia Classica, 16(1), 40–49. https://doi.org/10.21638/spbu20.2021.104

Issue

Vol. 16 No. 1 (2021)

Section

Graecia antiqua

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Articles of "Philologia Classica" are open access distributed under the terms of the License Agreement with Saint Petersburg State University, which permits to the authors unrestricted distribution and self-archiving free of charge.