ca, ‘utterance sweeter than ghee and honey’; with the feminine noun va ̄c-, 2.
- 6 sva ̄dma ̄ ́nam
̇
va ̄cáh
̇, ‘sweetness of utterance’. In Greek epic the compound
]δυεπ is used of Nestor as a persuasive orator, of a singer, and of the
Muses.^47
Of Nestor the poet goes on to say that his speech used to run from his
tongue sweeter than honey, μλιτο γλυκων, a semantic if not a lexical
parallel to RV 8. 24. 20 just quoted. Compounds such as μελγηρυ‘honey-
voiced’, μελιβο ́ α ‘honey-toned’, μελιηδ ‘honey-sweet’, μελγλωσσο
‘honey-tongued’, and others are routinely used of poetry and song in archaic
and classical Greek verse. Similarly in the Vedas we have mádhumattamam
̇
vácah
̇
‘most honeyed speech’, RV 5. 11. 5; jihva ̄ ́ mádhumatı ̄‘honeyed tongue’, 3.- 5; ós
̇
t
̇ha ̄v iva mádhu a ̄sné vádanta ̄‘like lips speaking honey to the mouth’,
- 6; va ̄có mádhu‘honey of speech’, AV 12. 1. 16, cf. 58; TS 3. 3. 2.^48 In
Nordic myth the gift of poesy is conferred by a mead made from honey and
the blood of a sage called Kvasir, who was created from the gods’ spittle, and
in skaldic verse poetry is referred to by such terms as dwarfs’ mead, giants’
mead, Odin’s mead, etc.^49
Certain Greek poets speak of ‘ambrosial’ song.^50 It is difficult to say how
definite a meaning should be attached to the epithet, but some connotation of
ambrosia, the delicious, honey-like food of the gods, can hardly have been
absent. It is tempting to compare MBh. 12. 279. 1 na tr
̇
- 6; va ̄có mádhu‘honey of speech’, AV 12. 1. 16, cf. 58; TS 3. 3. 2.^48 In
pya ̄my amr
̇tasyeva
vacasas te pita ̄maha, ‘of your utterance, grandfather, as of amr
̇
tam, I cannot
get my fill’, where amr
̇
tam corresponds to the Greek ‘ambrosia’. Its colloca-
tion with vacas- recalls Pindar’sα, μβροσων $πων.
The idea of song as something that runs liquidly finds further expression
in the use of the verb ‘pour’ (Vedic hu, Greek χω, Latin fundo, < *gˆhu) with
prayers, hymns, and the like as the object. At the same time there may be
an association with pouring out liquid offerings, and the metaphor may
have been especially at home in sacral language. So RV 1. 110. 6 a ̄ ́ manı ̄s
̇
a ̄ ́m
antáriks
̇
asya nr ́
̇bhyah
̇srucéva ghr
̇tám
̇juhava ̄ma vidmána ̄, ‘let us expertly pour
a remembrancing for the heroes of the air [the R
̇
bhus] like ghee with the
spoon’; 2. 27. 1, 41. 18; 8. 39. 6; Od. 19. 521 χει πολυηχα φων ν; Hymn.
Hom. 19. 18; Pind. Isth. 8. 58; Aesch. Supp. 631 ε1κτα4α γνει χεο3σα,
(^47) Il. 1. 248; Hymn. Hom. 21. 4, 32. 2; ]δυπειαι Μο σαι Hes. Th. 965 f., fr. 1. 1 f.; Schmitt
(1967), 255.
(^48) Durante (1960), 233 n. 10; (1976), 113. For a couple of Semitic parallels see West (1997),
230.
(^49) Gylf. 57 =Skáldsk. p. 3. 10ff. Faulkes; Skáldsk. 3.
(^50) Hes. Th. 69 α, μβροσηι μολπηι (cf. 43 Eμβροτον Zσσαν); Hymn. Hom. 27. 18
α, μβροσην Zπα; Pind. Pyth. 4. 299 α, μβροσων $πων; Bacchyl. 19. 2 α, μβροσων μελων;
cf. Soph. Ant. 1134 α, μβρο ́ των $πων.
90 2. Phrase and Figure