Zizanion
Zizanion grece zizania lolium.
Apparatus:
Zizanion AC | Zizamon (-mõ B) B ef
Zizania lolium AC | zizania {or ?zizama} loliũ e | B zizania i. loliũ B | lolium zizania f
Translation:
Zizanion is Greek for Latin zizania or lolium {?"darnel, cockle, tares"}
Commentary:
Greek ζιζάνιον /zizánion/, acc. to LSJ "a weed that grows in wheat, ..., prob. darnel, Lolium temulentum" is generally adopted into Latin in its plural form zizania,orum. The same plant is also called: lolium in Latin.
Simon uses the Latin word lolium, first mentioned in Plautus c. (254 –184 BC), but he puts zizania first, a later borrowing from Greek predominantly used by Christian authors. The word would have been well known to the medieval world because of "The Parable of the Tares" (Math.13:24-30), where an enemy sows tares between the wheat: venit inimicus eius et superseminavit zizania in medio tritici et abiit, but the tares will be found out at harvest time and destroyed. ζιζάνια /zizánia/ is also the form used in the Greek original.
Botanical identification:
Most authors agree with some caution on Lolium temulentum L. {"darnel"}. For further information see [[1]].
Zizania has survived into botanical Latin but was applied without explanation by Linnaeus to a genus of wild "rice" [[2]] whose species are native to North America and one species to Asia. But these plants are neither related to darnel nor to rice in the usual sense of the word [[3]].
WilfGunther 01/09/13