Difference between revisions of "Sionphena"

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Revision as of 15:44, 9 November 2015

Sionphena Plinius herba roseis per caulem foliis et cetera.


Apparatus:

Sionphena AC ej | Siõphẽa B | Simphoina? f | Syonphena p | Gromphena Pliny
roseis | reseis p {'o' misread as 'e'}
caulem | cal’ẽ B {acc. Cappelli p. 43 abbrev. for caliditatem}
et cetera om. e

ms. e. adds: ////Sed theodorus priscianus sisimbriũ dicit - which anticipates parts of entry Sion (3)


Translation:

Sionphena - says Pliny - is a plant with rose-coloured leaves along the stem, et cetera.


Commentary:

This entry, corrupted and curtailed more than usual, refers to Pliny [Loeb] vol. VII, book XXVI, p. 292, chapter xxiii, § 39: Gromphaena, alternis viridibus roseisque per caulem foliis, in posca sanguinem reicientibus medetur, which W.H. Jones, the editor translates, p. 293: “Gromphaena, which has its leaves alternately green and rose-colour along the stem, taken in vinegar and water cures spitting of blood”.

Obviously Simon's Sionphena is a long way from Pliny's Gromphena, but when compared in this spelling -Siõphena and Grõphena - the misreading becomes more likely since capital “S” and capital “G” as ornamental initials can approach each other’s shape and “r” and “i” can look very similar since in many medieval handwritings the “i” is not dotted resulting in ‘ɾ’ versus ‘ɩ’. This misreading must have occurred early on since all witnesses have it and the entry is listed under the letter “S”.

Gromphena meaning a certain plant is only found in Pliny, op.cit.; but the word reoccurs in Pliny [Loeb] vol. VIII, book XXX, chapter lii, § 146, pp. 370, 372 where it denotes a bird: gromphenam, avem in Sardinia narratam grui similem, ignotam iam etiam Sardis existimo – "It is said that there is a bird gromphena in Sardinia and it is similar to a grus {“crane”}; I believe it is by now unknown even to the Sardinians”.

The word seems to be a transliteration of a Greek γρόμφαινα /grómphaina/ which LSJ gloss “old sow”; cf. γρομφάς /gromphás/, γρόμφις /grómphis/ “sow”. LSJ’s source is a Greco-Latin glossary: γρομφαινα συοθηλεια scrofa “/gromphaina/ - a female pig, in Latin scrofa {‘breeding sow’}” [[1]]. However it is difficult to see how this name relates to the plant or the bird name, but see below.


Botanical identification:

Sprengel p. 206 suggests “Amarantus tricolor” for Gromphaena [[2]], but this identification is doubted by most scholars, e.g. André (1985) p. 113 s.v. gromphaena and Genaust p. 271 s.v. Gomphréna, since the plant is of tropical Asian origin.
R. Kinzelbach pp. 21, 22 [[3]] sees the plant name and bird name gromphêna/ gromphaena as unrelated to Greek γρομφάς /gromphás/ {“sow”} but as Sardinian or Italic names. The bird name he sees as onomatopoeic imitating the trumpeting sound of a crane-like bird. The plant is however named after its crane-like fruit resembling a bird’s beak and the red and green leaves suggest to him Geranium robertianum L. “herb-Robert” [[4]].


The name survives into modern botanical terminology for the genus Gomphrena, having undergone “r metathesis”; cf. Genaust p. 271, op.cit.

WilfGunther (talk) 21:01, 2 November 2015 (GMT)


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