Curetes

The Curetes or Kouretes are thought to be the counterparts of Korybantes, the same cult with the deities having different names in different Greek locations. For example, in Crete, they called them Curetes, but in Boeotia and Samothrace, they called them Korybantes. At the moment of writing, there is a single Wikipedia article for both groups[1]. The confusion is summarized by Strabo, who cannot clearly distinguish the Curetes from the Korybantes, the Kurbantes, the Cabeiri of Samothrace, and the Dactyls of Mount Ida[2] based on previous literature. These deities are somehow associated with goddess Cybele or her Cretan counterpart, Rhea.

Homer mentions the term Curetes both as a common noun, κούρητες (koyrētes) translated as young men, especially young warriors, and as a proper name, Κουρῆτες (Koyrētes), an indigenous tribe of Aetolia. They fought against the Aetolians but were eventually expelled from their land. The common noun may be related to Attic κόρος or Ionian κοῦρος (koros or koyros), boy, lad, and imply youth and absence of a beard. Because of the general confusion in this semantic area, both koyrētes and Koyrētes are also interpreted as armed dancers who celebrated orgiastic rites. It is unlikely that Curetes and Korybantes are etymologically related at all. One would have to explain the transposition of Y and the appearance of B and N, along with the different endings.

Following the same rationale and method as for Korybantes (see section Korybantes), I found that the starting trigram KOY is followed by R 60% of the time, or Phi, 23%. Five other letters are found at minor frequencies totaling only 17% of all words starting with koy- (transliterated as kou- or cou-). The second larger category, the koyph-words, are almost always about lightness (including light mind and light talk), nimbleness, alleviation, relief, or remission. The koyr-words are about haircuts. For example, the most frequently attested koyr-word is κουρά (koyra), which means cropping of the hair, shearing of sheep, lock of hair, wool shorn, fleece, cut-off end, from κείρω (keirō), to cut short, shear, clip, especially of hair, to crop a person, shear sheep, cut down, clear, sweep clean, hew, carve, or cut through transversely – as opposed σχίζειν (schizein; slit longitudinally). Among the koyr-words, we find the sememes of cropping, curator (care; who manages, administers, organizes), painting on a ceiling (see Rhea mytheme below), scrotum (hairy), arm (hairy armpit), little knives (razors), gossiping (activity culturally associated with the hairdresser's), barber's shop, take the tonsure, have the haircut, barber,  hair-cutter, for cutting hair, youth (hairless, hair beauty), armed dancing (repetitive movement of sharp tools), one who wears his hair short, need clipping, wear rough, untrimmed hair (κουριάω; koyriaō), by the hair, wedded (beauty care at its maximum),  for cutting hair, shears (κουρίς; koyris), and cursor (κούρσωρ; koyrsōr; movement back and forth, from row to row, uniform iteration), suiting, fitting. We may add French court (short) and English cure, curt, curtail, curate, curious, accuracy, curl, manicure, pedicure.

The odds are that Koyrētes belongs to the same class of words and refers either to the hairdresser's and barbers' tools, the professionals themselves, or their clients. The mythemes told about the Curetes derive directly from the sememes associated with the various cognates. The Curetes curated (took care of, managed, administered) Zeus, the rainwater (see section Zeus – the rain), and they danced with their arms (moved back and forth like cursors). This is an example of mythology devised to guide the reader to the correct interpretation of a term.

Archemachus of Euboea says that the Curetes, being continually at war and finding that the enemy used to seize and drag them by the hair of the forehead, wore their hair long behind and cut the hair short in front. They were called Curetes (shorn) from κουρά (koura; hair cropping) or the tonsure they had undergone. The Curetes were removed to Aetolia and occupied places about Pleuron (rib, side). Others who lived on the other side of Achelous were called Acarnanians, Archemachus explains, because they kept their heads unshorn[3]. Similar to the term Achelous, the word ἀχέλιον (achelion) is glossed as λεπτομερές (neuter of λεπτομερής; leptomerēs), meaning treated in detail or minutely, refined or meticulous. It is important to note that Acarnanians were not named after the Acarnania region. Instead, Acarnania was named when the term's meaning had been forgotten.

From this passage, I gather that Archemachus is trying to define the term Curetes and the related 'toponyms' neither as a historian nor a geographer, but as a mythological lexicographer; nobody would believe his reason for the Curetes style of haircut. Those who lived on the other side of Ἀχελώος (Achelōos; Achelous) were those who were not refined or meticulous, those that did not pay attention to detail, compared to the Curetes who did so. Because Ἀχελώος is who likes, desires, wishes (λῶ; lō; wish, desire) to be refined or meticulous (ἀχέλ-; from ἀχέλιον, achelion; treated in detail or minutely; of persons, refined or meticulous). Well, those who were on the other side of desire for refinement left their heads unshorn and full of mites and lice. They called them Ἀκαρνᾶνας (Akarnanas; Acarnanians) because akari (ἀκαρί) is the mite and karnos (κάρνος) is the louse. The others, who were more refined, made a ponytail after [their hair] had occupied the area around the ribs. Pleuron (πλευρόν; pleyron) is a rib. The phrase Πλευρῶνα χωρία[4] uses the plural genitive πλευρῶν (pleyrōn; of the ribs) to define the region of the ribs, on which long hair usually falls. Αἰτωλία (Aitōlia; ai-tōl-ia; aitō-lia; Aetolia) is admittedly a difficult term. I can only guess, from the mytheme, that it may mean a ponytail. The word displays symmetry, starting with ai- and finishing in -ia. It makes me think of the English phonetic inversion at all/a lot (Aitōl-ia [etol] / ailōt-iA [elot]). The word λίαξ (liax) means a beardless boy, and it might be related to Latin and English axil and axilla (armpit) by some awkward inversion. If these are not a mere coincidence, Aitōlia might be about hair removal.

