put in the dual number. In Greek both words have been replaced by younger
synonyms: Hes. Op. 558 προβα ́ τοι ... α, νθρ.ποι, cf. Hdt. 1. 203. 2;
Hippocr. De carnibus 6.
The biosphere as a whole is covered in Vedic idiom by the merism jágatas
tasthús
̇
ah
̇(1. 89. 5, cf. 1. 115. 1, 4. 53. 6, etc.), ‘what moves or stands still’, that
is, animals and plants. A trace of this categorization appears in the Greek
word προ ́ βατα‘sheep, livestock’, literally ‘what moves forward’ as opposed
to the stockholder’s stationary property.^90 The -βα- is the etymological
equivalent of the -ga- in jágatah
̇
. But the opposition ‘walking: stationary’ was
more widely applicable. Indra is king of ‘the one travelling and the one at ease
(ya ̄tó ávasitasya), of the domesticated (animal) and the horned’ (RV 1. 32.
15).^91 The seer Theoclymenus declares to Penelope that Odysseus is already
back in his native land, kμενο N aρπων, ‘sitting (still) or walking’ (Od. 17.
158). The two original verbal roots reappear in tandem in the tragedians:
Soph. Aj. 1237 πο βα ́ ντο N πο στα ́ ντο οFπερ ο1κ $γ.;‘where did he step,
where stand, that I did not?’;Phil. 833 Jρα πο στα ́ σηι,πο4 δC βα ́ σηι, ‘consider
where you will stand, where step’; Eur. Alc. 863 πο4 β;; πο4 στ;; Hec. 1057 πα ̃ ι
β;; πα ̃ ι στ;; A more comprehensive formula appears in the Maha ̄bha ̄rata, 12.
161. 21 a ̄sı ̄nas ́ ca s ́aya ̄nas ́ ca vicarann api ca sthitah
̇
, ‘sitting and lying, walking
and standing’. The phrase in Y. 68. 6 vı ̄spåsca a ̄po ̄ yazamaide yå zəma ̄,
armae ̄sˇtå fra ̄tat
̃
.caratasca, ‘and all the waters of the earth we worship, the
stagnant and the forward-moving’, may be regarded as a variation on the
basic idea.
The Indo-European ability to create negative compounds with the prefix
*n
̊
- made it easy to form polar expressions of the type ‘X and non-X’:amr ́
̇
tam
mártiyam
̇
ca‘immortal and mortal’ (RV 1. 35. 2); ya ̄ ́mann áya ̄man‘whether
moving or not’ (RV 1. 181. 7); du ̄na ̄ ́ádu ̄na ̄ ... s ́is
̇
ta ̄ ́nás ́is
̇ta ̄n‘burnt or unburnt... left or not left’ (AV 2. 31. 3); da ̄syánn áda ̄syann utá‘whether he is going to
give or not’ (AV 6. 71. 3); aka ̄mo va ̄ saka ̄mo va ̄‘willy nilly’ (MBh. 3. 289. 18),
which corresponds in sense to Avestan yezi zaosˇa yezi azaosˇa (Y. 1. 21), Greek
θλεο α, θλεο (Aesch. Supp. 862), Latin uolens nolens;yé ca ihá pitáro yé ca
néhá‘both those fathers who are here and those who are not here’ (RV 10. 15.
13), corresponding to Greek ο τ’Zντε ο τ’α, πο ́ ντε (Soph. Ant. 1109),
cf. Latin quod fuit quod non fuit (Plaut. Trin. 360); yadaca ̄ anyadaca ̄‘here
and not here’ (Y. 35. 2); srunvatasca ̄ asrunvatasca ̄ xsˇa y a n
̇
tasca ̄ axsˇa y a n
̇tasca ̄
‘hearers and non-hearers, rulers and non-rulers’ (Y. 35. 4); spə ̄ n
̇
ca ̄ aspə ̄ n
̇ca ̄
‘fortune and misfortune’ (Y. 45. 9); Eφατο τε φατο τε mητο τ’Eρρητο τε
(^90) On this term cf. Benveniste (1973), 32–9, 49–51; R. Lazzeroni, SSL 15 (1975), 20–35.
(^91) With this latter merism compare Hes. Op. 529 κεραο? κα? ν κεροι 0ληκο4ται, ‘the
horned and hornless forest-couchers’, though the reference is not quite the same.
- Phrase and Figure 101