ἠρίον

Beekes reconstructs the earlier form *ϝηρίον (*wēríon), based on the hiatus in the Iliad passage quoted below. The origin is unclear; the word is sometimes derived from Proto-Indo-European *wer- (“to guard, cover”), but Beekes doubts this. Related by folk etymology to ἔρα (éra, “earth”).^[1]

ἠρῐ́ον • (ēríon) n (genitive ἠρῐ́ου); second declension

1. (archaic outside Homer) tomb, barrow, burial mound
   • c. 8th century BCE, Homer, Iliad, 23:125-6:

     [...] ἔνθ’ ἄρ’ Ἀχιλλεὺς
     φράσσατο Πατρόκλῳ μέγα ἠρίον ἠδὲ οἷ αὐτῷ.

     [...] énth’ ár’ Akhilleùs
     phrássato Patróklōi méga ēríon ēdè hoî autôi.

     ...where Achilles planned a great barrow for Patroclus and himself.

2. (early Attic, metonymically, in the plural) funeral games^[2]

In classical Attic Greek this word was used only in set traditional phrases. In the Hellenistic and Roman periods, it was used as an archaism in poetry.^[2]

• “ἠρίον”, in ΛΟΓΕΙΟΝ Dictionaries for Ancient Greek and Latin (in English, French, Spanish, German, Dutch and Chinese), University of Chicago, since 2011