Of particular interest is the mytheme that the Curetes assisted Rhea to give birth to Zeus,  Rhea being Cybele's counterpart in Crete according to this myth. If my analysis is correct, Zeus is the rain and the rainwater, and Crete is any extremity, especially the roof, the ceiling (see sections Zeus – the rain and Crete). Rhea is the mother of Zeus. Therefore, the evaporation, the clouds, and the steam. Rhea is associated with Cybele, the fireplace, cooking stove, goddess of cuisine, and the kitchen (Phrygia; see sections Cybele and Phrygia). The mytheme of Rhea being the counterpart of Cybele in Crete means that where there is a cooker (Cybele), there is steam condensation (Rhea) on the ceiling (Crete). This is why modern cookers always have their counterpart kitchen hood. The Curetes, as hairdressers and priests (users) of the stove (Cybele), boiled water and kept it warm on the Cybele stove. They used it for shampooing and for making lather. Warm water produces steam (Rhea). Steam travels upward. When it meets a cold surface, it condenses. Where? On the ceiling, in Crete. The Curetes, thus, as worshipers of steaming water (Rhea), helped her give birth to Zeus (condensation droplets) on the ceiling (in Crete). Persistent condensation of moisture caused the ceiling to be painted by that mold-like color, κουράς (koyras; painting of the ceiling), characteristic of humid walls such as baths and barber's shops. In the noisy atmosphere the Curetes created by dancing with their sharp arms, and all this gossiping κουρεακός (koyreakos) going on in the premises, nobody noticed the birth of raindrops (Zeus) on the ceiling (Crete); not even their father, the cropper barber (Cronus; see section Cronus and Rhea) who created them by boiling water but was supposed to absorb (devour) them.

One of the Greek versions of the common name of Rhea (Greek Ῥέα; 'Rea; Epic Ῥείη; 'Reiē) is ῥήα ('rēa; RHA)[5]. In its common-noun version, the word means easily, readily. It may also derive from ῥαίνω ('rainō) and mean sprinkle, besprinkle, scatter, sprinkle water, drop, dripping, droplet. Incidentally, mainstream dictionaries do not recognize the stem 'rain- (/ren/) as a source or cognate of English rain but trace the latter up to Proto-Germanic *regna-, or pre-Germanic *Hréǵ-no, with 'no certain cognates outside Germanic', unless it is from a presumed PIE *reg-, moist, wet, or *Hreǵ-, to flow, drip. Proto-Germanic is supposed to have developed from pre-Proto-Germanic vaguely after the 5th century BC, i.e., after 'rainō was attested in Euripides (Eur. Rh. 73), and before the 5th century AD; that is one-millennium error margin. In other words, Germanic peoples did not read or tried to pronounce ‘rain’ from Euripides centuries after it was first written. They came up with various solutions on their own based on stories perpetuated by their PIE ancestors. Some of these solutions may look or sound identical to Euripides' word because Euripides also had PIE ancestors. This argument would not be accepted, today, by any copyright authority. I cannot use the name of a registered (written) brand claiming that it is PIE and, therefore, I have heard it from my ancestors.

By inverting RHA, we get AHR. In Greek, ἀήρ (AHR; aēr; /air/), genitive ἀέρος (aeros), means air. The genitive stem forms the Ancient Greek ἀέριος (aerios), meaning misty, in the air, high in the air, of the air, aerial, vast as air, infinite, as well as the Modern Greek neuter version ἀέριο (aerio) meaning gas. If 'rēa also meant steam (like Rhea) before drifting toward the ease by which we can do things with steaming water instead of cold water, then the inversion RHA/AHR, or REA/AER- creates antonymy between steam and air, steam and gas. Rhea associates with Cybele like the steam associates with the cooker. The fact that both the Curetes (hairdressers) and the Korybantes (sculptors) used and valued (venerated, worshiped) a stove does not make them identical entities.

The drum symbol shared by Rhea and Cybele is one of the leading causes of confusion between the two deities. Worshipers may use a ceremonial percussive musical drum reminding the drum of either goddess if they ever did. However, the drums of Cybele and Rhea were not musical instruments and were not the same type of objects. In English, a drum is any hollow, cylindrical object. It may be a barrel or sizeable cylindrical container for liquid transport and storage. In architecture, a drum may be the encircling wall that supports a dome or cupola or any cylindrical blocks that make up the shaft of a pillar. There are also cable drums, printer drums, washing-machine drums, etc. As a verb, to drum may refer to any repetitive beating movement, metaphorically and literally, if the beaten object can be called a drum. Likewise, the Ancient Greek equivalent τύμπανον (tympanon) meant kettledrum, drum of a machine (e.g., the spool of a winch), roller, wagon-wheel made of a solid piece of wood, wheel of an irrigating machine, the sunken triangular space enclosed by the cornice of the pediment, or the square panel of a door. Like the wagon's wheels, turning drums tend to make repetitive friction noises.

If Cybele was a stone of pediment and the Korybantes were its sculptors, of course, the latter worshipers were hitting a drum (the pediment). Cybele, the stove with its black stones, had its kettle in the form of a kettledrum. Even today, traditional cooking pots have a round bottom (kettledrum shape) with a superior heat transfer efficiency than flat bottom vessels (Krämer and Karhagomba 2009). Cybele, the transport, had head-carried containers always having drum shapes (Fig. 1). Kybebe, the cart, could not only carry drum-like containers, but she also had wheels called drums, in Greek, as an integral part of its structure. There is an existential relationship between Cybele, Kybebe, or Rhea and their drums. There is no steam without a kettle, no kettle without a stove, and no stove without black stones. There is no cart without wheels, transport without a container, or pediment without a drum. Vice versa, there is no kettle without steam, stove without a kettle; no container, wheel, or cart, without transport, no pediment-drum without a pediment, or door without frame.

For this reason, it is difficult for the modern reader to pin down the exact meaning of each term, as difficult as for the ancient speakers. Is Rhea the steam, the kettle, or the stove? They all give birth to raindrops (Zeus), directly or indirectly, since they work in concert. Literal semantics, that is, the meaning suggested by the shape and order of letters in a word, may help us understand the original intention of the wordmaker.

