Showing Praise in Greek Choral Lyric and Beyond

Abstract

In this article I examine several passages in Greek choral lyric where the verb δείκνυμι is construed with a direct object meaning “song” or “hymn” and show that this usage finds an exact parallel in the Rigveda, where the cognate root diś- is likewise employed with “song (of praise)” as its object. Greekδεῖξαι ὕμνον, μέλος, etc., “to show forth song (of praise),” is thus argued to be an archaism of the melic poetry that goes back to the Indo-European poetic language. The use of Latin dīcō of reciting verse ( dīcere carmen ) or singing praise ( dīcere laudēs ) in Augustan poets may continue the same inherited phraseology. Finally, based on these results I argue that the long problematic epithet ἀριδείκετος contains the root of δείκνυμι (and not of δέκομαι) and should be interpreted as “famous, well worth singing of, well worth praising (in song).”