Ancient etymology

In a volume on Philo’s etymology of Hebrew names, Lester Grabbe notes that allegory and etymology played an important role in Greek interpretation of myths: ” In the physical types of allegory the gods were related directly and baldly to the nature elements by etymology, so that Hera was air ( aer ); Cronus, time ( chronos) ; Apollo, the sun (because he was unique: a-polloi , ‘not many’); and so on . . . . especially the Stoics etymologized divine names and did so in the context of interpreting poetry or myth. Etymology because the chief ‘handmaid’ of allegory. As the allegories became more sophisticated, though, etymology seems to have occupied a more subordinate place.”

Grabbe notes the example of the Stoic Lucius Annaeus Cornutus, who had a school of philosophy in his house during the time of Nero (i.e., when Paul came to Rome). Cornutus wrote: “Just as we are inhabited by a soul, so also the cosmos has a soul sustaining it called Zeus; it is called this primarily because it is both ever living ( zosa ) and also the cause of life ( zen ) in all living things ( zosi ). Therefore, Zeus is said to be the ruler fo everything just as in ourselves our soul and nature is said to govern. We call him Dia (Zeus in the accusative case) because all things come about and are preserved through ( dia ) him. He is called Deus by some, probably because he ‘waters’ ( deuein ) the earth or because he ‘imparts’ ( metadidonai ) the moisture of life to living things . . . . he is said to reside in heaven, which is where the most dominant part of the cosmic soul is, for our souls are also fire.. According to tradition Zeus’ wife and sister is Hera, who is air (aer). For she is joined directly to and united with him when he comes upon her as she rises from the earth. And they have been engendered from the flow ( rhuseos ) into the same place, for when the material flows ( rhueisa ) to form the finer matter, it produces air and fire. By this (flow) they also indicate that Rhea is their mother. They show Cronos to be their father, either through the existence of orderly measures of time ( chronos ) or through separation ( diakrisin ) into elements by the contraction ( sugkrisin ) and fermentation of matter; or, more persuasively, through the production of the ether and air at the time that nature was set in motion by fire to complete ( krainein ) and produce all things.”