10-23-2010, 11:51 PM
I suppose what we need is someone who can talk about the derivation of the word hallupu in Assyrian. Alas, I am not that person.
For what it's worth, I think that I see three things going on in Greek. First, in Homer and Hesiod the word ????? has a relative wide application: it means "implement" or something like that and gets used not only in military contexts for "harness" or "weapons" or whatever, but also for ship's tackle and blacksmith tools, etc. Second, by the classical period it gets used mostly in a military sense. Third, ??????? is I think a word of the classical period (or at least it doesn't show up in Homer and Hesiod).
On that basis, I think one could make an argument that a general purpose word for "implement", ?????, gets used in an increasingly martial sense in the archaic period (say, the seventh and sixth centuries), until in the late archaic or early classical period it gives rise to the word for "heavy armed infantry soldier". If so, that could easily be a development internal to Greek usage. Also, it makes it harder to see how there would be a close connection to the usage of an Assyrian word in the 8th and 7th centuries that seems to mean armour.
But again, that could be completely wrong; what's really necessary here is some sense of the Assyrian etymology!
For what it's worth, I think that I see three things going on in Greek. First, in Homer and Hesiod the word ????? has a relative wide application: it means "implement" or something like that and gets used not only in military contexts for "harness" or "weapons" or whatever, but also for ship's tackle and blacksmith tools, etc. Second, by the classical period it gets used mostly in a military sense. Third, ??????? is I think a word of the classical period (or at least it doesn't show up in Homer and Hesiod).
On that basis, I think one could make an argument that a general purpose word for "implement", ?????, gets used in an increasingly martial sense in the archaic period (say, the seventh and sixth centuries), until in the late archaic or early classical period it gives rise to the word for "heavy armed infantry soldier". If so, that could easily be a development internal to Greek usage. Also, it makes it harder to see how there would be a close connection to the usage of an Assyrian word in the 8th and 7th centuries that seems to mean armour.
But again, that could be completely wrong; what's really necessary here is some sense of the Assyrian etymology!