Figure 1. Drums: (A) Nagara, a percussion drum instrument from Rajasthan. Artwork Judith from London. Creative Commons license. (B) Mysore woman balancing basket. Artwork by Wen-Yan King. Creative Commons license. (C) Head-carrying in Dakar. Artwork by Vysotsky Creative Commons license. (D) Women carrying drums, Pakistan. Artwork by Zaferauf. Creative Commons license.

Although the singular nominative form of Koyrētes (KOYR-HTHS; *koyrētēs) is unattested in Ancient Greek literature, the ending morpheme of -HTHS forms some 370 Ancient Greek nouns. It provides a case study for advancing our perception of literal semantics towards a more general theory of iconicity of the letters and other graphemes. The two H's maybe two long lines or, better, one long line cut at a point marked with X. In archaic alphabets (e.g., the so-called Phoenician), the Semitic letter X (Taw) was called 'mark' and represented a point. The final S represents the end of the long H-line (|–|). Thus, -HTHS looks like a long |--|S sequence cut at the X-point into |-| X |-|S. The hypothesis is that the ending of the word KOYR-HTHS was iconic. It was designed to suggest the cut sememe of a haircut, where the hairline is shown as HHS (meaning longline-longline-stop) and the cut-point is drawn as X. When the Greek alphabet was eventually fixed with the cross sign (+, later T) replacing X, -HXHS became -HTHS.

In KOYR-, K suggests a narrowing )(. The OY digraph is a determinant that specifies the K-stenosis as a round (O) hollow (Y) object. In French, KOY is transliterated and understood as (OU = cou, neck. KOYR- finishes with R to suggest the top or the surface of the KOY object. Had the R been omitted, *KOY-HTHS would mean neck-cut. But KOYR-HTHS means a cut at the surface or the top of the neck. Once these original meanings are understood by many and established, subsequent writers may use the word in other contexts. For example, to designate a haircut, a haircutter, the shears, or the barber, any shortcut, even the proportional reduction of debt will be paid to a creditor in case of bankruptcy. For any metaphorical use, authors must phrase a mytheme to further define the metaphor. Different authors phrase different mythemes. If a *koyrētēs is a worshiper of Rhea (uses steaming water), he is probably the barber, but if he dances at the music of shearing weapon sounds, he is probably the scissors. Other authors may use only part of the established term alone or combined with other words. For example, if KOYRHTHS is established as a short-haircut or shortcut, then KOYRT may be used for short (French court).

Many of the words ending in -HTHS convey this notion of line division, measurement, and calculation in units. Among the most iconic and abundant in literature, we have ποιητής (poiētēs), for any maker, workman, composer, primarily the poet who is preoccupied with splitting lines at suitable lengths and keeping metron (meter, poetic measure). We have also μαθητής (mathētēs), learner, pupil, who learns to identify and put together syllables, geometrical shapes, and numbers; ἀθλητής (athlētēs), sportsman, who measures performance in space and time units; αὐλητής (athlētēs), flute player, who plays with the length of the sound-producing tube; κυβερνήτης (kybernētēs), steersman, pilot, governor; αἰσθητής (aisthētēs), who perceives; διαιτητής (dietētēs), arbitrator, umpire; τιμητής (timētēs), valuer; μετρητής (metrētēs), measurer; ἀσκητής (askētēs), one who practices any art; ὁμιλητής ('omilētēs), disciple, scholar; ὠνητής (ōnētēs), buyer, purchaser; πωλητής (pōlētēs), seller; ἑψητής ('epsētēs), one who smelts; κοσμητής (kosmētēs), who places an order, director; and so on.

Note that a tonic accent placed on the last H implies accurate measurement. Instead, an accent placed on the first H of the morpheme implies approximate estimation. For example, a κυβερνήτης (kybernētēs), the steersman, pilot, governor, do not accurately measure their movements but estimate the outcome and correct if necessary. A προφήτης (prophētēs), prophet, one who foretells god's will and speaks about the future, does so on pure estimation. A κομήτης (comētēs) wears long hair, we do not know precisely how long, hence a comet with a long tail ('long-haired' star). A *Κουρήτης (*Kourētēs; *Curete) cuts (his) hair but does not measure it before, or after.

This is the first and, perhaps, the last time I consider the tonic accent herein. I do not claim that tonic accents do not have iconic semantic values – these examples demonstrate quite the opposite – but I have decided to leave them out for simplicity. I will occasionally deal, however, with other Greek diacritics.

As I have tried to show so far, if there are any foreign words in Ancient Greek literature, these are extremely, extremely rare. All the words proposed to be of pre-Greek or another origin are composed with stems shared with other, perfectly recognizable Greek words. Initially, Greek had neither theonyms nor toponyms nor proper names of any kind. These were invented later. Toponyms were systematically attributed at some point in history by authors ('geographers') who literally interpreted the Greek mythological 'dictionaries', poems, and everything they had read or heard. Thus, pottery decoration and writing (Phoenicia) was placed in modern-day Lebanon (although it was a Jewish affair); the kitchen and the cuisine (Phrygia), in modern-day Turkey, as if nobody else cooked; education (Samothrace) was placed in Northern Aegean; and so on. The geographical subdivision of the Greek world based on ancient texts is also irrelevant. In Athens, Macedonia, or Crete, samothrace (education) existed everywhere. The Kouretes and the Korybantes were not geographical variants of the same object but different objects existing everywhere where Greek was spoken.

The misinterpretation of the word theos (profession, professional, service, commodity) as a spiritual god instead of a material good led to a massive misunderstanding of what ancient authors said in their own language. That current mythological and religious interpretations do not fit common sense did not seem to bother anyone, not even today. Some amateur archeologists may have found it convenient to attract interest by attributing irrelevant mythological names to the archeological sites they found. Others did so by ignorance and trend. Nobody checked the validity of these attributions anyway. A sound linguistic theory is required to put some order in this chaos. But taking language as an arbitrary, random, and unpredictable construct won't help.

