Introduction

The pretragic history of the word deinon is the rich, and surprising, inheritance that the tragedians and Thucydides deploy to make subtle arguments about the human. It is surprising because, though it may be generally granted that the deinon is central to tragedy, it is not seen as particularly important in Homer, much less a term that already describes the uncanny as it relates to logos. In order to support these assertions and to provide still more refinement and content to the argument, this appendix discusses additional issues relating to deinon, including the standard history of the term, and further develops some of the passages discussed in the text, as well as other key passages.

Etymology and History of Interpretation

There are some aspects of the history of the word deinon that are uncontroversial. For instance, deinon is derived from the root δ∊ and the suffix νο. It is also well known that the word deinon is central to tragedy, particularly Sophoclean tragedy, and in some way refers to the features of the human that make tragedy possible. Finally, certainly by the third century b.c., the adjective deinotes (having the characteristic of being deinon) had become a description for a particular type of public speech, namely, the vehement, powerful style.

There is also a standard story about the progression of deinon. In Homer deinon always means “terrible or powerful,” and deinon becomes “uncanny” only in tragedy, particularly in Sophocles. Logos becomes deinon only in the context of the Sophists.