θr(e)i-^(di)

This lexeme is a hapax attested on TL 44, the pillar of Xanthos, dated stylistically to around 400 BCE and contextually to shortly after the ascension of the Persian emperor Artaxerxes II in 405-404 BCE (Borchhardt & Eichner 1997-1999a:19f.).

[O.B.]

3sg. pret. act.

θride

TL 44b.60 (Xanthos)

Per Stoltenberg 1959b:41 and Hajnal 1995a:34f. n. 22, Lyc. A θr(e)i-^(di) means ‘to command (?)’ (followed in DLL:75). This analysis is consistent with the meaning proposed for the radical cognate Lyc. A θrm͂ma- ‘command (?)’ and yields a satisfactory translation of the passage in TL 44b.58-60: se xñtawati azzalãi : ñtarijeusehe : sej ertaxssirazahe : θride : hriha : trm͂milise ‘as king of the decrees of Dareios and Artaxerxes he commanded supreme power for the Lycians’ (translation adapted from Hajnal 1995a :34 n. 22). However, since the lexeme is a hapax, the proposed meaning remains somewhat tentative.

[O.B.]

Given the stem forming -i- and lenited ending in θride, this lexeme is most likely a leniting stem in -(e)i-^(di).

This verb is built to the same base as the Lyc. A noun θrm͂ma- ‘command (?)’ (Stoltenberg 1959b:41, Hajnal 1995a:34f. n. 22).

[O.B.]

Hajnal 1995a:34 n. 22 suggests an etymological connection with a PIE root of the shape *d^her- (followed by Martínez Rodríguez 2018a:277), which is phonologically untenable, because PIE *d^h and *d do not have different reflexes in Lycian and because the sound rendered by the letter θ in Lycian A goes back to a sequence *Teh- < *Tes-. Therefore, the etymological connection is hereby rejected. Instead, one must look for a root like the one found in Pal. teš- and the -r- in Lyc. A θr- must be seen as suffixal in origin. It is however likely that the Lycians reinterpreted θr- as a neo-root.

[D.S.]