Re: squirrels in the attic update

From: Carl W. Conrad (cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu)
Date: Thu Dec 21 1995 - 07:46:21 EST


At 1:15 PM 12/20/95, Jim Beale wrote:
>On Dec 20, 1995 Mark O'Brien wrote:
>
>> Only one question remains... what *is* the Greek word for "squirrel"?
>
>My research has uncovered two words, one of which is quite like the
>english word, the other is more relevant to the current situation.
>
>The more relevant word is PHEROIKOS, which is a white animal
>like a squirrel. There is a little-known passage in Hesiod which
>seems of great relevance to the current discussion. Hesiod informs his
>readers that when the pesky PHEREOIKOS (which is obviously a copyist
>error and should read PHEROIKOS, as the house that they carry is not
>their own but that of Dr. Dixon, they would have to be very large
>squirrels indeed. But this is absurd, hence the necessary conclusion of
>a copyist error:) begins to climb, the great time of harvest has begun:
>
> But when the PHEREOIKOS climbs up the plants from the
> earth to escape the Pleiades, then it is no longer the
> season for digging vineyards, but to whet your sickles
> and rouse up your slaves. Avoid shady seats and sleeping
> until dawn in the harvest season . . .
> (Hesiod, Works and Days, 571)
>
>I doubt if the particular relevance of this quote escapes the great
>scholars on this list. Dr. Dixon, who has just recently made available
>his work on evangelism, has PHEROIKOS in his attic. Since Jesus, in
>the gospel of John, says,
>
> Say not ye, There are yet four months, and then cometh
> harvest? behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and
> look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest.
> (John 4:35)
>
>He equates evangelism with the harvest. And as Hesiod has instructed
>us to "avoid shady seats and sleeping until dawn in the harvest season"
>which begins when the PHEROIKOS climbs up the plants (there is a
>practical issue here as well) the time of the harvest has begun. The
>lesson to both Dr. Dixon and all of us should be quite apparent. We
>should take the gospel now to every creature. Awake thou sleepy-head,
>and rise from the dead [as it were], and Christ will give you light.
>
>Oh, BTW, the other word, not particularly relevant, is
>
>SKIOUROS, shadow-tail, i.e. squirrel

I'm not quite sure what the point of this is, unless, of course, it's
tongue in cheek. Hesiod's PHEREOIKOS (the form is right for the dactylic
hexameter to scan correctly). This is not a squirrel but probably a
tortoise, or (less likely, I think) a snail. It's an adjective/epithet used
substantivally for the creature that lives inside of the shell that it
takes with it wherever it goes.

And there's no coincidence in the fact that the "not particularly relevant"
SKIOUROS is close in form to our word, "squirrel."

Are you seriously trying to read apocalyptic implications in the presence
of squirrels in Dr. Dixon's attic? It's not that uncommon a phenomenon. But
I may have misread the tone of your post.

Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University
One Brookings Drive, St. Louis, MO, USA 63130
(314) 935-4018
cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu OR cwc@oui.com
WWW: http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~cwconrad/



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