Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Abbreviations
- Preface: Anthroponomikos
- Dedication
- PART ONE HOMERIC NOMOS
- One The Nomos of Feasts and ‘Sacrifices’
- Two Nomos Moirēgenēs
- Three The Nomos of the Land
- Four Pastoral Nomos
- Five Nemesis
- PART TWO POST-HOMERIC NOMOS
- Six The Nomos of the Post-Homeric Poets
- Seven The Nomos of Heraclitus
- Eight Nomos Basileus
- Nine The Nomos of the Tragedians
- Ten Nomos Mousikos
- Bibliography
Two - Nomos Moirēgenēs
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 May 2021
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Abbreviations
- Preface: Anthroponomikos
- Dedication
- PART ONE HOMERIC NOMOS
- One The Nomos of Feasts and ‘Sacrifices’
- Two Nomos Moirēgenēs
- Three The Nomos of the Land
- Four Pastoral Nomos
- Five Nemesis
- PART TWO POST-HOMERIC NOMOS
- Six The Nomos of the Post-Homeric Poets
- Seven The Nomos of Heraclitus
- Eight Nomos Basileus
- Nine The Nomos of the Tragedians
- Ten Nomos Mousikos
- Bibliography
Summary
μοῖράν τ’ ἀμμορίην τϵ καταθνητῶν ἀνθρώπων
Hom. Od. 20.76Ζϵὺς δ’ αὐτὸς νέμϵι ὄλβον Ὀλύμπιος ἀνθρώποισιν
Hom. Od. 6.188. . . ὁ μέγας δὲ κίνδυνος ἄ ναλκιν οὐ ϕῶτα λαμβάνϵι. θανϵῖν δ ̓ οἷσιν ἀ νάγκα, τί κέ τις ἀ νώνυμον γῆρας ἐ ν σκότῳ καθήμϵνος ἕ ψοι μάταν, ἁπάντων καλῶν ἄ μμορος …
Pind. O. 1–81–3Moira
In Homer, as already noted in Chapter One, we meet the word νέμω (nemō) and its cognates and composites in a wide variety of uses. Here I turn to examine the relation between nemein and what is held to be its ancient line of use as a ‘distribution- sharing’, a ‘dispensing of one's portion’, or a ‘lot’. In the sense of an ‘allotment of portions’, we meet nemein used, on occasion in close proximity to, though not identically with, μοίρα (moira). This occurs, for instance, in Od. 14.436, θῆκϵν ἐπϵυζάμϵνος, τὰς δ’ ἄλλας νϵῖμϵν [neimen] ἑκάστῳ·, where the act of distributing portions of meat in a feast is, a few verses earlier, preceded by the use of the terms to divide/ share, διηνϵκέϵσσι (diēnekeessi, 437) and διϵμοιρᾶτο δαΐζων (diemoirato daizōn, 434). What is the relation between nomos and moira? Emmanuel Laroche has suggested that moira is essentially a ‘division’, while nomos in its primary Homeric sense is a ‘distribution’, proposing that, while the two terms are connected in the sphere of such acts, they are of separate semantic lines (1949: 8). Yet the notion that a sense of ‘distribution’ remains closely associated with moira is a contention that merits further investigation. An early or late (depending on the dating of the Orphic Hymns) attestation of the possible relation is provided in the Hymn to Moirai [Kern] where, at 10, the Moirai are linked to the ancient nómos (νόμου ὠ γυγίου), as well as to eunomia (ϵὐ νόμου άρχῆς, eu nómou archēs).
According to the inspired approach by Francis M. Cornford ([1912] 1957) nomos was, in fact, ‘prefigured’ in archaic thought in the impersonal power of μοίρα (moira), and it is still worth engaging with this hypothesis in some more detail.
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- The Birth of Nomos , pp. 38 - 71Publisher: Edinburgh University PressPrint publication year: 2018