Θῆβαι

Ancient Greek

Pronunciation

 

Etymology 1

From Mycenaean Greek 𐀳𐀣 (te-qa /⁠tʰēgʷā⁠/), from Proto-Hellenic *tʰēgʷā.

Alternative forms

Proper noun

Θῆβαι • (Thêbaif pl (genitive Θηβῶν); first declension

  1. Thebes, the name of a city in Boeotia
    • 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Iliad 6.222-223:
      Τυδέα δ’ οὐ μέμνημαι, ἐπεί μ’ ἔτι τυτθὸν ἐόντα / κάλλιφ’, ὅτ’ ἐν Θήβῃσιν ἀπώλετο λαὸς Ἀχαιῶν.
      Tudéa d’ ou mémnēmai, epeí m’ éti tutthòn eónta / kálliph’, hót’ en Thḗbēisin apṓleto laòs Akhaiôn.
      • 1990 translation by Robert Fagles
        My father, Tydeus, I really don't remember. I was just a baby when father left me then, that time an Achaean army went to die at Thebes.
Inflection
Derived terms
  • Θηβαγενής (Thēbagenḗs)
  • Θήβαζε (Thḗbaze)
  • Θηβαϊκός (Thēbaïkós)
  • Θηβαῖος (Thēbaîos)
  • Θηβαΐς (Thēbaḯs)
  • Θήβησι (Thḗbēsi)
Descendants

Etymology 2

From Egyptian Demotic tꜣ-jpy (Thebes, literally the temple), from earlier Egyptian tꜣ (the) +


(jpt, Luxor, literally inner sanctum).

Proper noun

Θῆβαι • (Thêbaif pl (genitive Θηβῶν); first declension

  1. Thebes, the name of a city in Upper Egypt (including today's Karnak and Luxor)
Inflection
Derived terms

See under etymology 1 above.

Descendants

References

  • Θῆβαι”, in Liddell & Scott (1940) A Greek–English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  • Θῆβαι”, in Liddell & Scott (1889) An Intermediate Greek–English Lexicon, New York: Harper & Brothers
  • Θῆβαι”, in Autenrieth, Georg (1891) A Homeric Dictionary for Schools and Colleges, New York: Harper and Brothers
  • Θῆβαι”, in Slater, William J. (1969) Lexicon to Pindar, Berlin: Walter de Gruyter
  • Woodhouse, S. C. (1910) English–Greek Dictionary: A Vocabulary of the Attic Language[1], London: Routledge & Kegan Paul Limited, page 1,027

Further reading