Claims

Curetes = curators, hairdressers, barbers, scissors

Rhea = humidity, steam, cloud, spray, condensation

Akarnanas = mite and louse bearers

Achelous (river) = love being meticulous

Aetolia = ponytail

Cognates

Curetes: cure, curt, curtail, curate, curious, accuracy, curl, manicure, pedicure

Rhea: rain (from rainō, to sprinkle water)

Oppositions

liax/axil; RHA/AHR

References

Krämer, Paul, and Innocent Balagizi Karhagomba. 2009. "The Form of the Cooking Vessel and the Energetic Efficiency of Cooking." Journal of Engineering Science and Technology 4 (3): 282–91.

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[1] Korybantes in Wikipedia; accessed 1 February 2021.

[2] Strab. 10.3.

[3] Strab. 10.3.6 translated by H C Hamilton and W Falconer.

[4] Strab. 10.3.6 original Greek.

[5] Alc.Supp.12.7. 

Korybantes

We have seen the stem KAB in Kabeiroi (see section Cabeiri) where B represented the two orifices (mouths) of a tube. Whereas KYB is the transported good, KAB seems to be a transporter (compare English cab, cable, Latin caballus, working horse, Spanish caballo, horse, etc.; see section Kybebe). This opposition brings about another antonymy by rotation. In this case, Y (or its analogs V and U; empty, container; pointing down; weight) becomes A (filled, charged; pointing up, piled up). We will encounter plenty of examples of such antonymy. But, here, let us concentrate on some mythological aspects of the ‘cult’ of Cybele.

Strabo (64 or 63 BC – circa 24 AD), one of the greatest intellectuals of antiquity, admits being confused with regard to the gods worshipped in Samothrace (the professions taught in general education), from one hand, and the Kurbantes, the Korybantes, the Kouretes, and the Idaean Dactyls, from the other. Some authors consider these terms as local alternatives of the same religious entities as the Kabeiroi but are unable to tell who they are. Bremmer notices similarities and differences among the various cults but the literature and epigraphical evidence are insufficient to pin them down. One of the most striking similarities is their association with ecstatic dance and music, with or without weapons, as well as with madness. Their cult involves drinking and eating. They are all mentioned at some point to be directly or indirectly related to the cult of Cybele, the mother of the gods (cuisine, transport?), of which they are occasionally the priests (cooks, transporters?). The main differences are in their genealogy and geographical distribution (Bremmer 2014). Strabo cites Pherecydes (5th century BC) stating that nine Cyrbantes (Kurbantes) were sprung from Apollo and Rhaetia. They took adobe in Samothrace. Three Cabeiri and three Cabeirides (nymphs) were the children of Proteus' daughter, Cabeiro with Hephaestus, and were most honored in Imbros, Lemnos, and various cities of the Troad[1]. According to Apollodorus, though, the Korybantes were children of Apollo and Thalia, the muse of comedy, geometry, architecture, and agriculture. The Kyrbantes (Kurbantes), also attested as Kyrbanthes, later as Korybantes, are interchangeably mentioned along with the Kouretes. Their centers of the cult were Rhodes, Kos, and Crete, but the cult appears to have spread to Macedonia, Ionia, and Athens. They are all referred to as groups. Individual names are not mentioned until much later and are perhaps their authors’ inventions.

The question that puzzles modern scholars is whether the various names are simple dialectal or diachronic variants for the same mythological objects, or to what extent do these represent nuances of meaning. Harrison, a distinguished British classical scholar, and linguist wrote that besides being guardians, nurturers, and initiators of the infant Zeus, the Kouretes were metal workers and that the smith was ‘half medicine man’ (Harrison 1912). To my experience, and in accordance with a theory of iconicity of linguistic signs, spelling variations most likely represent different meanings. Because a word can be the result of the agglutination of different stems, even identical words may represent different meanings. We have seen the example of Samothrace (Sam-o-thrakē or Sam-othr-akē; see section The Mysteries and the Nike of Samothrace). Besides, a child (hybrid) of Apollo and Rhetia is expected to be some 50% different from a child of Apollo and Thalia.

Reading the mythemes at a first level, the myths are about drinking, eating, dance, and music, activities that are intensified to extremes (frenzy, madness) during festivals. This interpretation explains the relation of the ‘deities’ with Cybele, the cooking stove (see section Cybele), or their hereditary descent from Hephaestus, the chimney (see section Hephaestus – the chimney). It would also fit the association of the cult with Lemnos interpreted as a period of economic inactivity (see section Paris and Philoctetes) or, in this case, a public holiday or vacation when festivities are likely to occur. The marriage of Apollo, the bow (arc; see section Apollo and Artemis – the bow and the arrow), with Thalia, muse of comedy and architecture, makes up a Greek-style amphitheater for teaching and theatrical performances. The muse is depicted with a comedy mask. Thalia, the common noun meaning rich, plentiful, goodly portion, always of banquets, was also one of the three Graces, patroness of festive meetings. Apollo, the bow, is intimately associated with a chord, hence with string music. This is how he became the god of music. The marriage of that Apollo with Rhetia would inevitably give birth to the song, i.e., vocal music accompanied with chords, assuming Ῥητία[2] (‘Rētia; Rhetia; some erroneously spell it Rhytia) derives from ἐρῶ (erō; I will say, tell, speak) like ῥητός (‘rētos; that may be spoken or told), ῥήτρα (‘rētra; word) or ῥήτωρ (‘rētōr; public speaker).

