ῥοδοδάκτυλος

• βροδοδάκτυλος (brododáktulos) — Aeolic

From ῥόδον (rhódon, “rose”) +‎ δάκτυλος (dáktulos, “finger”).

ῥοδοδᾰ́κτῠλος • (rhododáktulos) m or f (neuter ῥοδοδᾰ́κτῠλον); second declension (chiefly Epic)

1. rosy-fingered
   • 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Odyssey 23.241:

     καί νύ κ’ ὀδυρομένοισι φάνη ῥοδοδάκτυλος Ἠώς,

     kaí nú k’ oduroménoisi phánē rhododáktulos Ēṓs,

     And now rosy-fingered Dawn appeared to them as they lamented.

   • 500 BCE – 400 BCE, Bacchylides, Collected Works 19.18
   • 491 CE – 518 CE, Coluthus, Rape of Helen 99

In the Iliad and Odyssey, the word only appears as an epithet of Dawn, in the phrase ῥοδοδάκτυλος Ἠώς (rhododáktulos Ēṓs, “rosy-fingered Dawn”) at the end of a poetic line, and most frequently in the following line, which is repeated once in the Iliad and many times in the Odyssey to introduce new days in the story (for a full list of occurrences, see the citations page):

800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Iliad 1.477:

ἦμος δ’ ἠριγένεια φάνη ῥοδοδάκτυλος Ἠώς

êmos d’ ērigéneia phánē rhododáktulos Ēṓs

When rosy-fingered Dawn appeared early-born

• “ῥοδοδάκτυλος”, in Liddell & Scott (1940) A Greek–English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “ῥοδοδάκτυλος”, in Liddell & Scott (1889) An Intermediate Greek–English Lexicon, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “ῥοδοδάκτυλος”, in Autenrieth, Georg (1891) A Homeric Dictionary for Schools and Colleges, New York: Harper and Brothers
• ῥοδοδάκτυλος in Cunliffe, Richard J. (1924) A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect: Expanded Edition, Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, published 1963