The idea ‘slay’ is often expressed in the old Germanic languages by the
periphrasis ‘become the slayer for’ (with dative): Old English to ̄ bonan
weorðan, Old High German ti banin werdan, Old Saxon te banon werðan,
Norse at bana verða.^97 There is a close parallel in Greek tragic idiom: φονε7
γενσθαι τινο ́ (Aesch. Ag. 1648; Soph. Trach. 1207, OT 721). φονε3 and
bani represent the same root with different stem suffixes. The effect of the
periphrastic expression is to shift emphasis from the act of killing to the status
assumed by the slayer. In the immediate situation it was a matter of his legal,
social, and religious status. But from the perspective of ensuing poetic trad-
ition it was a badge of fame –– or infamy.
A thesaurus of gloryThe preoccupation of Indo-European poets with fame has been recognized
ever since Kuhn in 1853 put the Homeric phrase κλο Eφθιτον beside the
Vedic áks
̇
iti s ́rávah
̇and s ́rávo... áks
̇itam, ‘unfading glory’, and realized that
they must go back to a common prototype in the parent language, and more-
over in its poetry. Subsequently several other formulaic collocations involving
léwes- have been identified. We shall conclude the chapter with a succinct
review of this material.^98
By derivation, as we saw, the word meant ‘being heard about’, ‘reputation’.
A reputation may be good or bad. In Greek ε1κλε ‘of good repute’ exists
beside δυσκλε ‘of ill repute’ and qκλε ‘of no repute’. δυσκλε has
cognates in the Avestan nouns dusˇ.sravahya ̄- and də ̄ usˇ.srauuah- ‘ill fame’
(implying the adjective dusˇ.sravah-) and in the Old Irish dochla‘inglorious,
infamous’,dochlatu‘disrepute’. But the positive terms are more prevalent:
Vedic sus ́rávas-=ε1κλε , with the noun saus ́ravasám (and also vásus ́ravas-);
Avestan husravah-, haosravaŋham; Old Irish sochla, sochlach, sochlatha
‘renowned’,sochla and sochlatu‘fame’. The corresponding personal names
Sus ́rávas-, Haosravah-, Ε1κλH, Vescleves- have been mentioned above.
The simple phrase ‘good fame’ has a similarly wide distribution, partly with
lexical renewal: in Homer κλο $σθλο ́ ν (replacing $
κλο), in Avestan
vohu sravo ̄ (Y. 30. 10, al.), in the Old Irish Laws fó chlú (< wésuléwos).^99
The various reflexes of *léwes- are often used without being specified as
good or bad, and by default such fame is understood to be good. Its ideal
properties are volume and extent over space and time. Volume is expressed by
the phrase ‘great fame’, spatial extent by ‘wide fame’, and temporal extent by
‘unfailing’ or ‘undying fame’.
(^97) See Watkins (1995), 419–24. (^98) Cf. especially Schmitt (1967), 61–102.
(^99) Cf. Schmitt (1967), 81–6; Meid (1978), 8.
406 10. Mortality and Fame