Continuing our superficial reading into detail, Korybantes has been suggested to be related to *κορυβή (korybē), a hypothetical Macedonian version of κορυφή (koryphē) meaning top, mountain peak (Cook 1914). According to Cook, his hypothesis would explain a version of the myth whereby Korybas (Corybant, priest of Cybele in Phrygia), eponym of the Korybantes, was a child of Iasion and Cybele (or Kybele), the Asiatic great mountain-goddess (Magna Mater) or earth-mother, whom the Korybantes served with wild enthusiastic rites. Indeed, κόρυς (korys; glossed also as κάρα; kara; head) means helmet, helm, casque, in Homer, or head, in Euripides. Moreover, korys is synonymous to κορυφή (koryphē), top, head. Another word, κυρβασία (kyrbasia) also means helmet, a Persian bonnet or hat, with a peaked crown perhaps like a tiara, suggesting that the stems kory- from Korybantes and kyrb- from Kurbantes are semantically related. In a context of theater and comedy, where the chorus plays an important role singing the choral parts of the play, the Korybantes (evolving via *K^horubantes and *Chorubantes), could be the κορυφαῖος (koryphaios), the leader of the chorus, who happens to be the one who also speaks (child of Rhetia) on behalf of the chorus. A further detail given by Demosthenes, that the first part of the Korybantic mysteries was called kratērismos from κρατηρίζω (kratērizō), to drink from a bowl of wine (krater), supports the interpretation of the cult as a festival with dinking (a lot), dancing, and frantic behavior.

Much of the above vocabulary may have been used to describe common festivities. Alternatively, the authors who tried to interpret this vocabulary invented a festive description of the mysteries because of the similarities with festival terms. We might feel satisfied to have explained that music, dance, and theater were included in the curriculum of Samothrace (sam-othr-akē; the general education; see section The mysteries and the Nike of Samothrace). This superficial interpretation leaves many questions unanswered. The Cabeiri and the Dactyls do not fit in this narrative. Neither do the Kouretes or Curetes (Κουρῆτες; Koyrētes), currently glossed as armed and crested dancers who celebrated orgiastic rites; what do arms have to do with theater and choral music? Why did not these terms survive in modern languages? Or, did they, and in what sense? Stems like -bantes, from Korybantes, are left unexplained. Most importantly, festivity being a public behavior was known to everybody. There was nothing ‘mysterious’ about it.

To better understand the cult of Cybele and its relation to the Mysteries of Samothrace we must read deeper into the etymology of the ‘mystic’ terms. As an independent word, the stem -ban of Korybantes is the 3rd plural of the second aorist (βάν; ban)[3] of the verb βαίνω (bainō), to walk, step, move on foot or on the ground, march or dance, set out to go, stand or be in a place, be established or prosperous, go away, depart, go on, advance, mount, go down (die), scan, come and go, come, arrive. The form βάντες (bantes) appears in Homer as an aorist circumstantial participle[4], e.g., ἐφ᾽ ἵππων βάντες[5] translates as having mounted the chariot[6] or high-stepping horses[7]. Therefore, if Kory- is a cognate of κόρυς (korys), crown, helmet, and of κορυφή (koryphē), head, top, peak, the foremost one, i. e. best, eminent achievement[8], Kory-bantes are those who go ahead, the foremost, the leaders, those who go to the top, mount the top (e.g. steadily mount the last stones on a high wall; the lifting gear, cranes, etc.). To be more accurate and respect the Homeric grammatical form, Korybantes are those who have arrived at the top, have come first; those are the best, the eminent ones. According to Pherecydes, there were nine Cyrbantes (Korybantes?)[9], i.e., as many as the disciplines of education (sam-othr-akē; Samothrace) compiled by Varro (see section The Mysteries and the Nike of Samothrace). If Cyrbantes is a synonym of Korybantes, there would be one eminent achiever selected from each discipline (school, art). Those top students could be crowned in a ceremonial fashion, perhaps including a speech (Rhetia) and a ceremonial bow dance of the crowned winners in an amphitheater (Apollo) and, together with their teachers, friends, relatives, and colleagues, could understandably celebrate their achievement in a frenzied manner.

It was believed, in antiquity, that a wreath of ivy leaves around the head would prevent one from getting drunk. The Greek god Dionysus and its Roman equivalent Bacchus were often depicted wearing an ivy wreath and grapevines. Ivy was also a symbol of intellectual achievement and triumph. Ivy wreaths were used, for instance, to crown winners of poetry contests (Woodland Trust 2021). The muse Thalia herself is often represented wearing an ivy wreath. A lot of archaeological evidence associates ivy with the cult of the Great Gods and the Cabeiri (Bedigan 2008).

The sememes of βαίνω (bainō; to walk, step, come, go, etc.) are quite frequently transferred to nouns as a -βάτης (-batēs) ending morpheme. For example, one who steps softly is called ἁβροβάτης (‘abrobatēs), one who mounts is ἀναβάτης (anabatēs), the mountain-ranger, the mountaineer, ὀρειβάτης (oreibatēs), the acrobat, ἀκροβάτης (akrobatēs), and so on; there is no N in that morpheme. There are at least 89 such nouns in the LSJ lexicon. In contrast, there is only one noun finishing in -βάντης (-bantēs), καλλιβάντες (kallibantes), glossed in the plural as a tool for eyebrow grooming (Hesychius). There is a problem with the interpretation of Korybantes as a derivative of bainō (to step, come, go). Either the term is an archaic form dating from Homer’s times, the latest, or there are more than one stems in -bantes.

The ending morpheme -άντης (-antēs; plural -antes) seems to be related with the epic adverb ἄντην (antēn; synonym of the prefix anti-) meaning against, over and against. Nouns that end in -antēs (plural -antes), about four dozen of them, often refer to actions over or against norms in either bad or good sense. For example, ἀνάντης (anantēs) means steep up-hill, in the ascending scale, κατάντης (katantēs), steep downhill, downwards, ἀσκάντης (askantēs), pallet, bier, ἐριδάντης (eridantēs), wrangler, φάντης (phantēs) or συκοφάντης (sykophantēs), common informer, voluntary denouncer, extortioner, κτάντης (ktantēs), murderer, περάντης (peraantēs), paedicator, προσάντης (prosantēs), arduous, adverse, repugnant, distasteful, unsuitable, hostile, but also ῥεαντής (‘reantēs), polisher, ὑδροφάντης (‘ydrophantēs), water-finder, χαρτυφάντης (chartyphantēs), maker of papyrus sheets, ὑφάντης (‘yphantēs), weaver, κράντης (krantēs), one that accomplishes. The bad connotations of the ending -antēs (plural -antes) give Korybantes the reputation of madness and frenzy. However, in its good sense, -antēs suggests skill and perseverance accomplish works beyond the norm. The Korybantes were probably skillful workers or tools; but what did they exactly do? Let us examine other possible signifiers in the word.

