brefos v. paidion

Christopher Hutson crhutson at salisbury.net
Thu Dec 2 09:15:33 EST 1999



Jim West asked:
>
>Well I suppose y'all knew it was coming; but I wish to ask after the
>specific meaning of brefos and paidion.  What ages are denoted by these
>terms (beyond the general 'infant' and 'youth').  Is there any source which
>says something like "a brefos is a baby from birth to weaning; whilst a
>paidion is a toddler from 2 and up to the teen years".  (thats just an
>example- to give some notion of what I am looking for).
>

Aristophanes of Byzantium (c. 257-180, BC; librarian at Alexandria from c.
194)  in his now lost Nomina Aetatum composed a catalogue of terms for the
various ages of life, which Didymus of Alexandria excerpted in his
Miscellanies in the first century, BC.  The first-century grammarian Alexio
quoted the catalogue from Didymus, and his quotation has survived in two
places:  the second-century lexicographer Ammonius preserved an abridged
edition,  and Eustathius (bishop of Thessalonica, 1174‹ c.1194) cited a
fuller text in his commentaries on Homer.    This textual history suggests
that over a period of several centuries, and ranging from before until well
after the New Testament period, Aristophanes¹ catalogue was read as a useful
summary of scholarly conventional wisdom concerning human development, and
so it may serve as a useful entry into the discussion.

Here is my translation of the first four entries in Aristophanes' list of 16
different stages of life:

  Brephos:  that which is newly born.  
  Paidion: 	that which is fed by a nurse.
  Paidarion:  that which is walking around and 
														beginning to grasp vocabulary.
  Paidiskos:  the one in the next stage.  

The next entry is PAIS, and then things get complicated.  For a detailed
discussion of  vocabulary for various stages of life, see chapter two of
Hutson, _My True Child:  The Rhetoric of Youth in the Pastoral Epistles_
(Ph. D. diss., Yale, 1998).  I am revising this ms for Scholars Press, but
that will be a couple of years out, so in the mean time, you are stuck with
UMI.  Or you may consult R. Garland, _The Greek Way of Life_ (Ithaca: 
Cornell UP, 1990); J.-P. Neraudau, _La Jeunesse dans la littérature et les
instituions de la Rome républicaine_ (Paris:  Belles Lettres, 1979).

Such vocabulary is nearly always relative and varies from time to time and
from place to place.  Context of a particular passage is determinative, but
Aristophanes' catalogue is a helpful beginning place.

Hope this helps.

XPIC

------------------------------------
Christopher R. Hutson
          Hood Theological Seminary
          Salisbury, NC  28144
crhutson at salisbury.net
------------------------------------



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