From: Christopher Hutson (crhutson@salisbury.net)
Date: Thu Dec 02 1999 - 09:15:33 EST
Jim West asked:
>
>Well I suppose y'all knew it was coming; but I wish to ask after the
>specific meaning of brefos and paidion. What ages are denoted by these
>terms (beyond the general 'infant' and 'youth'). Is there any source which
>says something like "a brefos is a baby from birth to weaning; whilst a
>paidion is a toddler from 2 and up to the teen years". (thats just an
>example- to give some notion of what I am looking for).
>
Aristophanes of Byzantium (c. 257-180, BC; librarian at Alexandria from c.
194) in his now lost Nomina Aetatum composed a catalogue of terms for the
various ages of life, which Didymus of Alexandria excerpted in his
Miscellanies in the first century, BC. The first-century grammarian Alexio
quoted the catalogue from Didymus, and his quotation has survived in two
places: the second-century lexicographer Ammonius preserved an abridged
edition, and Eustathius (bishop of Thessalonica, 1174Ń c.1194) cited a
fuller text in his commentaries on Homer. This textual history suggests
that over a period of several centuries, and ranging from before until well
after the New Testament period, AristophanesÕ catalogue was read as a useful
summary of scholarly conventional wisdom concerning human development, and
so it may serve as a useful entry into the discussion.
Here is my translation of the first four entries in Aristophanes' list of 16
different stages of life:
Brephos: that which is newly born.
Paidion: that which is fed by a nurse.
Paidarion: that which is walking around and
beginning to grasp vocabulary.
Paidiskos: the one in the next stage.
The next entry is PAIS, and then things get complicated. For a detailed
discussion of vocabulary for various stages of life, see chapter two of
Hutson, _My True Child: The Rhetoric of Youth in the Pastoral Epistles_
(Ph. D. diss., Yale, 1998). I am revising this ms for Scholars Press, but
that will be a couple of years out, so in the mean time, you are stuck with
UMI. Or you may consult R. Garland, _The Greek Way of Life_ (Ithaca:
Cornell UP, 1990); J.-P. Neraudau, _La Jeunesse dans la littˇrature et les
instituions de la Rome rˇpublicaine_ (Paris: Belles Lettres, 1979).
Such vocabulary is nearly always relative and varies from time to time and
from place to place. Context of a particular passage is determinative, but
Aristophanes' catalogue is a helpful beginning place.
Hope this helps.
XPIC
------------------------------------
Christopher R. Hutson
Hood Theological Seminary
Salisbury, NC 28144
crhutson@salisbury.net
------------------------------------
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