ofi-

This lexeme is found in a dedicatory inscription pertaining to a funerary plot and containing an oracle passage.

[D.S.]

1sg. pret. act.

fadofidν

LW 10.11 (Sardis)

We follow Gusmani 1964a:117 in interpreting two preverbs before the root, i.e. fa- and da- (with elision). The grammatical analysis of fadofidν as 1sg. pret. was discovered by Vetter 1959a:45.

[D.S.]

Since the direct object of fadofidν is a god and it introduces the oracle speech,Meriggi 1935a:100 suggests the meaning ‘to call upon’ (followed tentatively by Gusmani 1960a:278 n. 12 ‘to invoke (?)’, Gusmani 1964a:116f., Schürr 2011a:76 ‘to consult (vel sim.)’).On the hyperbaton between ciwν and tawsẽν, which is characteristic of the poetic language, see Gusmani 1975c:267. These assigned meanings are all equally convincing. However, it remains unclear which god is meant by ciwν tawsẽν ‘the great god’. The epithet tawsẽν is used as an attribute of qλdãn-, recently identified as the name of the deceased (and by consequence deified) king Croesus (Euler & Sasseville 2019a). If ciwν tawsẽν refers to qλdãns/Croesus, it would yield the interesting result that Croesus became an oracle god giving advice to his people even after his death. However, this claim cannot be verified yet due to the lack of independent evidence.

The root of- is surely related to that  of Lyd. katof(i)-, whose exact meaning is not assured. However, the connection with Hitt. ēpp-/app-^(mi) ‘to take, seize’ suggested under the lemma is phonologically unlikely. On the other hand, a comparison with CLuw. upa-⁽ⁱ⁾ and Lyc. ube-^(ti) would phonologically be a better match.Outdated Gusmani 1964a:117 “f-extension to a root o- ‘to announce’.

[D.S.]

Pending a form of the 3sg. pres., it is not possible to tell whether ofi- belongs to the verbal stem class in -i-^(t) or to one in -i-^(d).

[D.S.]