We have seen the stem ban as an aorist of bainō, which we can interpret as moving step by step. As a prefix, ban forms a few words meaning handicraft (βαναυσία; banaysia), artisan, mechanical art, later fastidious (βάναυσος; banaysos), follow a mere mechanical art (βαναυσουργέω; banaysoyrgeō), handicraftsman (βαναυσουργός; banaysoyrgos), always in combination with the verb αὔω (ayō), to light a fire. Thus βαναυσία (banaysia) means every art requiring fire (Hesychius) with ban representing only the sememe of art. With Y preceding ban, yban probably implies ‘exterior art’, art to be seen, urban art or ‘upper art’, art placed on the top parts of buildings, high-end art (see section Kybebe). The next meaningful stems are ryb which starts the word ῥυβός (‘rybos), meaning curved, curling, convex – in English, this stem transliterates as a rub, e.g., to rub – and ory, starting ὀρυά (orya), pickaxe, a heavy iron tool with one pointed end, a chisel edge and a wooden handle, ὄρυξις (oryxis), rootling, digging, ὀρυγή (orygē), step, a stair of a dug staircase, ὀρυκτήρ (oryktēr), miner, ὀρυκτός (oryktos), dug, formed by digging, dugout, quarried, of stone or metal, or ὀρύσσω (oryssō), to dig, gouge, burrow.

The stem ryb is found in French ruban, decorative ribbon, band, wreath. In fact, ruban is found intact in Korybantes, while kor is in decoration. In English, the curly form of a ribbon is suggested by the double-B. The English and French synonyms of ribbon and ruban, band and bande, respectively, are also found in Korybantes considering that the Greek nt cluster is pronounced /nd/. It looks like Korybantes is related to decorative arts.

Finally, the semantic core of the word Korybantes is the stem kor. The starting stem may be the semantic basis upon which the word is built. Additional stems and morphemes function as determinants that add semantic specifications. Because there are about 250 words starting with kor in the Ancient Greek vocabulary, let us consider only the most frequent ones, assuming that these are the most likely cognates of Korybantes.

The word κόρη (korē) means girl, maiden, nymph, young wife, daughter, puppet, doll, a female figure used as support in architecture, e.g., the Caryatids, together with its variants Korē or Kora (referring to Persephone, the young daughter of goddess Demeter), and their masculine equivalent κόρος (koros-2), boy, lad, are by far the most common kor-words, with almost 11000 occurrences in total. The second most frequent kor-word, with less than 4000 hits, is the verb κορέω (koreō), to sweep out, brush, with many derivatives related to hairdressing both in Ancient and Modern Greek. Next comes κόρις (koris), the name of a plant-like St. John's wort which was believed to be a universal remedy from classical antiquity till much later; and it is still in the herbal medicine market today[10]. It is clear that, at least in its most frequent use, kor- is about youth, health, and beauty, all desirable properties of the human body.

The verb κορέννυμι (korennymi) is to sate, satiate, satisfy someone, to fill one with a thing, to fulfill, or to fill full, satisfy oneself, or saturate. The remainder of this verb – with kor- taken out – ἕννυμι (‘ennymi) means to dress somebody or oneself, put clothes on another, clothe oneself in, put on, wear. It looks like korennymi referred to a satisfactory ensemble of a dressed kor-. The missing kor- of ‘ennymi is suggested by the aspirate diacritic (‘) which, at least in this case[11], plays the role of an apostrophe. A kor- is the body without finish, ‘ennymi refers to the finish and korennymi to the satisfactory finishing of a body. Thinking the other way round, we may start with a finishing (‘ennymi; mold) which, when saturated (korennymi), will produce a perfect kor (body). This is probably how sculptors thought. In any way, kor- seems to be in the heart of Latin cor (heart), English core, Old French cors (body), Modern French corps (body), and of hundreds of cognates around the world including, perhaps, Quechua kurku (body). Sometimes, in English, the core is what remains when the surface layer is removed, because the whole thing may be described by an inversion rock.

Just before the frequency of kor-words reaches scree, we find the noun κορυφή (koryphē), meaning top, head, top of the body (of anything), top of the head, crown, peak of a mountain, summit, etc. The second part of κορυφή (koryphē), ὑφή (‘yphē) means web, a spider's web; hence ὑφαίνω (‘yphainō), to weave, ply the loom, contrive, plan, of all schemes, good or bad, which are craftily imagined, create, construct, compose, write, and ὕφος (‘yphos), web, net, style, text, of an author, texture, of a material. Thus, koryphē may have originally meant the side of the house-wall (kor) where the spiders haunt, the upper corner (upp-cor <> yp^h-kor / kor-yp^h)[12]. Once again, the very ancient mind did not need a word for the uninhabited top of a mountain but did need one for the corners of the ceiling.

The word κόρυμβος (korymbos) resembles both koryphē and Korybantes. It is to a certain extent synonymous with koryphē since it is glossed as uppermost point, top (of the hill). It has been also used, however for the (curly?) extremity of hairs, the fruits (or the curly stems?) of ivy, and once in Homer as the high-pointed sterns of ships. Hesychius glosses it as a terminal ornament of ship crowning either the sternpost or, more commonly, the stem-post. The common part of these words, kory, is the most frequent four-letter starter, found in about 38% of the kor-words. Second, comes kora with only 17%. Kory- seems, therefore, to be a morpheme with a ‘popular’ meaning. The simplest kory-word is korys (helmet).

