Ancient Greek

Verb

στέλλω • ‎(stéllō)

1. I make ready, prepare; I furnish, dress
   • 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Iliad 4.294

     οὓς ἑτάρους στέλλοντα καὶ ὀτρύνοντα μάχεσθαι

     arraying his comrades and urging them to fight

   • 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Odyssey 2.287

     νῆα θοὴν στελέω καὶ ἅμ᾽ ἕψομαι αὐτός

     I will rig a swift ship and myself be your companion

   • 405 BCE, Euripides, The Bacchae 821

     στεῖλαί νυν ἀμφὶ χρωτὶ βυσσίνους πέπλους.

     Put linen clothes on your body then.

   • 460 BCE – 420 BCE, Herodotus, Histories 7.26

     στρατὸν κάλλιστα ἐσταλμένον

     the best-equipped army

2. I dispatch, send; (middle voice, passive) I set out, journey
   • 525 BCE – 455 BCE, Aeschylus, Prometheus Bound 389

     σαφῶς μ᾽ ἐς οἶκον σὸς λόγος στέλλει πάλιν.

     Clearly the manner of your speech orders me back home.

   • 460 BCE – 420 BCE, Herodotus, Histories 3.53

     ὁ μὲν Περίανδρος ἐστέλλετο ἐς τὴν Κέρκυραν

     Periander set out to Corcyra

   1. (active intransitive in passive sense) I set forth, prepare to go
      • 409 BCE, Sophocles, Philoctetes 571

        κεῖνός γ᾽ ἐπ᾽ ἄλλον ἄνδρ᾽ ὁ Τυδέως τε παῖς ἔστελλον

        Oh, he and the son of Tydeus were readying for pursuit of another man

3. I summon, fetch
   • 429 BCE, Sophocles, Oedipus the King 860

     ἀλλ᾽ ὅμως τὸν ἐργάτην πέμψον τινὰ στελοῦντα

     but nevertheless send someone to fetch the peasant

4. I gather up; I furl a sail
   • 470 BCE, Aeschylus, The Suppliants 723

     αὐτὴ δ᾽ ἡγεμὼν ὑπὸ χθόνα στείλασα λαῖφος

     but the leading ship herself has furled her sail and draws near the shore

   1. I check, repress
      • 405 BCE, Euripides, The Bacchae 669

        ἢ λόγον στειλώμεθα

        or should repress my report

   2. (medicine) I bind, make costive
   3. (middle voice) I restrict my diet

Inflection

Derived terms

Related terms

Descendants

• Greek: στέλνω ‎(stélno, “to send”)

References

• στέλλω in Liddell & Scott (1940) A Greek–English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• «στέλλω» in Bailly, Anatole (1935) Le Grand Bailly: Dictionnaire grec-français, Paris: Hachette
• Bauer, Walter et al. (2001) A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, Third edition, Chicago: University of Chicago Press
• «στέλλω» in Cunliffe, Richard J. (1924) A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect: Expanded Edition, Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, published 1963
• “G4724”, in Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance to the Bible, 1979
• Andrew L. Sihler (1995) New Comparative Grammar of Greek and Latin, New York, Oxford, Oxford University Press