ἀπειρέσιος

Ancient Greek

Alternative forms

• ἀπερείσῐος (apereísios) — alternative metrical lengthening

Etymology

From *ᾰ̓περέσῐος (*aperésios) by metrical lengthening, from the root περ- (per-) of πέρᾰς (péras).

Or from a verbal adjective base α-περ-ετος not well attested, and the sufix -ιος. (LOS SUFIJOS Y -jo- EN GRIEGO:UNA APROXIMACIÓN COMPARATIVA'Francisco J. Martínez GarcíaJ. W. Goethe-Universitdt, Frankfurt am Main page 315.)

Pronunciation

Adjective

ᾰ̓πειρέσῐος • (apeirésios) m (feminine ᾰ̓πειρεσῐ́ᾱ or ᾰ̓πειρεσῐ́η, neuter ᾰ̓πειρέσῐον); first/second declension (Epic)

1. boundless, immense
   • 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Iliad 20.57–58:

     Αὐτὰρ νέρθε Ποσειδάων ἐτίναξε
     γαῖαν ἀπειρεσίην ὀρέων τ’ αἰπεινὰ κάρηνα.

     Autàr nérthe Poseidáōn etínaxe
     gaîan apeiresíēn oréōn t’ aipeinà kárēna.

   • 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Odyssey 11.620–621:

     Ζηνὸς μὲν πάϊς ἦα Κρονίονος, αὐτὰρ ὀϊζὺν / εἶχον ἀπειρεσίην.

     Zēnòs mèn páïs êa Kroníonos, autàr oïzùn / eîkhon apeiresíēn.

     I am a child of Zeus son of Cronus, but I have immense grief

   • Batrachomyomachia, 4
2. countless
   • 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Odyssey 19.174:

     Κρήτη τις γαῖ’ ἔστι μέσῳ ἐνὶ οἴνοπι πόντῳ,
     καλὴ καὶ πίειρα, περίῤῥυτος· ἐν δ’ ἄνθρωποι
     πολλοὶ ἀπειρέσιοι, καὶ ἐννήκοντα πόληες.

     Krḗtē tis gaî’ ésti mésōi enì oínopi póntōi,
     kalḕ kaì píeira, perírrhutos; en d’ ánthrōpoi
     polloì apeirésioi, kaì ennḗkonta pólēes.

     Crete is a land in the middle of the wine-dark sea, beautiful and fat, surrounded with water: in it many countless men, and ninety cities

   • 750 BCE – 650 BCE, Hesiod, Fr. 134.4
   • 300 BCE – 200 BCE, Theocritus, Collected Works 25.100
   • 556 BCE – 468 BCE, Simonides, 40

Declension

Further reading

• “ἀπειρέσιος”, in Liddell & Scott (1940) A Greek–English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press