Citation:

Abstract:

This paper argues that the obscure Stesichorean word ἀκεστάλιος (preserved by Ptolemaeus Chennus and transmitted via Photius Bibl. 148a32 Bekker = 3.56 Henry) goes back to a derivative of *ἄκος, *ἄκεος ‘grain, corn’ (= Latin acus, eris), сf. ἀκοστή ‘barley, grain’. ἀκεστάλιος would be derived from a stem *ἀκεστο- by means of the suffix -αλιο-, same as in semantically close φυταλιή, Myc. pu-ta-ri-ja ‘orchard, vineyard’ derived from φυτόν ‘(garden) plant’. This stem *ἀκεστο- ‘corn, grain’ could be reflected in the name of a Sicilian town Ἀκέστη (Soph. fr. 672 Radt, Steph. Byz. I 159, 2). If this formal analysis is correct, the expression ἀκεσταλίων ὀρνίθων can be translated as ‘birds of the corn (field)’; the reason this passage in Stesichorus constituted a zetema for the Hellenistic scholars was probably not the meaning of the word, but rather the precise identity of the birds