Abstract

Mr. Mulvany in the Journal of Philology, XXV. 136, in discussing the meanings of ερς, and trying to find something which might be a link between the uses of the word in the sense of ‘strong’ and ‘sacred,’ finds it in the phrase ερ ζειν, which he would translate ‘to act strenuously in a god's service.’ But his argument may be strengthened by the translation, to which the analysis of ancient religion points, ‘to act strongly upon’; ‘to put pressure upon,’ as we should say. Both ρδειν and ζειν are used with a dative of the person, as well as with an accusative, in the Homeric poems. And with this sense we might well align ερς κατóμβας