The verb κορύπτω (koryptō) is of particular interest because it is the etymon of Korybantes according to Strabo[13]. This verb has been translated as to butt with the head[14]. Strabo derives Kory-bant-es from the verbs koryptō (‘butt with the head’) and bainō (to walk, go) and explains that the Korybantes were called so because they walked with butting of their heads in a dancing way. Sculptors do butt at the core (kor-yptō) of the stone – which often looks like a head (kory-ptō). They do not normally butt the stone with their head but they do ‘butt their head’ (get demoralized) every time they make a mistake and spoil their work. Those working the stone with a chisel and without any protection will inevitably dance frantically of pain every time fragments shoot on them or they accidentally hit their hand instead of the stone. Even in periods of peace, the dust produced by grinding and polishing the stone will spoil their clothes. No sculptor works without protective gear and adapted outfit (armor). These are their weapons against the stone and the dust. So, how should we split koryptō? Does -yptō mean to butt?

It may! But let us first take the opportunity to exemplify yet another type of antonymy by inversion that koryptō offers. When the stem ypt is found at the beginning of a word, it means some type of exposure. For instance, ὕπτιος (‘yptios) means laid on one's back, falling backward, the underparts, i.e. the belly, with the underside uppermost, of anything turned downside up, with the hollow uppermost, a half-wheel with the concave side uppermost, upside down, of land, flat, horizontal, of the sea, smooth, metaphorically, supine, lazy, careless, relaxed, of language, flat, tedious, dull; ὑπτιότης (‘yptiotis) is a supine position, of leaves, flatness, of a river, supineness, calmness, slackness; ὑπτίασμα (‘yptiasma), the attitude of supplication with hands upstretched. The verb ὑπτιάω (‘yptiaō) means to lean backward, lay back, and ὑπτιόομαι (‘yptioomai), to be upset. Instead, as a verb ending morpheme, -yptō, -ypt means covering, enfolding, as in κύπτω (kyptō), to bend forward, stoop, hang the head from shame, with the head down, bow down under a burden, bow forward, κρύπτω (kryptō), to hide, cover, cloak, cover in the earth, bury, conceal, keep secret, be suppressed, lie hidden, δύπτω (dyptō), to dive, γρύπτω (gryptō), become bent, καλύπτω (kalyptō), cover, hide, conceal, ἐγκύπτω (egkyptō), stoop down and peep in, look closely into, stoop to the ground, retract.

Interestingly, τύπτω (typtō) means to beat, strike, smite, split, disperse, wound, sting, beat pots and pans (to make a noise), throw missiles, or beat, strike oneself, be beaten, struck, wounded, receive blows or wounds; θρύπτω (thryptō), to break in pieces, break small, enfeeble, corrupt something or someone, be enervated, unmanned, display moral weakness. When we strike an object, the object is meant to bend. When we beat the surface of a stone, the stone breaks into pieces and its surface becomes concave, it enfolds. The sememe of enfolding exists, thus, in both typtō and thryptō. The verb ῥύπτω (‘ryptō) is related to the Homeric noun ῥύπος (‘rypos; dirt, filth) and may mean both, to cleanse, wash, wash oneself, and get dirty, spoiled, because washing necessarily implies uncleanness. The stem ryp, from ‘rypos, means dirt, filth, untidiness, sordidness, meanness, lack of quality or attractiveness, shabbiness, corruption.

Therefore, koryptō could split into kor-yptō, core-bend, body-bend, suggesting the way the Korybantes danced and the way they made repetitive percussion noise (music!). Alternatively, merging kor with ryptō would produce core-cleaning, body-washing with reference to the artisan getting dirty; or, rather, core-spoiling with reference to the artisan making a fatal error and irreparably losing (part of) the surface (R) of the core of the artifact. That would explain the notorious Corybantian frenzy and fury[15]. In English, kor and ryptō would be simply agglutinated to produce kor-ryptō; then, end-trimmed, and commonly transliterated as cor-rupt (corrupt). In Greek, one of the R’s would be omitted as a reminder of the loss of the core’s surface; a double-R would inappropriately suggest intensity, strength, or multiplicity, which is not the case in corruption. Therefore, kor and ryptō would rather be merged as ko‘ryptō, i.e. koryptō, with (kor; core) losing its surface (R).

For comparison, the current PIE-origin theory for corrupt takes Old French corropt, unhealthy, corrupt, uncouth (of language), directly from Latin corruptus, past participle of corrumpere, to destroy, spoil, figuratively corrupt, seduce, bribe, from assimilated form of com-, here probably an intensive prefix + rup-, past participle stem of rumpere, to break, from a nasalized form of PIE *runp-, to break, the source also of Sanskrit rupya-, to suffer from a stomach-ache, and Old English reofan, to break, tear[16]. Massive historical evidence supports that the Romans could have taken their corruptus directly from Greek kor-ryptō with straightforward transliteration. Otherwise, one has to explain how, when, why, and by whom, did com- turned to cor-, *runp- became rump, rump became rup, and rup became rupt.

To conclude, the Korybantes were artisans, including high-end stone workers (since they were priests of Cybele, the stone; see section Cybele), most probably sculptors trained by the Ministry of Education (Sam-othr-akē), School of Great Professions and Public Works (Great Goods; e.g. Great-Gods University of Samothrace), Faculty of Architecture, Department of Sculpture and Decorative Arts. It was logically them who manufactured the Nike (Victory) of Samothrace and not an isolated genius who had never been to school. It is surprising to me that Greek literature, as interpreted today, speaks about spiritual orgies, unimaginable monsters, incredible battles, and interminable massacres, and tells us nothing about the people who physically built the pyramids in Egypt, watered Athens, or those who decorated the Parthenon. Nobody was impressed by those achievements!

Table 1. Semantic analysis of KORYBANTHS (korybantēs).

