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The Name Phoinikes

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 April 2026

E. A. Speiser
E. A. Speiser*
Affiliation:
University of Pennsylvania
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Extract

The purpose of the present paper is not to advance yet another etymology for Greek Φοῖνιξ ‘Phoenician’, but rather to reduce the number of acceptable suggestions with the aid of new evidence from an independent quarter. Although the material to be considered is predominantly linguistic, archaeological sources will also be brought into discussion.

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
Language , Volume 12 , Issue 2-Part1: April-June , June 1936 , pp. 121 - 126
Copyright
Copyright © 1936 Linguistic Society of America

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References

1 A complete statement of the various views would require a lengthy article. With one or two exceptions, only the latest discussions of the problems at issue will be cited below.

2 Cf. Eduard Meyer, Geschichte des Altertums I2 1.97; 2. 66.

3 Berlin SB 1910, 803 f.

4 First suggested by Pietschmann, Geschichte der Phönizier 107.

5 Beloch, Griechische Geschichte I2 70.

6 Meyer, op. cit.

7 First proposed by Brugsch, Geschichte Ägyptens unter den Pharaonen 242.

8 Der Name der Phönizier bei Griechen und Ägyptern (Mitteil. d. Vorderas. Ges. 21. 305 ff).

9 It is interesting to note that virtually the same accomplishments are attributed to the divine artificer of the Semitic inhabitants of Ugarit; cf. Ginsberg, JRAS 1935. 49f.

10 As a matter of fact, the only sound that the words have definitely in common is [n]; the vowels of the Greek ethnicon would be strange in a Semito-Hamitic word, but we are spared the necessity of further comparisons thanks to the normal Egyptian practice of vowelless writing.

11 Cf., e.g., Peiser, OLZ 1919. 5 ff., who would see in Kinaḫḫi ‘Canaan’ the prototype required by Sethe, and Eisler, ZDMG 1919. 154ff. I am obliged to my colleague Dr. Z. S. Harris for calling my attention to several discussions on the subject.

12 See Index to Knudtzon's Amarna 1577. The origin and etymology of Kn'n and its cognates are not strictly relevant to the present problem.

13 See his explicit statement, op. cit. 329: ‘Von einer direketen Abhängigkeit . . . kann selbstverständlich keine Rede sein.‘

14 E.g. the name of the fabulous bird ‘Phoenix’ may have been linked with the adjective and the ethnicon under the influence of byn-w, the Egyptian designation for the legendary bird; cf. Sethe 307.

15 On purple, especially the Tyrian kind, see Pliny 9. 60–63.

16 For the text see Chiera, Joint Expedition at Nuzi 125.5.

17 Ibid. 314. 4 f.

18 Cf. Meissner, Beiträge zum Assyrischen Wörterbuch 1. 47f.

19 I am grateful to Prof. R. H. Pfeiffer and to Dr. E. R. Lacheman for enabling me to examine these texts in transliteration kindly furnished by them.

20 This important document which I first read on the spot soon after it had been dug up by the late Dr. Chiera was kindly collated for me by Dr. Pfeiffer, the Curator of the Harvard Semitic Museum.

21 The importance of the purple industry of Ugarit is attested, incidentally, by a lengthy cuneiform text recently published by Thureau-Dangin; cf. his article in Syria 15. 137 ff.

22 Illustrated London News 1935. 712.

23 For the purple industry in the Aegean area see G. Casson, Phoenicians and Purple Industry, Antiquary 1913. 328 ff.

24 Herodotus 7. 89.