πόλις

Ancient Greek

Alternative forms

• πτόλῐς (ptólis) — Epic

Etymology

From Proto-Hellenic *ptólis, from Proto-Indo-European *tpólHis, from *tpelH- (“fortification, city”). The early form πτόλις (ptólis) shows metathesis tp > pt because Ancient Greek stop clusters always end in a coronal. Cognate with Sanskrit पुर (pura, “fortress, city, dwelling”) and Lithuanian pilis (“stronghold”). Irregular accent on genitive πόλεως (póleōs) is due to a quantitative metathesis from older πόληος (pólēos); genitive plural imitates genitive singular.

Pronunciation

Noun

πόλις • (pólis) f (genitive πόλεως); third declension

1. city
   • 750 BCE – 650 BCE, Hesiod, The Shield of Heracles 270–272:

     παρὰ δ’ εὔπυργος πόλις ἀνδρῶν,
     χρῡ́σειαι δέ μιν εἶχον ὑπερθυρίοις ἀραρυῖαι
     ἑπτὰ πύλαι·

     parà d’ eúpurgos pólis andrôn,
     khrū́seiai dé min eîkhon huperthuríois araruîai
     heptà púlai;

     Next, there was a city of men with goodly towers; and seven gates of gold, fitted to the lintels, guarded it.

   1. the Athenian citadel
      • 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Iliad 6.88
      • 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Iliad 20.52
      • 460 BCE – 395 BCE, Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War 2.15
      • 460 BCE – 395 BCE, Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War 5.23.47
      • 425 BCE, Aristophanes, Lysistrata 245
      • 425 BCE, Aristophanes, Lysistrata 758
      • 425 BCE, Aristophanes, Lysistrata 288
      • 424 BCE, Aristophanes, The Knights 1093
      • 430 BCE – 354 BCE, Xenophon, Anabasis 7.1.27
      • 46 CE – 120 CE, Plutarch, Pelopidas 18
      • 64 BCE – 24 CE, Strabo, Geography 8.6.8
      • 300 BCE – 200 BCE, Septuagint, Nehemiah 11.1
   2. one's city or country
      • 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Odyssey 1.170
   3. (ὁ ἐπὶ τῆς πόλεως (ho epì tês póleōs)) city governor, praetor urbanus
      • 200 BCE – 118 BCE, Polybius, The Histories 5.39.3
2. a whole country, as dependent on and called after its city: city state
   • 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Odyssey 6.177
   • 406 BCE, Sophocles, Oedipus at Colonus 1533
   • 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Iliad 14.230
   • 522 BCE – 443 BCE, Pindar, Isthmian Ode 5.48
   • 458 BCE, Aeschylus, The Eumenides 77
   • 413 BCE, Euripides, Ion 294
   • 421 BCE, Aristophanes, Peace 251
   • 445 BCE – 380 BCE, Lysias, Against Andocides 6
3. community
   • 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Iliad 17.144
   • 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Odyssey 11.14
   • 429 BCE, Sophocles, Oedipus the King 179
   1. the state
      • 750 BCE – 650 BCE, Hesiod, Works and Days 240
      • 522 BCE – 443 BCE, Pindar, Pythian Ode 2.88
      • 429 BCE, Sophocles, Oedipus the King 22
      • 408 BCE, Euripides, The Phoenician Women 947
      • 442 BCE, Sophocles, Antigone 738
      • 430 BCE – 354 BCE, Xenophon, Cyropaedia 8.2.28
      • 384 BCE – 322 BCE, Aristotle, Politics 1276A.23
      • 428 BCE – 347 BCE, Plato, Protagoras 319A
      • 384 BCE – 322 BCE, Aristotle, Politics 1280B.40
      • 384 BCE – 322 BCE, Demosthenes, Against Stephanus 1 66
   2. the right of citizenship
      • 405 BCE, Aristophanes, The Frogs 718
      • 361 BCE, Demosthenes, Against Midias 106
4. (πόλιν παίζειν (pólin paízein)) a type of board game
   • 519 BCE – 422 BCE, Cratinus, Collected Works 56
   • 380 BCE, Plato, The Republic 422E

Declension

Synonyms

• ἄστυ (ástu), πτολίεθρον (ptolíethron)

Derived terms

Descendants

• Greek: πόλη (póli)
• Yevanic: בּוֹלִי (boli)
• → Coptic: ⲡⲟⲗⲓⲥ (polis)
• → English: polis (learned)
• → Latin: -polis
  • → English: -polis (learned)

Further reading

• “πόλις”, in Liddell & Scott (1940) A Greek–English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “πόλις”, in Liddell & Scott (1889) An Intermediate Greek–English Lexicon, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “πόλις”, in Autenrieth, Georg (1891) A Homeric Dictionary for Schools and Colleges, New York: Harper and Brothers
• πόλις in Bailly, Anatole (1935) Le Grand Bailly: Dictionnaire grec-français, Paris: Hachette
• Bauer, Walter et al. (2001) A Greek–English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, Third edition, Chicago: University of Chicago Press
• πόλις in Cunliffe, Richard J. (1924) A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect: Expanded Edition, Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, published 1963
• “πόλις”, in Slater, William J. (1969) Lexicon to Pindar, Berlin: Walter de Gruyter
• G4172 in Strong, James (1979) Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance to the Bible
• Woodhouse, S. C. (1910) English–Greek Dictionary: A Vocabulary of the Attic Language‎, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul Limited.
  • capital idem, page 111.
  • city idem, page 133.
  • commonwealth idem, page 149.
  • community idem, page 149.
  • country idem, page 178.
  • fatherland idem, page 310.
  • metropolis idem, page 527.
  • municipality idem, page 546.
  • nation idem, page 551.
  • people idem, page 604.
  • republic idem, page 699.
  • state idem, page 812.
  • town idem, page 884.
• Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010) Etymological Dictionary of Greek (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 10), volume II, with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 1219