KOR	core, corpus, corporal, body
ORY	pickaxe, chisel, dig
RYB	convex, curl, curve (carve?), rub (polish)
YB	upper, outside, high-end
BAN	art
ANTES	doers, makers
BANTES	artisans, bands (decorative, musical, etc.)
YBAN	fine (upper, high) art, decorative art, urban art
RYBAN	ruban (French), ribbon, wreath, frieze
RYBANTES	decorative frieze artists
KORY	helmet, protective armor
KORYBA	fabulous gem, enthusiasm, priest of Cybele (stone)[17]
KORYBANTES	specialized masons, sculptors, top goers

It cannot be missed that this method of word-making is not a simple agglutination. The signified develops in front of the reader’s eyes as they move forth and back (Table 1). In arithmetic, to write 1569 one could agglutinate 1000, 500, 60, and 9, but we don’t. Like arithmetic operations, such literal synthesis requires a solid medium to be worked out. Without it, we would still be able to communicate for our vital needs, but we wouldn’t have gone to the moon.

The Korybantes were not the same as the Cabeiri. The Cabeiri were also graduating from the School of Great Professions and Public Works of the Great Gods University of Samothrace but were rather affiliated to the Faculty of Civil Engineering, Department of Irrigation Networks and Agriculture. The Cabeiri were priests of another Cybele, the goddess of rain collection, transport, and distribution (see section Kybebe).

Demosthenes sites a bricolage of three verbs referring to initiatory rituals of the Corybantian mysteries in his attempt to slander Aeschines (Bremmer 2014). For the fawnskin ritual, he uses the verb νεβρίζω (nebrizō), for the krater ritual κρατηρίζω (kratērizō), and for the cleansing with loam[18] and bran, ἀπομάσσω (apomassō)[19]. Nebrizō and all the morphologically related terms have but one central meaning. They all signify fawnskin. Fawn skin is a strong, soft, pliable leather used for making shoes and clothing, Native Americans made wardresses with it till at least the 19th century. If the Korybantes were stone artisans they may well have used it as protective clothing, aprons (emblematic gear of all artisans), gloves, helmets, etc. The verb kratērizō is glossed as to drink from a bowl of wine, because of its morphological relation to κρατήρ (kratēr; krater, crater), a mixing vessel, especially a bowl, in which wine was mixed with water. Just remove the highlighted comma after the word ‘bowl’ in the previous sentence and read it again. A krater is essentially a mixing vessel. A wine krater is a hyponym of kratēr. The wine krater is far better known to the public and more abundant in literature because it is used by practically everyone. Other types of mixing vessels, still called under the hypernym kratēr, are only used by artisans, notably masons (stone workers), metal workers, and sculptors (Korybantes). Sculptors need to mix clay or plaster to make molds, as well as metals to make alloys (κρᾶμα; krama).

The third verb, apomassō, may be considered as proof that the Korybantes were the sculptors, also validating our linguistic method and conclusions. It means[20] to wipe off, wipe clean (leave magical[21] ceremony connotations out of this discussion, please!), especially of clay (loam) and bran, or – most importantly – to take an impression of, to model as a sculptor, copy, imitate, model oneself upon. The sculptor’s molds were probably made of clay (loam) dredged with a thin layer of bran to prevent the clay from sticking to the casted material too firmly. Clay and bran had to be methodologically (‘ceremoniously’) removed from the surface of the final product to avoid irreparable damage (corruption).

Claims

Korybantes = decorative artists, sculptors, frieze sculptors

Cognates

Korybantes: core, corrupt, band, ribbon

Oppositions: core/rock, ypt-/-ypt

References

Bedigan, Kirsten Madeleine. 2008. “Boeotian Kabeiric Ware: The Significance of the Ceramic Offerings at the Theban Kabeirion in Boeotia.” University of Glasgow.

Bremmer, Jan N. 2014. Initiation into the Mysteries of the Ancient World. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG.

Cook, Arthur Bernard. 1914. Zeus: A Study in Ancient Religion. Vol. 1. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Harrison, Jane Ellen. 1912. Themis: A Study of the Social Origins of Greek Religion. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Woodland Trust. 2021. “Ivy.” Grantham, UK: woodlandtrust.org.uk. 202.

 

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[1] Strab. 10.3.21.

[2] Strab. 10.3.21.

[3] βάν in the LSJ.

[4] Approximately equivalent to English past perfect tense; an action was completed (finished or perfected) at some point in the past before something else happened.

[5] Hom. Il. 18.532.

[6] βαίνω in the LSJ.

[7] Hom. Il. 18.532 A.T. Murray’s translation.

[8] κορυφά (korypha = koryphē) in Slater.

[9] Strab. 10.3.21.

[10] St. John's Wort and Depression in the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH), USA; accessed 6 May 2021.

[11] This thesis will be extensively documented herein.

[12] It is widely documented herein that letter duplication in one language corresponds to phoneme aspiration in another, and that in Greek Phi is a double archaic P, ) > () > (|).

[13] Strab. 10.3.21 in Greek.

[14] Strab. 10.3.21 translated by Hamilton and Falconer, 1903, or by Jones, 1924.

[15] Strab. 10.3.21.

[16] corrupt in OED; accessed 7 May 2021.

[17] Koryba-s (-ntos) in LSJ.

[18] A mixture of sand, clay, and other materials, is used in making molds for large castings, often without a pattern.

[19] Dem. 18 259.

[20] ἀπομάσσω in LSJ.

[21] I do not intend to fully analyze the word magical, but it seems to me that, at least, in this case, western translators did not consider the semantic drift of magic from the ancient meaning of mixing recipes and procedures to medieval magical ceremonies. The word μαγεύς (mageys) means one who kneads, one who wipes (like a sponge). It is cognate of Attic μάγειρος and Doric μάγιρος (mageiros or magiros; cook), μαγίς (magis; any kneaded mass, cake, bread, plaster, etc.) all deriving from the verb μάσσω (massō; to knead, press into a mold; compare mass, massage). Apomassō (apo-massō) is an antonym of massō meaning to ‘de-mass’, to remove the mold from the cooked preparation. Medieval magic was also about mixing ingredients, but for a different purpose.