σμῆνος

• ζμῆνος (zmênos)
• σμᾶνος (smânos) — Doric

The formation can be compared with ἔθνος (éthnos), ἔρνος (érnos) and τέμενος (témenos). An alternative spelling ζμῆνος (zmênos) is also attested in some papyri and inscriptions, possibly reflecting the voicing of initial /s/ to /z/. According to Beekes, a Pre-Greek origin is a good possibility.

The original meaning was probably swarm of bees rather than beehive.

σμῆνος • (smênos) n (genitive σμήνους); third declension

1. beehive, skep
   • 750 BCE – 650 BCE, Hesiod, Theogony 594–595:

     ὡς δ' ὁπότ' ἐν σμήνεσσι κατηρεφέεσσι μέλισσαι
     κηφῆνας βόσκωσι, κακῶν ξυνήονας ἔργων·

     hōs d' hopót' en smḗnessi katērephéessi mélissai
     kēphênas bóskōsi, kakôn xunḗonas érgōn;

     like when bees in vaulted hives
     feed the drones, partners in base deeds.

2. swarm of bees
   • 472 BCE, Aeschylus, The Persians 126–129:

     πᾶς γὰρ ἱππηλάτας / καὶ πεδοστιβὴς λεὼς /
     σμῆνος ὣς ἐκλέλοιπεν μελισ- / σᾶν σὺν ὀρχάμῳ στρατοῦ

     pâs gàr hippēlátas / kaì pedostibḕs leṑs /
     smênos hṑs ekléloipen melis- / sân sùn orkhámōi stratoû

     You see, all men, the cavalry and infantry,
     like a swarm of bees, have left with the leader of the army

   1. swarm in general, crowd
      • 497 BCE – 405 BCE, Sophocles, Fragments , (quoted in Porphyry's "On the Cave of the Nymphs in the Odyssey"):

        βομβεῖ δὲ νεκρῶν σμῆνος ἔρχεταί τ᾿ ἄνω

        a swarm of dead people hums and rises up

• Greek: σμήνος (smínos)

• “σμῆνος”, in Liddell & Scott (1940) A Greek–English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• σμῆνος in Bailly, Anatole (1935) Le Grand Bailly: Dictionnaire grec-français, Paris: Hachette
• Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010) Etymological Dictionary of Greek (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 10), with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN
• “σμῆνος”, in ΛΟΓΕΙΟΝ (in English, French, Spanish, German, Dutch and Chinese), University of Chicago, 2011