Abstract

In this article I examine several passages in Greek choral lyric where the verb δείκνυμι is construed with a direct object meaning “song” or “hymn” and show that this usage finds an exact parallel in the Rigveda, where the cognate root diś- is likewise employed with “song ” as its object. Greekδεῖξαι ὕμνον, μέλος, etc., “to show forth song,” is thus argued to be an archaism of the melic poetry that goes back to the Indo-European poetic language. The use of Latin dīcō of reciting verse or singing praise in Augustan poets may continue the same inherited phraseology. Finally, based on these results I argue that the long problematic epithet ἀριδείκετος contains the root of δείκνυμι and should be interpreted as “famous, well worth singing of, well worth praising.”