Ancient Greek

Verb

αἴθω • ‎(aíthō) (Epic, Attic, Ionic, Doric)

1. (transitive) To ignite, kindle, light
   • 460 BCE – 420 BCE, Herodotus, Histories 4.145.4

     οἱ δὲ Λακεδαιμόνιοι ... πέμψαντες τὸ δεύτερον εἰρώτων τί θέλοντες [Μινύαι] ἥκοιέν τε ἐς τὴν χώρην καὶ πῦρ αἴθοιεν.

     The Lacedaemonians sent a second time and asked what with what intention [the Minyae] came into their land [= Laconia] and lit a fire.

2. (rarely intransitive, more commonly in the middle voice) To burn, blaze
   • 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Iliad 6.182

     δεινὸν ἀποπνείουσα πυρὸς μένος αἰθομένοιο

     breathing out the terrible strength of burning fire [describing the Chimaera]

   • 407 BCE, Euripides, Iphigenia in Aulis 1470–1471

     αἰθέσθω δὲ πῦρ / προχύταις καθαρσίοισι

     let the fire burn for the purifying meal

   • 430 BCE – 354 BCE, Xenophon, Anabasis 6.3.19

     οἱ δὲ ἱππεῖς ... ἔκαιον, καὶ οἱ πελτασταὶ ... ἔκαιον πάντα ὅσα καύσιμα ἑώρων, καὶ ἡ στρατιὰ δέ, εἴ τινι παραλειπομένῳ ἐντυγχάνοιεν: ὥστε πᾶσα ἡ χώρα αἴθεσθαι ἐδόκει καὶ τὸ στράτευμα πολὺ εἶναι.

     The horsemen began to set fire, and the light troops burned anything that was flammable, and the army did the same, if they happened upon anything left behind, so that it seemed like the whole country was burning and the army was huge.

Usage notes

The Iliad and Odyssey only use forms of the participle αἰθόμενος ‎(aithómenos, “burning”).

Inflection

Related terms

• αἰθήρ ‎(aithḗr)

References

• αἴθω in Liddell & Scott (1940) A Greek–English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• αἴθω in Liddell & Scott (1889) An Intermediate Greek–English Lexicon, New York: Harper & Brothers
• «αἴθω» in Bailly, Anatole (1935) Le Grand Bailly: Dictionnaire grec-français, Paris: Hachette
• «αἴθω» in Cunliffe, Richard J. (1924) A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect: Expanded Edition, Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, published 1963
• «αἴθω» in the Diccionario Griego–Español en línea (© 2006–2016)
• αἴθω in Slater, William J. (1969) Lexicon to Pindar, Berlin: Walter de Gruyter